How to combine data based on order number.. HELP PLZ!

[mephistomas]

hello all.

New FM user, perplexed by this problem:

I have an online store which exports csv's for our online orders. The order number is in column A, and the item ordered is in, say, column D. Here's where it gets tricky: if the customer has ordered more than one item, it lists the order in multiple rows, with the same order number in the A column for every line (for every item ordered). example:

A | B | C | D

23 | John | Smith | ITEM X

23 | John | Smith | ITEM Y

23 | John | Smith | ITEM Z

when importing into FM to make packing slips for the outgoing orders, i get multiple pages/slips for orders that have multiple items, each slip containing one item. What I need is FM to create one packing slip per order number (not one slip per row of info in the spreadsheet), and list all the items ordered on it in succession. I've searched far and wide, and I cannot find how to do this simple task. If you can help me, it'd be MUCH appreciated. Thank you all.

[IdealData]

The packing slip report needs the order number to be in a sub-summary part, and the data needs sorting by order number before running the report.

All the other data should be in the body part.

This way FMP will group the individual lines (records) together for each order.

[mephistomas]

First off, thank you so much for a response. I'm about as new as it gets to FM (our company bought it specifically for this, and somehow I ended up "volunteering" to work things out...). I've tried to understand/attempt what you describe but I'm having a difficult time (I'm a web designer, really). If you could break down your solution to "baby-steps" it would be super appreciated.. Thanks

[IdealData]

FMP layouts are divided into "parts" - each part behaving differently, but the standard document sequence is roughly:

Title Header

Header

Leading Grand Summary

Sub-Summary (leading)

Body

Sub-Summary (trailing)

Trailing Grand Summary

Footer

Title Footer

(you do not need to use all of them, but the ones you do use must appear in the sequence above)

As you can see the sub-summary part can exist before/after the body - the body is the part that contains your ORDER LINES, whereas the sub-summary part should contain your ORDER NUMBER.

You need the ORDER NUMBER to appear in the sub-summary part, and the ORDER LINES to appear in the body (you already have this).

1. Go to the layout for the packing slips

2. Enter layout mode

3. Drag the "part" tool from the status column to a point just above the body

4. Specify you want a sub-summary part

5. Specify the sorting order to be ORDER NUMBER (or whatever field you have for this)

6. Drag the "field" tool into the new sub-summary part

7. Specify the field to be ORDER NUMBER

Your layout is now ready. However you must sort the records by ORDER NUMBER before the layout will make any sense.

Please take a look at the help system too. You will need a basic understanding about FMP layout parts and sorting records.