Database Reference
In-Depth Information
3.
In the field list, select the Status field
.
In this case, you're summarizing your records by status information.
4.
Click OK
.
FileMaker asks if you want this part to summarize the records above it or below it.
When you add group totals to your layout, they can appear before or after the records
they summarize.
5.
Click Print Above
.
FileMaker adds a new Subsummary part to your layout, right between the header and
the body. (If you had opted for Print Below, then it would be between the body and
the footer instead, to make it clear it comes after the records it summarizes.)
6.
Add a text object to the new part with this for content:
Status: <<Status>>
(<<Count of People>>)
.
In other words, you want a text object that merges in the Status field and “Count of
People” field.
7.
Style the text object as you see fit; this part is up to you
.
If you switch to Browse mode, then you see…nothing different. The secret to Subsummary
parts is
sorting
. You
have to
sort by the field on which the Subsummary part is based. In this
case, you need to sort by Status, which, if you think about it, makes perfect sense. How can
FileMaker group all the same-status records together for you if they're all mixed up? You
might think FileMaker should just sort automatically in this case, but it turns out it's advant-
ageous that you can add more than one Subsummary part to a layout and have them spring
into action as you sort your records differently. You'll see how to do so next.
When you sort the records by the Status field, you see something like
Figure 15-2
.
If you scroll around, you see that each group is clearly labeled and counted.
Other Summary Field Types
The Summary Field dialog box's Options area offers several choices. Using these options,
you can perform a lot of powerful analysis on your data.
Figure 15-3
shows a Subsummary
report from a hypothetical sales database. This report uses several summary field options.
When defining a summary field, you need to first decide which radio button to turn on.
Here's what each choice does.
