Printing Report from 3 different Tables

[HarleyHacker]

I am a convert from Microsoft Access and Windows. I am now using Macintosh computers. I have not been able to duplicate a database I developed in Access with FileMaker Pro. My Access Database included a report that contained two sub-reports.

The closest thing I found in Filemaker is the use of portals. The portals work good for entering information but not for printing as they do not "auto expand" as the number of records increase. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[bcooney]

It is best practice to print reports from the child table and not with portals (as you've seen). Can you be more specific to what tables/relationships you have?

Sometimes you can print from one of the child tables and "bring in" the other child's data thru relationships.

Sometimes a temp table just for report generation is the way to go.

[HarleyHacker]

Thanks for your response. Part of my problem was solved by using the sliding option in the portal when printing. I set the portal up with the maximum lines that I need. When printing, the blank lines do not print and the next record is "slid" up to the previous record.

In your response you made reference to "child tables". Is there a hierarchy to tables through their relationships, or are you calling a table related to another table a "child"? The one thing you could do in access is create a "one to many" relationship. The closest thing to that I have found in FileMaker is the portal.

Is there a way to bring all records from two unrelated tables together to print in a report? I tried the "unrelated" relationship option between the "key fields" in both tables, but I could only get all records from one table and one record from another. ie Table 1 key field as "Company" and Table 2 key field as "Date". An "unrelated" relationship was setup between these 2 fields. I needed to bring all records from Table 1 "Company" and all records from Table 2 "Dates" together and do a calculation with corresponding values in Table 1 and Table 2.

Sorry for all the questions, any help would be appreciated.