Multiple Layouts...

[Protour Travel]

I have two layouts; Show day and Off Day.

I want to do a date range lookup which mixes Show and Off days. Each record has a Show/Off Day field.

Then I want to print these dates, in date order and to the correct layout, as a single PDF file. IE; as a tour book.

Is there a script step step to accomplish this?

The reason for this is that the layouts are written using Merge Fields and each field has a label. The example below is a Show Day layout. On the Off Day layout, the Venue and Promoter Sections disappear and are replaced by an "Off Day" image.

Many, many thanks for your help.

[comment]

I want to print these dates, in date order and to the correct layout,

Are both layouts laid out as "one page per record"?

[Protour Travel]

Are both layouts laid out as "one page per record"?

Yes, they are.

[comment]

You could find the records you want to include, sort them by date, then save the first record as PDF. Next, loop through the remaining records, appending each one to the same PDF. Switch to the appropriate layout for each record.

[Protour Travel]

Thanks Comment.

I tried what you suggested but it was taking forever to do just 24 records and the append to PDF 'perform without dialog' wasn't working. I had to select the append button for each record. Each addition was taking about twice as long as the record before it. A 12 or 14 week tour could take hours to print.

In my mind, which is severely limited by the way, the scripts below should work but they don't. Maybe you can tell me why. Also I would also like to add a step that enters the preview mode so the user can proof read the entire document before submitting it for printing.

The problem is that every record is going to the same layout. In this case it's the 'Show Day' layout. if I reverse the ChooseLayout script so that the 'Off Day' step is first in the steps then every record prints to the Off Day layout.

Thank you so, so much...

[comment]

What I meant would be more like:

# FIND & SORT

Go to Record [ First ]

Set Variable [ $PDFpath ; Get ( DesktopPath ) & "Report.pdf" ]

Loop

 Perform Script [ Choose Layout ]

 If [ Get ( RecordNumber ) = 1 ]

  Save Records as PDF [ Restore; No dialog; “$PDFpath”; Current record ]

 Else

  Save Records as PDF [ Restore; Append; No dialog; “$PDFpath”; Current record ]

 End If

 Go to Record [ Next; Exit after last ]

End Loop

I have tried this, and it does take some time (though I don't think it would be hours).

Also I would also like to add a step that enters the preview mode so the user can proof read the entire document before submitting it for printing.

I don't think that's possible.

Perhaps it would be better to have a single layout, with some conditional formatting?

[Protour Travel]

Conditional formatting would be great but since one of my clients uses FMP8, even the append script you wrote won't work. It does work perfectly though on my machine and I appreciate it very much.

Perhaps he is going to have to break down and upgrade.