#Filemaker pro 11 for mac how to
#Filemaker pro 11 for mac full
#Filemaker pro 11 for mac zip
#Filemaker pro 11 for mac mac

In other words, if you are printing an invoice, donРІР‚в„ўt print from a layout based on the INVOICES table, with the line items in the portal instead, jump to a layout based on the child table, LINE ITEMS, and print from there. The way to print the records displayed in a portal is to build a layout based on the child table that РІР‚СљownsРІР‚Сњ the records in the portal, and do your printing there. Moreover, you donРІР‚в„ўt always know in advance how many notes will be created for any given person, or how many line items an invoice will have. But notes are unpredictable lengths, so an individual note might contain more text than can be displayed in the portal row. If the notes are all brief, and you never have more than 10, then you could, in theory print the portal. For example, if you use the portal to display notes that are related to a personal record in a contacts database, you might define the portal to show 10 rows. ThereРІР‚в„ўs no practical limit on the number of related records, but there is a limit on the number of rows that a portal can display without scrolling. A text field in FileMaker Pro can store more data that it can normally display. And notes fields sometimes can be quite long. In an invoicing database, for example, a line item describing work that youРІР‚в„ўre invoicing for might typically be no longer than 30 to 40 words but occasionally, it could be longer. The field on the layout can display the entire value.Р”В«ut sometimes, we define fields without knowing whether they will store a little data or a lot.

#Filemaker pro 11 for mac zip

Dates, social security numbers, state abbreviations and zip codes, and many other data types are basically fixed lengths or nearly so. The dollar (number) fields in my invoicing and banking databases, alas, donРІР‚в„ўt ever need to store very large values. Many of the fields in a database store values (content) that donРІР‚в„ўt exceed a certain length. There are two very special cases that definitely want their own layouts for printing: portals and large text fields.

#Filemaker pro 11 for mac mac

I use Verdana a lot for onscreen display, but for reports, I use Helvetica Neue on the Mac or Arial, which is a good font for cross-platform viewing. Such fonts usually do not look so good in print. Verdana and Georgia, for example, are two fonts designed specifically to be viewed on screen.

Third, certain fonts are better for viewing on screen than they are for printing, and vice versa.

#Filemaker pro 11 for mac full

For example, on the data-entry form, you might want to display separate fields for first, middle, and last names, but on a printed report, you may want to concatenate those fields into a single full name.Р”Р„ data-entry layout with a number of user-interface elements such as buttons, tabs, and portals, can be printed, but the result is going to be ugly.

You may want to place fields on a data-entry form quite differently from the way you want them to print on reports. Your print layout should get rid of buttons, organizational boxes, field shading, on-screen instructions or hints, and perhaps even field labels. Second, data-input layouts usually have a variety of user-interface elements that you donРІР‚в„ўt want to reproduce on your printed output. So, to make it all work efficiently, make your data-input layouts wide, but build your print layouts tall. You could simply design your data-input layouts to fit those dimensions, but that wastes a lot of horizontal space on screen. There are many reasons for this, and understanding them will help you design better print layouts.Р”Р‡or starters, computer screens are almost always wider than they are tall, but most users want printed reports in portrait orientation, that is, a regulation 8.5-by-11-inch document in the traditional upright position. If your FileMaker database is going to be used to print reports of any kind, you should create special layouts designed exclusively for printing. (Using Bento instead? WeРІР‚в„ўll cover Bento in a separate article.) Here are a few tips that will help you design attractive and useful printed reports in FileMaker Pro.

#Filemaker pro 11 for mac how to

But itРІР‚в„ўs more challenging to figure out how to create useable printed reports. ItРІР‚в„ўs always been easy to create a straightforward database in FileMaker Pro, and with the enhancements in FileMaker Pro 11, even a newbie can start entering data immediately.