same old story?!!

[terrilouise]

Hi-I am in the medical field and I email reports to a hospital. I want to design a layout for my report that can be emailed to a pc/windows that does not have fmp but does have the office suite (including access). The layout would have at least 12 to 15 fields, and need to be printed. It would also have to retain its form. I am using fmp 5.5 on OSX 10.1.2. I usually send at least 15 to 20 reports a week. There is no way they can have fmp on their computers. If any one can help-please be very basic-I can be a little slow sometimes! I appreciate your time-Terri

[LiveOak]

Actually much more complicated than it seems. Emails basically only support text and don't have any interaction with FM layouts...except for attachments. They only way I can think of to send a report via email, have it print with minimum problems, and not require (much) specific software on the receiving end is to attach a .pdf document to an email. This document can then be printed with Acrobat Reader.

To create a smooth way to do this you will need:

1) A method to print to a .pdf file. This would be Adobe Acrobat (not reader, but full Acrobat). There is also "PrintToPDF" which is shareware, but I don't think it will work with OS X.

2) A way to manage files, such as the Troi File FM plug-in.

3) A method of sending Email, either using the built-in FM feature or I prefer and email plug-in.

How to put this together is far beyond what can be answered in this forum. This is just not a FM beginner problem. I have created such solutions, but I don't know if all the bits I have used in the past are OS X compatible at present.

-bd

[danjacoby]

Doesn't OSX already come with the ability to create PDF files installed?

[simon1663]

Do you know HTML?

If you do then this should be piece of cake. Just define a calculation field where for each records you will get a HTML dump of it. All you have to do then is export to HTML and attach it to your email! You can even put the whole thing in a script if you want to save you time in future. I am 100% sure that other people will be able to read HTML because all computers have a browser these days.

I faced this problem few months ago and HTML has always worked for me. I have got it working with a script.

But note that it requires some knowledge of HTML+Filemaker scripting.

For a quick/dirty solution, you may follow this:

1. Export records from File menu with Save as Type "HTML table files". Specify the file and directory in a location where you will reuse it - prefer same directory as the fmp file is in.

2. Now create a script - get rid of all junks that is comes as default.

3. Select export records with "Restore export order" , "Perform Without Dialog". Specify the file to be the file in step 1.

4. Select send mail step where you have already specified the attach file to be the file which you specified in previus step. You can even have the email addes and perform without dialog option.

Anyway, this is just a very simple easy solution which may not fulfill your needs. But, this is just a start. I guess you may say - "Hey, it is exporting all records.. I just wanted one of them" . well once again very easy. Before step 1 above add the following steps:

1. Show All Records

2. Omit Record

3. Show Omitted

This will only export the current record you are in. If Send Mail feature does not work in OSX - I guess you can create apple script or something like that and then call it from filemaker...

Regards,

simon1663

[email protected]

[ February 10, 2002, 08:20 PM: Message edited by: simon1663 ]