Setting a report to print

[TaiChi56]

Alright. I am learning a lot in this forum. It is hard to find books in this town on Filemaker. Here is my question. I have a database that teachers input the students name along with their information. The teacher also can choose from more than one checkbox depending on the infraction.

I want to be able to print the information in a nice form so the student as well as myself can sign it. I know I will probably have to use calculations in the fields. So how do I get just the information I want to print? Is there a tutorial that will help me? I hope this is clear. If not please ask me or tell me what I need to do to help give you the exact picture of what I need. Thank you.

[ESpringer]

TaiChi56,

You should be able to create a layout with exactly the information you want, formatted in the way you want. If you have check-boxes in your main input layout (say, DaysAvailable), but you want to see ONLY the acual items checked (say, Mondays and Thurdsays) when you print out, then you just need to take that same field, but format it as text. Then, you will see the text of the checked values, separated with a return, like this:

[color:"blue"] Mondays

Thursdays

(Note, they'll appear in the order that they were checked; if Mondays was checked later than Thursdays, it would be second.)

A calculation field could take this DaysAvailable field and replaces any paragraph-return characters with " and " So, define

cDaysAvailable = Substitute(DaysAvailable,"

[TaiChi56]

Thank you for your quick response. I will work on this and see what I can do. You seem to really enjoy this program and helping other people. Sure do appreciate it.

[TaiChi56]

Ok. I read the information you gave me. You say to take the same field but format to text to get only the information that is checked. They are in text. Let me explain what I have done. I am probably not catching on to what you are trying to say to me. Let me give an example of what I have on my layout.

check box here; Class disruption

check box here; dress code violation

check box here; fighting

Ok, say the teacher checks: class disruption and fighting. I want the printout to only show those two and not dress code violation. Now the layout block consists of one big field with 23 infractions with check boxes beside each. I made a "define value list" called "infractions" and used field format and checked pop-up list that gave me the one big field with all the check boxes and infractions. So I am not sure how to just have the items checked to print on a report. I am lost on the text field. Sorry. Hope this helps.

[-Queue-]

Duplicate your humongous checkbox field and format it as a standard text field (not a pop-up list or the like). Notice that when you click one or more of the checkbox options that your selections appear in the other field, separated by carriage returns. Use ESpringer's substitution idea to change the data in this field to separate by commas or whatever you desire.

See attachment for quick example.

TaiChi.zip

[TaiChi56]

Wow, excellent. Thank you for putting the time to put an attachment up. I will work on it.

[TaiChi56]

Well the information both of you gave me really helped. I am getting my page to print they way I wanted. I am having a problem though with the name spacing.

When I use sliding/printing and have everything slide over to the left it cuts off the last letter of both names. If I leave the fields alone I have too much space between the first name and the last names ie:

Pink Floyd

I want it to print like so:

Pink Floyd 111213333 12/05/2003

All on one line. No matter how long the name is I want it to be able to print clearly on one line. Thank you guys.

[-Queue-]

Are you using merge fields?

Something like: <<firstname>> <<lastname>> <<otherjunk>> <<date>>

all in one text block should work. Just make sure the size of the block is set for the maximum possible width, or even wider, if you're paranoid like I am.

[TaiChi56]

I have done what you suggested. It is working so far. I would like to know if you would mind looking at my database and giving me any suggestions? I am asking Queue and ESpringer. Whoever has the time and is willing to do it. If so let me know and I will email it to you. I have learned a lot so far. Just would like you guys to look at it and suggest anything else. I do have a problem with the Administrative page. I am trying to figure out how to get just the consequence that is x to go on the print out. I am also trying to get a printout that looks good, has all the information and takes only half a page to print. Let me know if you guys can help. Thank you.

[kenneth2k1]

If you don't mind attaching it here, I'm sure a lot of people will give you feedback.

That is, of course, unless it is proprietary or sharing would be in violation of a license.

Ken

[ESpringer]

I would certainly take a look. You're aware of how to attach things to posts here (during the "preview post" stage, or using the full Reply button rather than the quick reply window at bottom)? If you have a reason not to post it, send me a note directly (from the members page, or from the link to my name here at left) and we could proceed by email... Still, Ken's right: if you're willing to post the file -- perhaps with some dummy data -- you'll get more feedback from people with a good deal of experience and perspective...

[TaiChi56]

I agree with you. No I do not have a problem putting this up. This forum is really helpful. Thank you guys. I am really enjoying learning this. It is nice to have people around that are still willing to help. Hope this attaches correctly.

discipline.zip

[ESpringer]

TaiChi,

If I understand correctly, you want to have the administrative layout SCREEN show the check-boxes, but the PRINT-OUT to show only the text of the selected items. Yes?

That's easy enough. In layout mode, duplicate your original check-box field.

The original check-box field should then be set to non-printing (Layout > Sliding/Printing... > Do Not Print).

The duplicate field should be set to Format > Field Format...> Standard Format. Make sure it is set to print.

Send the duplicate to the BACK (Arrange > Send To Back), and make sure the one on top is opaque (white fill) so that the back one doesn't show through on screen.

As far as other things go...

