Tricky notes export to excel

[Ryo_Saeki]

Morning everyone!

My boss has asked that I print a weekly report on updates I make to notes on each company, and export them to an Excel file. Here is the tricky part:

When I do the report, only the most recent note/time of creation/creation date, appear. I need ALL the notes to appear for each company, including their corresponding dates/times.

The data containing the company notes and date/time is coming from a tab containing a portal with a "note" relationship . Photos are included that display all the info pertaining to this problem. I'm sure it's a simple fix....just not a request I have run into before. Thanks everyone!

Edited March 31, 2009 by Guest

[comment]

Do your report from the Notes table, sub-summarized by company.

[Ryo_Saeki]

It doesn't seem to want to work very well....Any other suggestions?

[Ryo_Saeki]

Ok, I've tried over and over again. I need more suggestions guys! I'm running out of time, and I'm completely stuck....Please help!

[mr_vodka]

I am not following your issue here. You seem to be heading in the right direction with printing a report from the notes records. Are you asking how to start a new page for each company? What do you mean by the notes not all showing up? If you went to the related notes records ( same TO as the portal) it would should them.

[Ryo_Saeki]

hhmmm, how to explain this....

The portal can keep as many individual company notes as I need. The idea is to get all the notes that appear in the portal to appear in a report. Example: "Company A" has 8 notes that I have written about it. Now, I need to print a report that shows "Company A" and all the notes from the portal appearing on one report.

As of this moment, when I try to run the report from the notes tables, and subcategorize by company, the notes appear multiple pages. Put more simply: I run a search for "Company A," and instead of simply displaying one page with multiple notes, the notes are appearing on multiple pages all with "Company A" on them.

Is that making any sense at all? I'm having a tough time explaining it...

[RalphL]

At this point, no one has been able to help me, and I can't find anything in the manual I have. I know this is a VERY BASIC function, since all other database software can run such a report. So....how do I do it?! Please Help!

I've tried creating a new report from the Notes Table, then sub-categorizing by company....and although the report displays the notes from the company, it does not display ALL of them in the same page...I have to click through each individual note, which is not what I need it to do. I have to have all the notes appear on one page.

This is an easy report to make. You have started in the right direction. There is no way that you can be sure that all notes will fit on one page. The number of notes and their length will determine the number of pages. You can set the report to start a new page for each company. This is part of the layout setup for the sub-summary. Do you have the layout in the list mode? Have you selected the list/report type layout?

[mr_vodka]

Please post a copy of your file. This report should be pretty straight forward. If there are only 8 related notes and they are not that big and are capable of fitting onto one page then you shouldnt have an issue. Are you getting the correct parent table occurrence? Are you sorting the records so it is indeed a summary report?

[Ryo_Saeki]

I've added a picture that might help explain.

[Ryo_Saeki]

Here is what the report is coming up like.

[RalphL]

Try making a new layout. Use the Columnar List / Report type layout. It is the second one in the list of layout types.

[comment]

This is a duplicate thread:

http://fmforums.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/202545/

[mr_vodka]

Topics Merged. Please do not double post...

[mr_vodka]

Seems to me your body part is too big or you are not in a list view.

*Edit

You may also want to turn sliding on.

Edited April 3, 2009 by Guest

[Ryo_Saeki]

In all fairness, I posted my original problem 3 days ago, with over 73 views, and only 1 response that didn't help my situation. I understand the policy, but my last post was going nowhere fast. At least the new one is helping a lot!

[LaRetta]

At least the new one is helping a lot!

And the old post would have helped a lot just as well if you would have simply continued there!! When people don't follow the rules, it takes our time to merge posts, it wastes our time because we cover the same questions unnecessarily and it wastes FM Forum space resources.

Your saying you at least got results when you re-posted again will only encourage others to also break our rules when it is simply not true. Again, please do not double post ... go back and continue on the prior post. We all read every thread even if it is a new thread from an old post and we give it just as much weight. :wink2:

[comment]

In all fairness, what response do you expect when all you say is "It doesn't seem to want to work very well"?

