Importing Information/sending it to specified layouts

[darrenN]

I'm importing some data from a Simple Text file, into several fields including company name, ammount owed and due date. I have 3 letter layouts which I want to show information from the imported records depending on the date of some of the records.

The field; due date shows when a bill should of been payed by, if any of the records are over 30 days due I want them to be put into another layout; letter one.

If any records are over 45 days late then I want them put into another layout; letter 2.

If there are any records over 70 days late then I want them put into another layout; letter 3

I'm a bit unsure on how to acomplish this although I'm hoping it should be pretty simple.

[LiveOak]

Sounds by your description that you might a little confusing about how FM works. Data that is stored in fields is "available" on any layout, you just have to place the appropriate field on the layout. If you only want to see a portion of the records in the file and to display them using a particular layout format, you must perform a "find" to locate the appropriate "records". This set of records becomes the current "found set".

To do so you need to create one script for each layout. The first script would find records over 30 days and then take the user to the layout for over 30 days. The find for records over 30 days could be accomplished by either looking for a date more than 30 days but less than 45 days in the past or by creating a calculation field "Age", setting it equal to Today - Date, and then searching to values in the Age field greater than 30 but less than 45 days. -bd

[darrenN]

Right I'm still a little new to FileMaker, so I'll explain a bit more about what I have.

Initially when the data is imported you see a layout which contains the previously mentioned fields. The other 3 layouts are actually reminder letters, I realise that they will show all data and that I have to do a find, should I do a find from each of these three fields? I was also a bit stuck with the method of the script you described.

Although I think I'm having a annoying mental block. Cheers!!

[Vaughan]

You don't have to use multiple layouts. You could create a calculation field that "generates" part of the letter according to how overdue the account is. The Case[] function is good for this...

Case[status[CurrentDate] - DueDate < 31, "friendly reminder the account is due",

Status[CurrentDate] - DueDate < 46, "account in arrears, please pay soon",

Status[CurrentDate] - DueDate < 71, "credit frozen until account is paid in full",

"pay today or else we refer the matter to our debt collectors tomorrow"]