FileMaker Pro 9: The Missing Manual

Print-related Layout Options

Your layout needs are often different when viewing data onscreen versus on a printed page. For instance, you may want text blocks, fields, or other objects to show onscreen, but to disappear completely when printed. Also, when printing, you’re often concerned about wasted paper, but few people worry about using too much scrolling window. FileMaker gives you a handful of layout options to control how things print.

Non-printing Objects

Sometimes you have something on a layout that you don’t want to print. Imagine, for example, a layout that’s designed to print over the top of preprinted invoice forms. When you view this layout in Browse mode, you want the appropriate boxes and labels to show so you can tell where to type and what to type there. But when you print, you want only the field data.

You can easily tell FileMaker exactly which layout objects you don’t want it to print. The objects still show up in Layout mode, Browse mode, and Find mode, but if you switch to Preview mode or print the layout, they simply disappear. First select the object (or objects). Then choose Format → Sliding/Printing to open the Set Sliding/Printing dialog box, which you learned about in the last chapter. What you didn’t learn about is the “Do not print selected objects” checkbox at the bottom of this window. Turn this checkbox on to turn printing off.

Columns

Occasionally your printed page needs to spread records across several columns. For example, when you print on address ...