I'm using FMP 5.5 on a Windows XP machine.  I have a listing of
several hundred fire extinguishers spread around in over 200 buildings. 
Is there an easy way of having FMP make a layout look like a Excel
spreadsheet?
  I have kind of done that but I was hoping someone might have a more
elegant method.  I currently have a layout in the columnar list/report
setup that displays the records and needed fields.  By tweaking and
playing in the layout mode I have made a decent looking spreadsheet
like layout.  The fields have borders and by playing with the layout I
have been able to get 20 fire extinguishers per page.  This leaves me
some space on the header and footer for additional information. 
Horizontally it is not too bad, very Excel looking (and that impresses
the boss).  Vertically I'm a little bit short in the looks.  By going
into the pixel increments for the ruler spacing (at 1 pixel per grid) I
have been able to close the gap between records to about 1 pixel. 
Close to Excel looking but not quite and I'm willing to live with it.
   But I was wondering if there is any way to close that up and make it
really Excel like?  Is there a way to have FMP number the pages like 2
of 7 or 13 of 22?  Right now it just shows Page 1 or Page 7 at the
bottom.
   If it will help I can send a abbreviated copy (it won't have all the
fire extinguishers, just all the layouts) of the file to anyone
interested.

Why make it absolutely Excel like ? In FMP, you can issue much more 
pleasant reports. You should look around.
For the page 13 of 22, the trick is to make a little end of the script 
you make to prepare your report, go to the last record of your found 
set, go to preview, put the page number in a global 'GEnd' for example, 
reshuffle your records the way you want and make your regular end of 
page with 'page // out of GEnd'.
Remi-Noel

"Lee Steffeck" <final@xdcomcast.net> a �crit ...
>   I'm using FMP 5.5 on a Windows XP machine.  I have a listing of
> several hundred fire extinguishers spread around in over 200 
> buildings.
> Is there an easy way of having FMP make a layout look like a Excel
> spreadsheet?
>  I have kind of done that but I was hoping someone might have a more
> elegant method.  I currently have a layout in the columnar list/report
> setup that displays the records and needed fields.  By tweaking and
> playing in the layout mode I have made a decent looking spreadsheet
> like layout.  The fields have borders and by playing with the layout I
> have been able to get 20 fire extinguishers per page.  This leaves me
> some space on the header and footer for additional information.
> Horizontally it is not too bad, very Excel looking (and that impresses
> the boss).  Vertically I'm a little bit short in the looks.  By going
> into the pixel increments for the ruler spacing (at 1 pixel per grid) 
> I
> have been able to close the gap between records to about 1 pixel.
> Close to Excel looking but not quite and I'm willing to live with it.
>   But I was wondering if there is any way to close that up and make it
> really Excel like?  Is there a way to have FMP number the pages like 2
> of 7 or 13 of 22?  Right now it just shows Page 1 or Page 7 at the
> bottom.
>   If it will help I can send a abbreviated copy (it won't have all the
> fire extinguishers, just all the layouts) of the file to anyone
> interested. 

Next time to save yourself some trouble, go to the drop down menu View
and go to View as Table.

G

In article <050120060013190312%final@xdcomcast.net>, final@xdcomcast.net 
says...
>    I'm using FMP 5.5 on a Windows XP machine.  I have a listing of
> several hundred fire extinguishers spread around in over 200 buildings. 
> Is there an easy way of having FMP make a layout look like a Excel
> spreadsheet?

Its worth mentioning the "view as table" under the view menu. You lose 
all your fancy formatting and so forth, but it looks very like excel, 
and nothing could be easier. :)

>   I have kind of done that but I was hoping someone might have a more
> elegant method.  I currently have a layout in the columnar list/report
> setup that displays the records and needed fields.  By tweaking and
> playing in the layout mode I have made a decent looking spreadsheet
> like layout.  The fields have borders and by playing with the layout I
> have been able to get 20 fire extinguishers per page.  This leaves me
> some space on the header and footer for additional information. 
> Horizontally it is not too bad, very Excel looking (and that impresses
> the boss).  Vertically I'm a little bit short in the looks.  By going
> into the pixel increments for the ruler spacing (at 1 pixel per grid) I
> have been able to close the gap between records to about 1 pixel. 
> Close to Excel looking but not quite and I'm willing to live with it.

It looks like you are already on the right track. You should be able to 
make the layout look very excel-ish; I don't see why you couldn't remove 
the 1 pixel buffer between records for example (turn off snap to grid) 
just free-drag the body part as small as it will go.

But ultimately Filemaker isn't Excel ... it isn't even a Microsoft 
Product, and its heritage is actually Apple. Its never going to be a 
perfect excel. Indeed, making it look too much like excel is just going 
to annoy people when they try to highlight a block of data to copy it 
into an email, or do something else they might do with excel.

>    But I was wondering if there is any way to close that up and make it
> really Excel like? 

Export the data into Excel? ;p

> Is there a way to have FMP number the pages like 2
> of 7 or 13 of 22?  Right now it just shows Page 1 or Page 7 at the
> bottom.

There are some page number symbols you can add to the layout. But its 
only meaningful if your in print preview mode, iirc. 

>    If it will help I can send a abbreviated copy (it won't have all the
> fire extinguishers, just all the layouts) of the file to anyone
> interested.
> 

Hope that helps,
Dave

In article <1136477355.200895.134190@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
Grip <grip@cybermesa.com> wrote:

> Next time to save yourself some trouble, go to the drop down menu View
> and go to View as Table.

   I tried that at first but then I couldn't rotate objects or shift
things around to make it look better.  In the end I was able to use the
columnar list layout and come pretty close with much tweaking.

In article <MPG.1e268647cd3d8fd4989e1c@shawnews.vf.shawcable.net>, 42
<nospam@nospam.com> wrote:

> In article <050120060013190312%final@xdcomcast.net>, final@xdcomcast.net 
> says...
> >    I'm using FMP 5.5 on a Windows XP machine.  I have a listing of
> > several hundred fire extinguishers spread around in over 200 buildings. 
> > Is there an easy way of having FMP make a layout look like a Excel
> > spreadsheet?
> 
> Its worth mentioning the "view as table" under the view menu. You lose 
> all your fancy formatting and so forth, but it looks very like excel, 
> and nothing could be easier. :)

   But then no rotated objects, page x of y at the bottom, etc.  The
columnar layout with much tweaking did the trick.
> 
> >   I have kind of done that but I was hoping someone might have a more
> > elegant method.  I currently have a layout in the columnar list/report
> > setup that displays the records and needed fields.  By tweaking and
> > playing in the layout mode I have made a decent looking spreadsheet
> > like layout.  The fields have borders and by playing with the layout I
> > have been able to get 20 fire extinguishers per page.  This leaves me
> > some space on the header and footer for additional information. 
> > Horizontally it is not too bad, very Excel looking (and that impresses
> > the boss).  Vertically I'm a little bit short in the looks.  By going
> > into the pixel increments for the ruler spacing (at 1 pixel per grid) I
> > have been able to close the gap between records to about 1 pixel. 
> > Close to Excel looking but not quite and I'm willing to live with it.
> 
> It looks like you are already on the right track. You should be able to 
> make the layout look very excel-ish; I don't see why you couldn't remove 
> the 1 pixel buffer between records for example (turn off snap to grid) 
> just free-drag the body part as small as it will go.

   I did.  But because I had to make sure all the fields had borders
the top and bottom borders sort of "doubled up" in intensity and made
it all odd looking.  In the end the other shop members preferred the 1
pixel spaceing compared to the "double up" on the borders.
> 
> But ultimately Filemaker isn't Excel ... it isn't even a Microsoft 
> Product, and its heritage is actually Apple. Its never going to be a 
> perfect excel. Indeed, making it look too much like excel is just going 
> to annoy people when they try to highlight a block of data to copy it 
> into an email, or do something else they might do with excel.

   I agree, but the boss *LOVES* excel.  Knows it and understands it. 
I think that main reason for this dislike of FMP is simply not being
familiar enough with the program to feel comfortable.  But by putting
it all in FMP I don't have to update FMP and then Excel.  Everything
will be done at once.
> 
> >    But I was wondering if there is any way to close that up and make it
> > really Excel like? 
> 
> Export the data into Excel? ;p
> 
> > Is there a way to have FMP number the pages like 2
> > of 7 or 13 of 22?  Right now it just shows Page 1 or Page 7 at the
> > bottom.
> 
> There are some page number symbols you can add to the layout. But its 
> only meaningful if your in print preview mode, iirc. 
> 
> >    If it will help I can send a abbreviated copy (it won't have all the
> > fire extinguishers, just all the layouts) of the file to anyone
> > interested.