Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Unicode is the best choice, assuming your recipient can accept it, because it can handle
all
the characters you may have in your database (even foreign language characters like Chinese
and Korean).
Finally, the checkbox called “Apply current layout's data formatting to exported data” is a
little misleading. It has nothing to do with font, size, style, or color. Rather, when you turn
this option on, FileMaker formats numbers, dates, times, and timestamps according to the
formatting options for each field on the layout: number of decimal places, date formats, and
so forth. If you leave this option off, FileMaker exports the data exactly as it was originally
entered.
NOTE
The “Group by” list lets you summarize data as you export it. You'll learn how this feature works on
The following steps take you through a typical database export. You've hired a printing com-
pany to print, address, and mail personalized cards to all your customers at holiday time. To
do the job, the card company needs a list of names and addresses. Instead of typing all your
customer info by hand, you can produce the list by exporting it from your database in the ap-
propriate format. Often, plain text is fine, so that's what this example uses.
NOTE
Download this chapter's sample file from this topic's Missing CD page at
1.
Grab the sample file for this chapter and switch to the People Detail layout
.
Like many FileMaker features, the Export command is layout-based—that is, it de-
cides which table to export (and from which table occurrence to find related data) by
looking at the current layout. To export customer records, you need to be on a layout
associated with the Customers table.
2.
Choose Records
→
Show All Records
.
If this command is grayed out, then all records are already showing. Otherwise, take
this step to ensure that you export
every
customer.
3.
Choose File
→
Export Records. If the command isn't available, you're probably
in Find mode, so switch to Browse mode
.
