Filemaker Pro Lesson

Report Writing:

Creating a Report with a Subsummary Part

This exercise requires the file Registrations3.fp7.

The leading grand summary you created is useful so that you can view the total number of participants and money raised through pledges. However, it only allows you to view the summarized data for the records in the current found set. If you want to view the participant and pledge totals for those participating in the walking/running event, you'd have to use Find mode to isolate those records. Instead, however, you could sort the records by event, and display the summary fields in a subsummary part that would appear above each group of records for a particular event. Subsummary parts only appear when the database is sorted based on a specific field, and when you view the database in Preview mode.

Creating a subsummary by event.

1. Choose View -> Layout Mode. Instead of using the Part tool to add the subsummary part, you will change the existing leading grand summary part to a subsummary part. Double click the leading grand summary part label.

2. Select the "Sub-Summary When Sorted By" radio button and click on the "Event" field in the list of fields. Click OK.

3. Select View -> Browse mode. Notice that you don't see any summary totals.

4. Choose Records -> Sort. Remove any existing fields from the sort order list by clicking "Clear All". Then double click the "Event" field then the "Current Pledges" field to add it to the "Sort Order" list and click Sort. Still you don't see any summary totals.

5. Choose View -> Preview Mode. The subsummary part now appears above each group of records for a particular event. You can now view the summary field data for each event on a single layout.

Since the event for the records within each subgroup is the same, you can move the "Event" field into the subsummary part.

6. Select View -> Layout Mode and drag the "Event" field into the subsummary part and respace the other fields left in the body part.

Since subsummary parts appear before or after a particular group of records, it is helpful to format the subsummary and its items so that they stand out among the records.

7. Move the "Total Pledges" field and label to the right. Then move the "Number of Participants" field and label to the right above the "Total Pledges" field. Delete the "Event" field label and move the "Event" field to the subsummary part's upper left corner. Select Format -> Size ->18 and check the Bold style checkbox.. Select the "Number of Participants" field and "Total Pledges" field and choose Format -> Size -> 12 and check the Bold style checkbox.

8. Now click on the subsummary part label. Select a color from the Fill Color palette. The color is applied to the subsummary part. Choose View -> Preview Mode to view the final layout.

Since the layout no longer includes a grand summary part, the summary fields no longer display their results for all records in the found set. You can add summary fields to the header or footer to display summary information for all records in the found set. The summary fields will then appear at the top or bottom of each database page. You can duplicate the "Number of Participants" and "Total Pledges" fields and add them to the header. You can quickly duplicate fields and labels by holding down the CTRL key as you drag the item you want to duplicate.

9. Choose View -> Layout Mode. Holding the mouse key down, draw a rectangle around the "Number of Participants" field and its label and the "Total Pledges" field and its label. Then hold down the CTRL key and drag the selected item to the header's upper right corner. To make the field contents easier to read choose Format -> Text Color, and select the white swatch.

10. Select View -> Preview Mode to view the resulting layout.

11. As mentioned in an earlier workshop, with Filemaker Pro 7, you can sort a report by a subsummary field total. Let's say we want the report we just created to be sorted by the event that garnered the most pledges. Select Records -> Sort Records. Click on Event in the right hand window then check the Reorder based on summary field checkbox and specify the Total Pledges field. Click Sort.

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Last updated: 12/28/2004