Formatting a record for an email

[mattlight]

What's going on with send mail?

Surely, there has to be a way of formatting a records worth of data so that it doesn't looklike a telnet message or even worse, a network response from a BBC Micro - this is the 21st century. We need nice looking emails to be generated from a record within FileMaker

1. Tabs - surely we can actually email a layout

2. Right Justified and decimal tabs

3. Font changes and headings

Maybe the best thing to do is for the record to be exported to a comma delimited format file and then Microsoft Word be opened with a default layout form which then uses the comma delimted format data to fill in the blanks and then you can email it from Microsoft word via either outlook or entourage.

I normally make a script that gets all the data and puts it into a single field which can then be used as body text for the sendmail request. I just wish you could also include in the script a means of formatting the data so that it is all lined up in columns and numbers are right justified.

Also, I notice that sendmail does not include you outlook signature, any way of ensuring it uses it?

Thank you

[transpower]

How about printing to a PDF and e-mailing that?

[mattlight]

yeah, could be good. But, that involves a bit more procedure outside of the control of FileMaker. I would prefer to keep everything manageable without having to get users to give it a filename, save somewhere, go to email app, attach file, etc.

If I want to send someone a proper hard copy of an invoice or order I would do a PDF and send that.

But, when someone places an order on the phone, once I've entered it, I want a confirmation email to go out that looks less like a list of junk that's all. Other suppliers do it with no problem.

MAYBE THIS IS THE SOLUTION:

Is there a way that Filemaker can work out the amount of characters that have been used on a line so far, work out how many characters a fully formatted version of the price would be and then add in enough spaces in between to make the price right justified correctly?

I guess this would be better than tabs considering that some emails once sent don't respond well to tab formatting and spaces are probably better.

[Ted S]

mattlight,

I hate to recommend spending extra $ if not necessary but you might consider a 3rd party plug-in. I've been using SMTPit from CNS and I'm happy with it. I think it goes for around $30-$40 per copy but they also offer volume & site licensing which can drop the per seat price significantly if the right conditions exist. You can download a trial version from their website.

Using a plug-in gives you much greater control over the output. You can choose to send HTML emails which gives you the most control over presentation.

I generally try to avoid plug-ins but the SMTP plug-in has been a cost effective purchase for us. We have it deployed site-wide and use it regularly for "work flow" type applications in addition to the type of application that you are seeking.

[mattlight]

okay, okay, true - a plug in would do it. It just seems barmy that for such a simple thing as formatting of text in a field that I need a 'plug-in'.

I understand your point - I will check it out and I thank you for your suggestion of SMTPit.

I would use a plug in for more complicated features which are obviously not in FileMaker but when it comes to formatting, well, I thought - why give a feature like SendMail but make it look as antiquated as it does. They allow you to change the colour and font size or text within a field via a calcuation, granted - but, my word, a plug in just so as you can right justify a price?

I really thank you, will check the website now

[mattlight]

I thought a calculation applied to each carriage return line like this would do right justofication:

for the body text field, when processing in a loop each of the invoice line items, it would insert the amount of spacing required to make all the prices line up:

Qty & " " & Trim(Description, 30) & InsertSpaces(60-(CountCharacters(Qty & " " & Trim(Description, 30) & " " & FormatNumber(Price, 000000.00)) & FormatNumber(Price, 000000.00))

Loop

Since it insists in putting the email client into HTML it doesn;t need to worry about proportionally spaced characters so it will always be right.

I have made up some commands in there - because I need someone to let me know what they should be in a script step to achieve:

CountCharacters

InsertSpaces or characters

FormatNumber

Thanks again for your help and attention