04-24-09 11:44 PM - Post#34267

I wish to use Filemaker to store and manage large documents the contents of which I wish to enter into indexed text fields. How do I go about displaying multiple screens of such data (so I don't have to use the scroll bar) and how do I print the entire contents of the large text field in reports?

The maximum length of text you can print from a single field is whatever will fit in a field that is 110 inches tall and as wide as your paper size allows (e.g. US letter in portrait orientation gives you 10 pages). If you have more, you will need to break it up into several fields - or export the text to another application for printing.

I am not sure what you mean "displaying multiple screens of such data". If you don't want to scroll, you could perhaps script "paging" through the text - but this wouldn't be easy to implement.

Thank you. But how do I go about configuring the layout to print the full 110 inches of text? When I set up the layout, I insert the text field onto the report, but the the amount of text printed is limited to the size of the field I place on the layout.

Stretch the body part of the layout down as much as it will allow. Then resize the field to the limits of the body, and set it to slide up during printing, also reducing the enclosing part.

I was able to stretch the footer to 110 inches, but the body part would not stretch beyond the boundary limits of the page size. As a result, in preview mode, the screen displays only a single page.

I don't get it. Filemaker specs indicate that a text field can hold very large bodies of text, yet displaying large amounts and or printing them seems to be a challenge. I must be overlooking something simple.

Any idea what I am doing incorrectly?

The total height of a layout, including all parts, cannot exceed 110 inches. If you have stretched the footer (why?), you cannot stretch the body.

A text field CAN hold up to 1 billion characters. However, Filemaker is still a database application, and as such is best at dealing with large amounts of small, well structured, data items.

Just a suggestion, but if you want the convenience and ease of use of a database, but the documents are many and large, use a container field to store a reference to each document, and another field to throw in a few key words. Admittedly, you'll lose the filemaker indexing of the document's content, but you'll be able to open, edit, search and print the original document in the original application.

I think there's a template for a document Library like this.

Is there a way to have a layout with a field that spans several pages and set margins at the top and bottom? This is usually done in word processing applications by linking text boxes, but I cannot figure out how to do this in Filemaker.

FM doesn't do this well (it's not a wp). You'd resize the body part of the layout as tall as possible (there's an upper limit). Then place the text field on the layout filling the body part. You might get text clipping, unless you hit the perfect font/size/pixel combo. Margins are set either by a header/footer part or in combo with layout margins.

*read Comment's post above!

Edited May 7, 200916 yr by Guest