Body Part in a Layout

[Bob Ratcliffe]

Hi Folks,

I'm setting up a school reporting system using FM 5.5 on our NT4 network, but I'm having a slight problem with the layout design. I need to be able to use the body part of the layout to place all of the relevant fields. Unfortunately, I've run out of pages on the layout (there are about 10). I cannot drag the end of the body any further. Is FM only designed to cater for this number of pages or can I increase it?

Thanks, Bob

[falkaholic]

I'm not sure about the length limit, but you can always use the horizonal space. Not sure what the limit on the is though.

[djgogi]

Just tried.

Form view, Page set up A4, no Header&Footer

Result 33 pages.

BTW FM 5.5 Developer on OS X

Dj

[Bob Ratcliffe]

DJ,

I have Developer at school but have not used it before. Exactly what do I do to get all of these lovely 33 pages!! Sorry, but some of you are way ahead of me.

Bob

[RussBaker]

I think the maximum length of a layout is 110 inches (v 5). It doesn't matter what you try to put in it, or which way you orient your pages.

[djgogi]

Sorry, didn't notice that i was working with more than 1 record in found set!

Actually, there were 3 records so 11*3=33

So I was wrong max 10 page per layout:

BTW, why do you have to have such a large layout!?!

How about splitting it in few more redeable layouts?

Dj

[Bob Ratcliffe]

DJ,

It is basically a full report that has fields for English, Maths, Science, etc. Because of the length of the text involved, I was allocating a full page to a subject...this meant that I was needing more than 10 pages within a body part...I now need to think of an alternative! Thanks however, for clarifying what the body part could do!

Bob

[RussBaker]

How about using a series of sub-summary headers to give you your reports. That way you can choose your page breaking options and end up with a report looking like:

Student Name

.Reporting Period

..Subject

...Report Text

Where the first 3 would be different leading sub-summaries and the Report Text would be in the body so you get your full text and sliding optins etc.

[Vaughan]

It sounds like you have the fields for each subject hard-coded into the student's record. A better way (for many reasons) is to make it relational: one db with student details (and an ID) another file with subjects. Now when you print, each student's subject will be on a separate record which will give you 10 pages per subject per student!

Your system will no longer be limited to X number of subjects either.

[Bob Ratcliffe]

Russ,

I have never used the sub-summaries before...though I did have a few trials this week when the limited pages started. Is this then, a way of inserting page breaks into the system, ie getting more than the 10 or so available in the body part?

Bob

[Bob Ratcliffe]

Vaughan,

Yes, you are right in that the 'report' file has fields for all of the subjects for the grades and comments. It is also related to a 'data' file that pulls in the name, surname, form, etc. Yes, I can see that I am going to have to create another file that pulls in the individual comments to individual records like you said (sad that I am, I was thinking about this lastnight....in bed!)

Thanks, Bob

[RussBaker]

There is no real limit to the number of subsummary pages. You will need to be careful if a very large text field ends up breaking across a page break but if you follow Vaughan's example about how to structure your reports, then this won't be a problem. It will also help for different people writing the different sections of a report. If you had them all one one "report" then only one user would be able to access that record at any one time. Using a related file with one record per subject, all the teachers could write their reports one one student simultaneously without record-conflict issues arising.

The "number of pages" issue you've been having trouble with is not actually a page issue at all. Its to do with trying to exceed the maximum layout size of 110 inches.

There has been some discussion about Filemaker having trouble printing greater than 9999 pages, but I think that was actually a printer driver limitation - not a limitation of FileMaker. Send me an PM if you want and I can respond with some v5 files showing sub-summary usage.