- Getting Started
- Understanding FileMaker Pro Features
- Using the Status Toolbar
- Working in FileMaker Pro
- Working with Records
- Working with Fields
- Working with Related Data
- Finding Data with FileMaker
- Sorting
- Printing
- Importing and Exporting Data
- Using the Web Viewer
- Troubleshooting
- FileMaker Extra: Becoming a FileMaker Pro Power User
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Printing
Printing is straightforward in FileMaker. Choose File, Print. In the subsequent dialog that appears, you have the choice to print your found set, just the current record, or a blank record showing field names.
If you’d like to see what something will look like before wasting paper on something you don’t want, use Preview mode via the Preview button in the center of the Status toolbar, or the View menu. Choose the layout from which you want to print and change to Preview mode.
After you’re there, you can see where page margins will fall, and the Book icon enables you to step through the pages you will send to the printer. Keep in mind that Preview mode shows you what will be sent to the printer if you choose to print current records.
Presenting Data with Summary and Subsummary Reports
One prevalent type of report is a summary or subsummary report. A subsummary report enables you to group records that share some bit of common data.
You should design reports for the most restrictive printer on which they will be produced, which means adjusted paper sizes, color, and the like so that they will always look correct.
In Figure 2.40, you see the report that the Assets Starter Solution actually provides. It contains subsummary parts that organize the data by category. Totals can be provided for subsummary parts if the report designer specifies, and, as you can see, FileMaker can generate a chart for the data. The report is accessed from a script attached to the button Inventory Report. It is very common to provide reports that are generated by a script that selects data (perhaps with a find) and then sorts it in preparation for the report. The script then pauses, and a Exit Preview button is displayed in the Status toolbar. Very few commands are available while the script is paused, but printing is one of them. If the report looks right, you can print it and then click Exit Preview to go on with your work. The script normally returns you to another layout.
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Figure 2.40. A summarized report can be more comprehensible than detailed data.
TIP
Developing summarized reports very early in your database design process can be useful. Although you might want a totally interactive database, many people are used to seeing information on paper. Also, as you design a report that is sorted and contains subsummaries, the structure of the report sometimes makes omissions of categories and data fields obvious.
FileMaker Pro has the capability to display subsummary and summary data in Browse mode while you are viewing data in Table or List view.
More information on how to display subsummary and summary data is included in Chapter 4, “Working with Layouts.”