Specialized Report Layout. Help?

[joemacgruder]

I have attached a pdf file which shows the layout our company uses for it's quotes. I have been able to create a really great quote software (with more than a little help from this forum) but I am befuddled by how to create a report which looks like this. Using the list output and subsummaries I have been able to get the individual page layouts to work, but I cant figure out how to make an opening page and a final summary / terms page. I need to make it where the entire document is created and printed in one step or my boss will never accept it as a viable option to the old software we use currently. Thanks for any help in advance!!

samplelayout.pdf

[Slobey]

joemacgruder,

Have you considered using more than one layout and having multiple print commands attached to your script? this way you can have a title page layout, and a final screen layout as well as your main list layout.

[joemacgruder]

Yeah, I know for the first and terms page that this is how it's going to have to be, but someone told me that there was a better way to make the summary. So I'm looking to see if anyone knows how.

[joemacgruder]

I guess my biggest problem is going to be outoutting these documents to a single pdf file (which is how we email them to our clients) If I use additional layouts and print commands then i will also have additional files wont I? Is there any way that anyone knows of that this could be done as a single file?

[Fenton]

I think he's being a little silly. Both the company info and the customer info would easily fit on 1 Title Header page (or better, Title Header, Title Footer), leaving you a lot more flexibility for everything else. That's how it's designed to work.

[joemacgruder]

Thanks for the input! One question though. What if I need more than one page at the beginning and end (3 in the beginning and 2 at the end) that have various info on them. How would I set this up using the title header & title footer,, just extend them to extra page lengths?

[Fenton]

No, that's the problem. Title is one page, no matter how big you try and make it. If you can make it 1 page it solves all your problems. There may be a way to do what you want. But it will require some trick, which I can't think of at the moment. Off the top of my head, a Title Header for the 1st page, then dummy records, which would form really big Subsummaries for the next 1 or 2 pages, then regular Subsummaries for the rest? It's kind of late. If it must be done I imagine we'll come up with something. But I don't think it's gonna be real elegant.

[Fenton]

Here's an example of what I was saying above. It actually doesn't need a dummy record, it just needs a related record, with the 1st Subsummary based on the foreign key for that relationship, "print above." That part's objects are not sliding up. It has "page break after 1 occurrence.

The regular Subsummary does have sliding up, with no "page break after 1 occurrence." It does not allow breaking across pages either.

I'm just using the SerialID for the 2nd Subsummary break, ie., one record per subsummary, "print below." In real life you'd have some other ID, so you'd have several records per.

It's not near as funky as I thought it would have to be. It seems to work.

TitleHeader.zip

[joemacgruder]

Wow Fenton what can I say? This is awesome! I'm sure I'll be spending the day tomorrow wrapping my head around it. It seems to me that many people could use this output format to give greater dimension to their reports. Thankyou again. (I'm psyched!)

[Fenton]

Yes, I was amazed at how simple it was. I've had to do some special layouts for quotes, for pretty fussy clients, but never one that required several "title" pages.

The trick, other than that there's 2 Subsummary parts, the first "leading" and the 2nd "trailing," is that the 1st one doesn't have Sliding up, but has "allow part to break on pages," and the 2nd one has sliding, but doesn't allow breaking (you could, but it's messy). And that they don't share a field that would end up in both.

The colored boxes or big field sizes were just for show, you can make them most any size and it still works.

You might want to also look at John Mark Osborne's site, http://www.databasepros.com, in the Resources, tips section. Look for Conditional Headers and Footers. It gives more control over (you guessed) headers and footers. (It's late.)

[joemacgruder]

One question. Since I can't use list view as I was before to populate all of the summarized room line items, how can I get all of the info to show? For example I have 5 individual fields which layout in a line (qty..Manufacturer..model..description...total) under roomname and which are followed by room total. I used to lay these out summarized in list view. Any thoughts?

[breeston]

One question. Since I can't use list view as I was before to populate all of the summarized room line items, how can I get all of the info to show? For example I have 5 individual fields which layout in a line (qty..Manufacturer..model..description...total) under roomname and which are followed by room total. I used to lay these out summarized in list view. Any thoughts?

Joe-Did you ever figure out how that can be done? I've been trying to come up with a way to produce a sheet music catalog as a single document and I need a cover sheet, index sheet, listing (which have to be in list layout in a body part as far I can figure) and then an order sheet and 2 back pages with contact and info. I think this may be able to do what I am looking for

[joemacgruder]

No, I tried many different variables but I couldn't figure out a way to combine all of the summarized data without using a list view (in preview) and placing it in the body (which prevented me from adding any more sub summaries). I've moved on to another portion of my project and figured I'd come back to this later.

[breeston]

Fenton do you have any thoughts on how this can be done when list view in the body is needed to properly format and display your data. Can this be done with the manner you had recommended?

[Fenton]

Well, I'm a little confused at to why something which shows in a List view would not also show in a Subsummary? I mean you can put any field in a Subsummary part. You may not get just what you'd expect or want, but you'd get something (kind of wishy-washy advice; but I don't know exactly what the problem is).

I was assuming that all the data which made up the "estimate" or "bid" was in line items somewhere and that you were summarizing the categories or whatever. I don't really know what your data is. I was mostly just trying to deal with "printing several title pages" problem.

If the data would not be summarized correct in the Subsummary, then there's still other alternatives. If it is structured data, then it should be possible to create a key which would match the records you're trying to summarize; then you can use:

Sum (relationship::field) in a calculation.

It doesn't really have much to do with a Subsummary then; which may be a plus in this case. It would show the same data in List or Subsummary.

[joemacgruder]

Yeah Breeston I was able to see the data it just didn't format it properly for me in the subsummary parts. That's why I put my main room data in a body part but then that prevented me from making trailing pages in summary fields. I'm sure that there's a way it could be done but I'm too inexperienced to know what that would be.

[Fenton]

We can't tell what you mean by "didn't format it properly." That could mean all kinds of things; the way it looks? the number of occurrences? the way it is summarized? Are you wanting something to be summarized, but are not using a Summary type field (a type of field definition)?

A regular field is going to be the same in a Subsummary part as in the Body. It's just going to occur more times in the Body. Is that what you mean, that you want every single record to also appear? I can't imagine that's the case. And if it is, then maybe you only need 1 Subsummary for the title pages, at the beginning, and the rest just Body.

In fact, in the file I posted, the 2nd Subsummary was sorted by SerialID. Which is the same as it being the Body. I did that 'cause I was lazy. If you change that 2nd Subsummary Part to Body, it works the same.

I cannot tell how many records you have compared to how many you want to see. Nor can I tell whether you're using Summary fields.