Printing large report

[Vaughan]

Any time I see a database with hundreds of fields in it, I wonder if the data structure needs revising.

Think how much easier it would be to print a database with 200 records and one field on each...

[Henk Muller]

quote:

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Originally posted by Vaughan:

Any time I see a database with hundreds of fields in it, I wonder if the data structure needs revising.

Think how much easier it would be to print a database with 200 records and one field on each...

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Thank you for your suggestion, Vaughan.

But I think it's not an answer to my question. The problem is not in the report with the 200 fields on it, but in a report without any fields. Just plain text!

Have you ever encountered such a problem?

Henk

[Henk Muller]

I created a solution in FMPro 5 which is bound to a runtime solution for Windows and Macintosh users.

The aim of the solution is printing a report of one record (about 200 fields). Because all the fields are set to sliding and I want to avoid page breaks in a field, I created 9 layouts for the report (each for one page).

My users also can print an "empty report" - a form they can fill in on site. This empty report is on one layout. The "questions" are static text, for the "answers" I defined one global field [text] that is repeated on the form with different formatting (radio buttons, check boxes, plain text fields with base lines), no sliding. This worked fine, except that two users reported that only page one to six from the "empty report" were printed, page seven to eleven only showed header en footer and an empty body. The preview was fine!

Now that I changed this empty report for an update of the solution, I encountered the same problem. The only thing I did was changing the line spacing to 12 points so that the report fits in 10 pages.

I couldn't figure out what was the cause of my problem. At last I made a totally new layout, replaced the global field with dotted lines, squares and circles and plain text. Now there is no field at all on the "empty report", it's all plain text.

Now all the body-parts of the ten pages print well, except on page 8 where the printout shows some radio buttons that where initially on page 3 but are not on my layout anymore! From page 7 on, the body text prints into the footer and into the header of the next page, i.e. the body text of page 8 starts in the footer of page 7, continues in the header of page 8 and starts again in the body of page 8 and so on.

I tried different (PostScript)printers: Xerox DocuTech, Oce 3165 Network Copier, Canon CLC 1000).

I'm developing the solution on a Windows 98 machine (256 MB RAM, so I don't think it's a memory related problem).

Who can help?

Henk

[Henk Muller]

I just moved all the files to the Macintosh platform and look: all the pages of the "blanc report" printed well!

This points to a problem with Windows98 and NT, I think.

But it's still no solution to my problem!

[Vaughan]

Sometimes redesigning the database *is* the answer to a problem.

And if I'd have said "get a Macintosh" I'd have been flamed!!!

Try recreating the layout *on a PC machine* using all the PC fonts etc but keep the origianl one as well. Change the script that generates the report to use the Status(CurrentPlatform) function to select the Mac or PC version of the layout depending on OS in use.

[This message has been edited by Vaughan (edited December 14, 2000).]