VISUAL QUICKPRO GUIDE FileMaker Pro 7 Advanced FOR WINDOWS AND MACINTOSH [Electronic resources]

Cynthia L. Baron, Daniel Peck

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Cleaning Up a Layout for Printing

Beginning FileMaker developers tend not to pay much attention to their layout design. Eventually, after wasting paper on blank or almost empty pages, or on layouts that don't fit properly on a standard page, a clean layout becomes more important. Two simple changes can make all the difference. First, design the layout to fit a standard paper size. Different page sizes give you various amounts of room, so set the page size before you construct the layout. It's surprisingly easy to do.

Second, when you create a layout, you try to take into account the largest block of data a field will need to display or print. But by designing for the largest data, you often leave enormous holes in your printouts of pages whose data doesn't take up as much space. The Sliding/Printing option allows you to designate fields or layout elements that can shrink if the fields around them are empty or contain less than the maximum data.

To create a layout to match your paper size

1 .Go to the layout to be printed.

2 .Choose File > Page Setup (Macintosh) or File > Print Setup (Windows).

3. Choose the page size and orientation you want to print (Figure 3.31).

Figure 3.31. You should designate the paper size in Page/Print Setup before you add elements to the layout.

4. Choose View > Layout Mode.

5 .Click and drag the Body tab until you see the dashed horizontal line that marks a page break (Figure 3.32). Drag the Body tab up to cover this mark. If the part extends below the page break, you'll get an extra blank page every time you print.

Figure 3.32. The dashed horizontal line on the layout indicates the bottom of the page. The matching vertical one indicates the right edge of the page.

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To reduce the size of layout parts when printing

1. Choose View > Layout Mode (Control+L/Command+L).

2 .Select the fields, text, and graphics that you want to slide up (Figure 3.33).

Figure 3.33. Select all the fields as well as any text or graphics that you want to slide up before selecting the Sliding/Printing dialog box.

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3. Choose Format > Sliding/Printing.

4. Click the "Sliding up based on" and "Also reduce the size of the enclosing part" check boxes (Figure 3.34). Click OK.

Figure 3.34. The "Also reduce the size of the enclosing part" option will save paper when the report is printed.

When you print or choose Preview mode, the fields or layout elements you chose will move up if the fields above them are shorter than the space you've allowed for them in the layout (Figure 3.35).

Figure 3.35. Even though the layout shows three lines in the Address field, it will shorten if the data entered has fewer lines. The Body part will also shrink with it.

Tips

Ever change a layout, then realize that you're working on the wrong one, or that you don't like the way the change looks? By default in FileMaker Pro 7, you can reject the changes and return to the last saved state of the layout. If you'd rather have your changes saved automatically as they were in earlier versions of FileMaker, click the "Save layout changes automatically" check box (Figure 3.36). To return to the original default, go to FileMaker Pro > Preferences, click the Layout tab, uncheck the "Save layout changes automatically" box and click OK.

Figure 3.36. Checking the "Save layout changes automatically" box saves a step but applies changes without allowing you to confirm them.

Unlike previous FileMaker versions, FileMaker Pro 7 doesn't write changes to fields automatically. You have to commit them by pressing Enter, or leaving the current field or record. But a committed record doesn't automatically update in a different file that's linked by a portal. You'll need to commit the related record in the portal as well to see the updated data.