Faxing / Exporting what should I do?

[glenng]

Hi Everyone!

I need some ideas/help/suggestions.

I am very new to filemaker and because I am the one with the most computer knowledge I have been given the task of automating some actions. It looks as though scripts will be the best way.

Here is what I need to do:

At the end of each month, find all records that have had samples sent to customers from the month before ie. On March 31 pull up records from Jan 1 to Jan31

Merge the customer information to a letter(already set up)

and print each letter(heres the major catch) In printing each letter the print setup can be changed to actually use our fax machine and print to fax. However the script has to be able to select fax within the print dialog and put in the # for each record.

Does this sound at all possible? or is it just a pipe dream?

If this cant be done then I have another way to do it:

At the end of each month, find all records that have had samples sent to customers from the month before ie. On March 31 pull up records from Jan 1 to Jan31 (same as above)

Export the data to word, use a macro in word(can the scripts in FM activate a word macro?) which would then merge the fax # into a format the fax machine understands.(it converts all of the fax #'s into e-mail addresses that are sent to the fax e-mail relay station) Then use an e-mail client to e-mail the fax#'s(which the the fax machine takes over and starts faxing)

It all sounds possible to me. But I see some issues, the main one being my lack of knowledge for scripting, however, I am very willing to learn.

I would really appreciate any input anyone can give me or maybe point me in the right direction.

Annnddd as a secondary type thing(the first one is much more important) I would also like to take the same data results and send out e-mails to them. This looks like it would be a bit easier, I have seen a few plug-ins that can help with that. any recommendations? (just need it to send the letter, doesnt need to rec mail or anything like that)

Thanks in advance!

Glenn Gregersen

800-845-0745

[email protected]

Version: v6.x

Platform: Mac OS X Jaguar

[CyborgSam]

One thing that is not currently possible in FM: scripting the Print dialog box. So having it automatically change to Fax is a problem.

Scripting Word is probably a good way to approach this. Which platform will determine inter-application scripting capabilities: Mac, Windows, or both?

The end of month report is easy, since I haven't done many of these I'll let folks who've done this a lot answer with the best way.

[glenng]

Hi Cyborgsam,

Thanks for your reply. I was afraid that would be the case with the print dialog.

However I was thinking, maybe there is a fax prg/plug-in that I could use that would fax directly from filemaker? I don't have to use our current set up.

As for the platform we run everything on a mac network.

Thanks again,

Glenn G

Version: v6.x

Platform: Mac OS X Jaguar

[glenng]

Ok, well after more research I have found a few prgs that will fax and e-mail from FM.

Does anyone have any that they can recommend?

Also does anyone have any suggestions for good sources to learn applescript and scripting in FM?

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Glenn

Version: v6.x

Platform: Mac OS X Jaguar