Database Reference
In-Depth Information
simple lists.
Chapter 15
introduces FileMaker's powerful data summarization and reporting
capabilities.
Visualize the Result in Preview Mode
First, you need a rough idea of how your layout should look, since the physical constraints of
a piece of paper dictate the working space you have. When you create a layout, you're free to
make it large or small, tall or short, narrow or wide—whatever meets the needs of your data,
and your computer's monitor. But you have to live with some common restraints if you want
to print your layout.
In the spirit of visualization, how about a picture? From the Preview illustration in
Fig-
ure 7-31
, you can get a pretty good idea of how the People List layout is going to come to-
gether. It has a header, a body, and a footer. The header includes a title, the date, and some
column labels, and the footer has just a page number (these parts print on the top and bottom
of each page). The body is the most important part: It has all the fields that show your in-
formation.
NOTE
To see your layout in Preview mode, click the Preview button in the Layout bar, or choose
View→Preview Mode.
Print Margins
Margin
configuration is the first problem you need to solve. Usually when you print from
FileMaker, the page margins are set to the minimum size your printer allows. This arrange-
ment provides the most usable space possible, but at a cost: The margins—and the printable
area—change as you switch printers. For a report that may be printed on a variety of printers,
all of which could have different margins, you don't want to deal with that kind of inconsist-
ency.
Luckily, you can override this behavior and set explicit margins. First, you need to make sure
FileMaker is using units that make sense for page margins. Follow these steps to set the units
and the margins:
1.
In the People List layout, choose View
→
Rulers
.
The Rulers appear at the top and left side of the layout's content area.
