Combine Reports?

[Greg G]

Is there a way in which to combine reports from different tables into one report without using the PDF features?

I have what is basically a kind of contract. Each section of the contract is a single large text field. On my report layout I used a merge field for this text field so it can span several pages in the body part and break properly. I would like the ability to insert some data from another table after one of these sections as per a user selection. What I want to insert is more or less a spreadsheet like chart with data from another table.

Is this even possible?

Thanks,

Greg

[Ocean West]

Greg yes you can do this using a free plugin ( 360Works ScriptMaster)

Here is a video how to implement this exact feature.

http://www.filemakermagazine.com/videos/combining-pdfs-the-blazing-fast-method.html

This uses the PDF function but the plugin will combine the pdf's as the append to PDF creates large PDFs.

You may consider making the clauses of the contracts a record in a table then when you print you just go to the found records and then have the section shrink as needed. (stretching the field to accommodate your largest clause)

[Greg G]

Thanks Stephen. I will have to look into your suggestion for final printing.

You may consider making the clauses of the contracts a record in a table then when you print you just go to the found records and then have the section shrink as needed. (stretching the field to accommodate your largest clause)

I do have the clauses of the contract setup as a record in a table. I used a merge field in the report with sliding on to allow it to span several pages if necessary and shrink to fit the text.

What I am ideally trying to do is insert this chart/spreadsheet from another table into the middle of this contract report after a user selected clause. This may end up being in the middle of a page. I would like to try and avoid starting a new set of pages for this insert and again for the remainder of the contract after it. I am starting to feel that this may not be possible in FMP.

Thanks

Greg

[comment]

In what form is this "chart/spreadsheet"? Is it a container field, a group of records, or what?

[Greg G]

It's a group of records in another table.

[comment]

Perhaps you could import both into a temp printing table. Or see the attached for another option.

ExternalIncludes.fp7.zip

[Greg G]

Your sample file looks great! Now I just have to figure out what you did. But I think it is the right idea.

Thanks so much for your help!

Greg

[Greg G]

So I was able to get this to work except I realized that portals do not slide.

I tried the approach from this post

http://fmforums.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/189356/post/263567/hl/%22portal+sliding%22/fromsearch/1/#263567

I was not able to get this to work at all either. I'm not sure if it's because I'm using the separation model or not but I put the custom functions in both files just to be sure and still nothing.

[comment]

Portals do slide (the file I have posted shows this). Perhaps you could explain your issue in more detail?

[Greg G]

The number of rows will slide but the size of the row will not get smaller. I have to have long fields (206px) in the portal to accommodate various lengths of text. The portal rows always show as 206px even if there is one line of text in the portals fields. This happens with your portal as well.

I attached a picture of the portal result.

[comment]

That's going to be difficult. Perhaps you should try my first suggestion (importing into a temp print table). In fact, I don't see why both the clauses and these external items couldn't live in the same table to begin with.

[Greg G]

If all of the data was in the same table, how would I get the chart fields to show after a specific clause without a portal?

[comment]

The same way you get the clauses to show in some order - by sorting the records.

[Greg G]

Thanks Comment. I think I was trying to over complicate the situation.

I took your advice and merged the two tables into a temp print table and that did the trick to get all my data into the report in a nice format.

Now, my only issue is trying to get the main text field to break across about 4 pages. I've tried using a merge field as I've done before but I've never tried to spread it across this many pages and I just can't get it to work. Any advice? Maybe there is a way to use calc fields to parse out the text into multiple fields?

Thanks,

Greg

[comment]

I'm afraid I don't follow. What is the "main text field" and why cannot it span 4 pages, if necessary?

[Greg G]

My main text field is the one that contains the clause text. I have a field before it with some other text and my chart fields after it. It's the only field that spans more than one page. So when I expand the field to span several pages I can not get the text to break nicely across each page. If I work out a nice break on one page it messes up another break somewhere else.

[Greg G]

I figured it out. For some reason my line spacing was not 1 line and that made it hard to break across multiple pages. Changing it solved the issue.

Thanks again.