Hi all:

I've got a bunch of printouts which the client wants to have printed with blue text, just like on an old mimeograph machine (talk about trying to stick with your legacy stuff...) and although I've formatted the fields blue in the print layouts, sometimes the fields do not print blue. Furthermore, I've just noticed that sometimes they do not print in the specified font, either. I had thought that the color, font, size and style I indicate in layout mode would always stick, even if the user has entered the data in another layout using a different font, size, etc... what's happening?

This is an FM Server setup, all Macs, the clients are all on OSX and FM 6.

-Stanley

Hi Stanley,

FileMaker provides two separate 'layers' of text/character formatting and this can be a bit hair raising until you understand what's going on.

One 'layer' is the application of formats to the fields on a layout. The formats you apply in this way become the 'defaults' as it were whgen that layout is viewed. Defaults in the sense that they are what applies unless anything else has been specified for a given block of text.

Below that layer, is the ability to apply text formats directly to some or all the characters in a field. This can be done purposefully by selecting the text and applying formats (colors, styles etc) to it from the format menu - or it can occur inadvertently when text pasted from the clipboard carries style information - or via drag and drop etc. Formats applied at the character level take precedence (ie they over-ride the default formats applied to the field on the layout).

From your description, some of the text in the fields with which you're having problems is being entered (eg pasted) with formatting on it - or perhaps formatted after the fact by over-enthused users.

One solution would be to encourage the use of the 'paste without style' keystroke (on OS X the keystroke is option-command-v) or script step.

Another solution would be to run a script procedure which loops through the records setting fields to themselves, prior to printing. Setting a field to itself strips custom formats so that the defaults then apply. The script would look something like this:

Go to Record/Request/Page[First]

Freeze Window

Loop

Set Field ["OneField", "OneField"]

Set Field ["AnotherField", "AnotherField"]

Go to Record/Request/Page[Exit after last, Next]

End Loop

Page Setup [No Dialog]

Print [ ]

This will cause your printing scripts to takle a little longer, but will ensure that all the text prints out in the default settings for the layout you're printing. If the problem only occurs occasionally, then you might want to keep the sceript aside (not incorporate it into your printing routine) and only run it when a problem emerges.

Ray:

Excellent advice, as always. I had never considered that pasting (NOT without style) would override the presets I've laid into a printout layout. Now that I think about it, it's obvious. The idea of resetting the fields to themselves is an excellent idea; it will be implemented promptly.

Thanks again,

Stanley