For the print-merged stuff on the third layout, you want to make sure that the text area for the merged text doesn't extend off the page. Select it and change where the corners of the rectangle are so that it will all print within the desired area, even if the text gets long. Surely you want to include the DATE information on that layout, no?

For the infractions list, my guess is that the beginning dash is intended to serve as a bullet. But since it's not printing for any except the first item, it looks out of place.

You'll also want to set up a field to hold the information for the "Other:..." infraction, no? It would sit next to the "Other:" checkbox on your data-entry layout.

This will create some complication for your text list of infractions. You may want to create a calculation that tweaks that field so that "Other:" is replaced by "Other: being funny when authority figures require utter seriousness". To do this,

Create a text field: "Infraction_Other_Text" (or whatever).

Create calculation: c_Infractions = Substitute(Text,"Other:","Other: "&Infraction_Other_Text

On your printout screen, you want to use NOT the standard text field, but this c_Infractions field.

Best of luck with it... I may be able to add more thoughts later, but that's what occurs to me now...

[TaiChi56]

Excellent. I will run with what you have given me so far. Thank you. I am sure I will be back with more. Yes, anything else you can think of let me know. Have a great day.

[TaiChi56]

I did you what you said with the Administrative checkbox. I have went over it several times. It does not show on the preview print. What am I doing wrong??

[dbruggmann]

What does then show in preview mode? If I do with your file what ESpringer wrote, then I see instead of the checkbox field:

(white space)

Class disruption

Drugs

Out of authorized area truant

(white space)

Do you still see the checkboxes in preview?

[ESpringer]

TaiChi,

It might be helpful to say what *does* show up on the preview print. If nothing at all shows up for the field (and yet there are values checked) then the most obvious error would have been that you let BOTH copies of the field count as non-printing. The idea is to set only one copy (the one at the "back" of the layout, formatted as standard text) to print...

One troubleshooting option, when something isn't printing: try applying Field Borders and see whether *they* show on preview...

The other conceivable problem would occur if the field copy that's supposed to print the chosen values (with returns between them) isn't allocated enough vertical size (if your checkboxes were rearranged to show horizontally, for example).

.... Aha, I still had a copy of your file. Here's your file with the effect I was describing.

[TaiChi56]

Ok I see where the problem is. It does not show up in my layout called Final Print. Yes, the Administrative Layout checkbox wording does show up in preview. But I want it to show up in my Final Print Layout. Does this make since or is there a better way I should be doing it. I am trying to build a half page printout with the Student's name, teacher that referred the student, the date, the infraction and then the administrators actions and comments along with a signature block for the administrator and student. Hope this clears up what I am trying to do. Thank you for all the help so far.

[dbruggmann]

I looked again at your file. If you want to have the data of the checkcbox field appear in the layout

[TaiChi56]

You guys are a great help. I am uploading the new file to show you what I have done. I also need help in the Final Print layout mode. If you look at the block with "The following is the administrators determenation...", you will see "suspension", how can I automatically have the date fill in of when I want the student to be suspended and when they are eligible to return to school?

Also I have tried the calculation field for the "Other" block on the Infraction list. Obviously I have not done it right. Hope one of you has the time to help out. Thank you for such great help.

P.S. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

discipline1 Copy.fp5.zip

[ESpringer]

TaiChi56 said:

how can I automatically have the date fill in of when I want the student to be suspended and when they are eligible to return to school?

I hope you have a sense of humor about my first thought, which was: "ESP". That is, it looks like you want it to know what you're thinking. Seriously, how do you want it to figure out these things? It seems you have a field for "suspension for..." -- Do you specify a number of days there? It's simple enough to add a suspension start date field, and calculate when the suspension would end... *EXCEPT* that it is difficult to get FileMaker to notice that a ten week-day suspension should jump over holiday and vacation days. It would be easier for you simply to glance at a calendar and fill in the start AND end dates, unless you want to do quite a bit of further work on your DB file.

Also I have tried the calculation field for the "Other" block on the Infraction list. Obviously I have not done it right. Hope one of you has the time to help out. Thank you for such great help.

P.S. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I made the "Other" field work here, I think. I also expanded the <<text>> field in the final print layout so that it would fit multiple lines.

Other suggestions: use "Align items" under the "Arrange" menu in Layout mode to neaten up centered items.

Use Sliding/Printing to eliminate blank space.

Also, you might want to check with a proofreader/grammar consultant (I couldn't resist tweaking a couple things). For a report associated with a school, that seems particularly important, from my perspective. Perhaps you already intend to give it revisions and you only want comments on FileMaker stuff; if so, my apologies.

[TaiChi56]

Hi Espringer

Yes, I have a sense of humor. Thank you for all of your work. I did not explain myself right on the dates. What I was meaning was I did not know how to put a line next to the checkbox that would show the dates I put in when I go to final print layout. I learned how to get the checkbox field to show from you guys. Just did not know how to put a line next to the checkbox so when an administrator puts in the dates it would showup on the final print.

As far as spelling and grammer, thank you. But yes, this is a rough draft. Believe me as an administrator I spend a lot of time reviewing my email and documents for mistakes before sending it to staff. This database has only been seen by a few of you and of course me. Again thank you for all of your work.

I am sure I will have more questions. I really enjoy this forum. Thank you.