resume layout

[daveealex]

I am creating a layout for a resume for print. I am having a problem with the work experience. Some people only have had only one job and some people have had 4 jobs, and so on. When i made the layout i have added all the work experience fields. There is a total of 5 experiences. If Joe had 3 jobs, I only want the first three work experiences to show up, if Betty had only one job than only the first experience will show up, etc. This has to be done by omitting empty fields and a conditional formating but i am not sure how to do it. I have also a language section, training/schools sections, and many more. When all of these are on the resume it takes up 4 pages(there are over 100 fields). Is there a way to omit the labels and fields while the fields slide up in the place of the omitted data above them? Also when i save to pdf it saves all the resumes. I need it to only do the person i have open. I am still learning FileMaker so please be as specific as possible. Thank you in advance. I am using FileMaker 10 advance, Vista, and very little experience.

[bcooney]

How did you structure your data? Are people related to child tables? For example People to WorkExperience by PeopleID?

A common beginner mistake is to create fields in the "main" table, let's say People for what should be related data. So, do you have Work Experience1, Work Experience2, etc?

[daveealex]

Yes it is in the main table, I have them under tabs. Tab 1 = Experience 1, Tab 2 = Experience 2, etc. I have a lot of fields. Would it be better for me to create child tables and portals? Would each experience get its own table? Each experience has 7 fields. I have added a picture to see the layout. It is in Italian. Data is date, azienda is business, typo di azienda is type of business, azienda indirizzo is business address, typo impiego is type of work and pricipale mansoni e responsibilita is job description and responsibilities. This is for a Curriculum Vitae, not a resumè. I just thought i should clarify.

Edited December 3, 2009 by Guest
cv

[bcooney]

I had a feeling...you really want child records and portals. Each experience would get its own RECORD in the Experience table with as many fields for each record as you need to describe the experience.

[daveealex]

bcooney, I have made the new table and have laid the portal out. 1 problem i have noted is that I can not make it vertical. Is it possible to make it vertical? I can not find a real answer online. If not the portal is just too big to fit on an A4 paper and still be legible. I see why the portal works good for this type of thing because it only shows data that is there, but the table look does not work for the cv format. I have attached an example of the cv format, maybe that will help. This sort of problem is not just for the work experience, i have many other fields like this such as email 1 and email 2, cell 1 and cell 2, residence and domicile. Not everyone has 2 email, 2 cells, or addresses. Some don't even have emails. There has got to be a way to remove the field and responding tag if there is no data in the field. I hope there is some way we can work this out even with a script or calculation. Thank you in advance

schmo.pdf

[bcooney]

Very good. It is important to have the data model correct. How you report should not really drive how the structure is set up. There are ways to create the report that you need.

To create your CV, you will need to gather the child record data from many related tables into the main table. Here are the common approaches:

1. Print portals. Portals don't print well, slide, etc. Not recommended.

2. Print from the child table. Ah, but you have several. Not the answer in this scenario.

3. Gather the child data into calc fields in the parent table. Use of a concatenated text field in child and List ( ) in parent. Definitely worth looking into.

4. Create a report table. Populate this table with all the child record data that you need and design the report from there. Could be a sub-summary report. Another good technique.

I know I've answered threads like this, so I'll look for them and add the links to this thread when I find them.

[daveealex]

bcooney, I found a calculation from the filemaker forums at filemaker.com link. This seems to be working for me. If you can still post any other ways that would be great. I am always trying to learn more. Thank you for your help.

Create a second layout, and replace the field labels with calculation fields. For example, a second street address field may or may not contain data. The field may be called "Street 2" and the field label would display "Street 2". Instead, create a calculation field, "Street2label", with the formula:

If ( IsEmpty ( Street 2 ) ; "" ; "Street 2" )

That is, if the contents of the field are empty, then display nothing. Otherwise, display "Street 2".

Does that make sense?

Now, you have a decision to make... Do you want blank space on the form where the "Street 2" fields displays? Or, do you want the City field (and State and Zip) to slide up and take the place of where the "Street" previously displayed?

If you want the former, you don't have to do anything.

If you want the latter, perform the following steps:

1. Pull down the View menu and select "Layout Mode".

2. Pull down the Edit menu and select "Select All". This selects all objects on the layout.

3. Pull down the Format menu and select "Set Sliding/Printing..."

4. Check the option "Sliding up based on", and then select the option "All above" or "Only directly above"; depending on your preference.

5. Click "OK", pull down the View menu and select "Preview Mode" to see how this will print out.

[bcooney]

I've had some time to put together a quick demo. Things to look for in the demo:

1. Calcs in the child that concatenate field data.

2. Calc in the parent using List ( ) that gather child data.

3. A layout for the printout that uses sliding.

4. Tables for each set of child data. If there can be more of one thing, then it should be in a child table.

This is one of the approaches to printing from many child tables. Page breaks can be difficult. Another approach is the creation of a report table, as I mentioned above.

CV.fp7.zip