Dynamic layout...?

[customfamily]

Hey guys,

Is there a way to create a dynamic layout with sections that expand and retract according to how much information is present?

We create callsheets for jobs so people know when they have to show up, who's who on location, etc. There are categories like Talent, Clients, Camera, Props. The number of people who fall into these categories change with every shoot. In our Filemaker database you can assign people to a job, now I want to create a layout that fills up with everybody name with everybody falling into the correct categories, one for Talent, one for Camera, etc. Ideally these would expand depending on how many names fall into that category for a specific job but if that's too complicated I'd be able to work with a fix amount of "slots" for every category. My real problem is figuring out a smart way to have everybody who's been assigned to a job to fill into a layout.

Any and all ideas, solutions or pointers will be immensely appreciated.

Best,

Rob

[Sara Severson]

Hi Rob,

For a simple layout, you could always employ the "Set Sliding/Printing" options to slide layout objects up based on the length of their content.

However, it sounds like you're describing pulling lists of names from different tables... If your users are primarily using this layout live in FileMaker, you could use portals to show those names by category.

If you want it to be more print-friendly, though, have you considered a subsummary report? Hooray for you for using FM10: now your subsummary reports can be beautiful and editable in browse mode (whereas previously they were only useful in Preview mode).

[customfamily]

Thanks so much for posting. I'm not that familiar with subsummary reports yet, I thought they are only useful when calculating data but I'll look into what my options may be. Portals don't seem to be the right solution either. Thanks so much, I'll let you know how it goes.