[Ryo_Saeki]

Ok, using the format you said worked out very well. Now there is a new problem! Now when I add a new note to the company, it won't appear in the report. It's acting like any time I want to make the report, I'm going to have to recreate it to include all the new notes taken. Is there a way to set it up so it automatically pulls new notes and just adds it in there? I included a pic.

[Ryo_Saeki]

When that's an accurate statement, what else do you expect me to say? This is the first time I had to resort to posting the same issue more than once. The suggestion given didn't work. Plain and simple. Don't plan on doing it again, and I'm not encouraging people to do it in any way.

[Ryo_Saeki]

We all read every thread even if it is a new thread from an old post and we give it just as much weight.

I apologize for posting more than once, I didn't mean to upset anyone. I would like to take what you say here as a total matter of fact...but if that were the complete truth, then my original posting would have had more feedback. For some reason, my second posting (perhaps because I worded it better?) actually gave me several responses that helped me with the problem is less time. Next time I'll be sure to delete an old post first, and better word my requests B)

[comment]

I would expect you to say something like "I have tried it, but I ran into the following problem...". Which would then enable an intelligent response - instead of a prolonged interrogation like the one that seems to be going on right now.

Eventually, you'll get it to work. I suggest you reserve judgment of my response until then.

[LaRetta]

The suggestion given didn't work. Plain and simple.

Good grief! How about responding with something like this:

"This is what I did, according to what you said, creating two leading parts. And then I sorted by FieldA then FieldB. The report worked almost like I wanted but it listed things out of order (first by Group and then by Date) and I don't understand why."

... or basically like you started this new thread!! Comment is the top developer in the country and he simply doesn't give incorrect information so, if something didn't work, it means the two of you just didn't quite understand each other (or the situation). So the answer is ... provide more information and not blow them off. You could have saved yourself a lot of effort to stick where you were and simply worked through it.

Thanks for not double-posting in the future, we appreciate it.

UPDATE: I just read your response that you would delete your old post. What about the people who responded? Were you going to leave their responses talking to thin air? ROFLMAO!! Nah,you are doing fine ... we just want to save EVERYONE time and effort here so you can spend more time playing with FileMaker. Don't delete your old post - go back to it. Again ... it is against Forum rules and we will continue to merge them and bring it strongly to your attention.

Edited April 3, 2009 by Guest
Added update and then additional sentence

[Ryo_Saeki]

I'm new, I'm working on it -_-" My original question got answered, and I got it working. Now, however, there is another catch....

FINALLY, I got the companies to display all the notes, but for some reason the report will not reflect new notes I add to the company main page. I have tried refreshing the report page, just too see if it might show up. Nothing happened. So now I'm kinda stuck once more. Any ideas? I need the report to auto-update when I add new notes so I can print or export the report to an excel file.

[LaRetta]

Sure, no problem. Your last screen shot shows you are still attempting to print from the Client database. You must print from the NOTES table, as Comment suggested originally.

Your report in Notes should have one leading part - Company - again like Comment suggested. And now because you have many different lines of thought going, the problem has become further confused. As Comment suggested again, go back to his original response. Did you do what he suggested? If so, what didn't work about his suggestion?

You cannot print ALL notes for ALL companies from the Company table. I am not going to wade clear through this (now) confusing mess. Comment has twice given you the answer.

Hang in there.

Edited April 3, 2009 by Guest

[Ryo_Saeki]

I did exactly as the instructions said:

1. I created a new report.

2. I made sure the report was pulling from the "notes" database in the "columnar list/report."

3. I made sure to use "Report with grouped data."

4. I added all the fields that I needed to have appear on the report, sorted by "Company Name."

5. I then used the "default theme."

This makes perfect sense to me. I did like I was told, and the report came out correct. Like I said, now it's not updating correctly when I add a new note. Am I not understanding correctly, or not using the correct options with the process I give above?

[comment]

You need to sort the notes by company every time you produce the report. Make yourself a script that goes to the report layout, finds the records you want to print, sorts them and prints (or previews and pauses, giving user the chance to review before printing).

[Ryo_Saeki]

That's perfect! Thank you so so much for helping! That got it to work perfectly! I'll be WAY more specific with problems in the future. I didn't mean to blow you off..I'm new, and I just didn't understand. Thanks everyone!

[LaRetta]

I'm tickled! :laugh2: