Creating Reports

Reports are created from within the database and are meant to be printed and viewed in a paper format. Examples would include management reports discussed at board meetings detaining quarterly sales figures etc.

As such, there is no need to view items such as menu headings and buttons that appear in forms, which are used for data entry and navigating through the electronic database.

Reports should be well constructed with carefully chosen fonts, sizes, colours and should include all necessary information without including data that is not relevant to the purpose of the report.

To make the construction of Filemaker Pro reports easier,devise a report-building method and apply it for all reports you create. The McG method of report building is, step-by step:

1. Analyse the entity relationship diagram and problem specification to determine the fields used and the table in which the report will be created.
2. Create the new layout as a Columnar list/report in the chosen table and add all required fields.
3. Make sure all records are shown and perform a sort that best matches the records displayed on the report.
4. Does the sort highlight duplicate information that does not appear on the report?
   This would suggest a sub-summary part is required.
5. Create and add the summary (or calculation) fields as required.
6. Perform any required search and re-sort to view the finished report.

Stuck? Not sure how the above is useful? Any comments at all? This is the place to put them.

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