When it comes to printing three-across labels, whether you’ve read the FileMaker User’s Guide or not, probably yielded the same results for you as it has many others — the right column of labels is clipped on the right edge. You’ve tried to make adjustments to the fields or merged fields on the layout and haven’t correctly resolved the issue to your satisfaction. The reason? Easy, you can plainly see that the placement of text on the labels tends to shift toward the right in each column. In other words, the first character on each label is in a different location as it goes to the second and third columns. As I tried to imply, you’re not alone in facing this situation.

It was when I saw a question about this on a Kentuckiana FileMaker UG list that I decided to post a blog about the concern and how to correct the layout so that labels will print correctly. This has been a problem with FileMaker for as long as I can remember. So, without any further rambling, here’s what to do.

This example assumes the creation of the standard mailing label sheet — Avery 5106 — with three columns of labels 10 labels deep. In other words, there are 30 labels to a page. The technique I'll describe can be applied to other labels that suffer from the same “miscalculation”.

When creating a new label, this is one of the first dialogue boxes you’ll see.

Notice that “Use label measurements…” is checked. On the dialogue box you’ll see a preview and the stated dimensions. As far as the margins are concerned, all looks well — top, left and right margins are correct as is the bottom margin (the bottom margin is greater so your printer can hold on to the last bit of paper before it falls into the tray).

These are the defaults.

After you click through the Next buttons and get back to layout mode this is what you’ll see.

Notice that the boundary of the third column (shown in gray) goes beyond the page edge guide. Now you think to yourself: “No wonder the right edge gets clipped and the columns aren’t aligned properly.”

What happened? The short answer is: “FileMaker’s automated procedure made a mistake.” Imaging that! It has made this same mistake for at least seven version – maybe eight.

Now for the fix.

Set your measurement system to show pixels instead of inches or centimeters. When you go back to Layout Setup and click on the Printing tab you’ll see that the numbers have changed from what was shown at first. Note that “px” is now listed instead of “in” and that the measurements aren’t correct. (Use the 72 pixels per inch measurement and you’ll notice that 14 should be 18 because 0.25 in. is 18 px.

The fix is really easy. Change the 14 in the Left and Right fields to say 18 as is shown in the next image.

After clicking OK a dialogue box will appear that asks something you’ve likely not seen before.

To this question just answer “Yes” in spite of the fact that “No” is the default response. (I know, I know, it’s backward to the typical way of thinking).

FileMaker will readjust things and all will come out well. Of course, you may need to adjust how the information is laid out on the label but don’t worry, it will work.

Here is what FileMaker will reveal in Layout Setup after the changes have been made.

Jeepers, it all looks correct. That’s because it is. The three labels fit within the page margins. Now you can print with the assurance that nothing will get clipped on the right edge and the margins won’t seem to shift toward the right of the label.

Another trick you can do is as the Users Guide suggests, move the right marker of the label manually. (I’ll bet you didn’t know you could do that, either.)

Now, go on to some other FileMaker issue. This problem is solved.

Byron

This first meeting will include greetings delivered by Bill Kaiser, FileMaker's regional Business Account Manager and a 2-hour demo of FileMaker's methodologies and new features by FileMaker Senior Systems Engineer, Bill Heizer.

The meat of the presentation will be followed up by yours truly leading a discussion on how to take this fabulous start and turn it into a valuable on-going resource for FileMaker users throughout the area.

If you haven't registered yet you can do so at:
http://www.udreg.com/kyfmp/

Or you can contact me at jonathan@thebbandj.net

See you there!

When working on a sub-summary report in FileMaker recently I had the occasion to use a feature I'd not used before.

The report is for a client that does after-school programs. The client wanted to get an idea of the average number of students in a class per week of the month. And they wanted those totals and averages by school, and then by type, and then by area. That means there can be as many as three sub-summary parts in this report. In each sub-summary part for each week there are three numbers: total classes, total students and what in essence is an average of the averages.

That's where the fun starts. If you merely take the average of the averages you get a skewed number. You see from this screen shot that the average number does not equal the total number of students divided by the total number of classes, which is the value we need. The varying number of classes makes the averages that represent more classes less significant than they should be in the "average of the averages."

Notice that the average for week 2 is shown as 8.8, but if we had taken the total number of students and divided by the total number of classes we should have gotten 9.4. Unfortunately, you cannot just put a regular calculated field into a sub-summary part. That doesn't work either. Clearly we need some way to take into account the varying number of classes that are included in each of the averages that we are averaging.

The solution? There is a button in the field options dialog when you are setting up a summary average field that allows you to "weight" the averages. In this case the correct approach is to weight the averages by the number of classes. That way the averages that represent more classes get more "weight." As you can see the answer comes out correct now:

Credit goes to my buddy Byron Songer for pointing this seldom-used (by me anyway) feature out to me.

I just submitted my wishlist to the FIleMaker Wishlist web site here http://filemakerwishlist.com

Wishlist Description: I know, I know. "FIleMaker won't make any money" you think. It could be a limited number of clients, say five. Let's start there and see what happens. Maybe FileMaker could let us "pay" to unlock a runtime for this on a per seat bases? Think of it as "in app purchase" like [ where ] the Apple App Store is headed. 

I am pumped! As you can see from the info below we will be having actual FileMaker employees come and share with us some of the very cool new things you can do with FileMaker. And the best part? FMI is picking up the tab for lunch! Mmm Mmm, free lunch! Gotta love that! Oh, yeah, and a free copy of FileMaker Advanced for one lucky attendee. That alone is worth driving half a day for!

Okay, I said the food was the best part, but that's not quite the truth. What I am most excited about is being able to facilitate a discussion of turning our little gathering into a regular monthly affair, just like a real FileMaker user group!

Come join the conversation and see what we can do to support our fellow FileMaker sojourners and give our favorite data management tool a lift in Kentucky and beyond.

Use the enclosed link to register if you can make it or even if you just want to be put on the notification list. The information below went out to Kentuckiana FileMaker users early Tuesday, and the response since then has been overwhelming: more than two dozen people, neophytes, casual users, journeymen and even a genuine FileMaker Ninja, have already registered! In less than a day and a half!

Hope y'all can come. If you have any questions you can contact Bill Heiser (info in the letter) or me at jonathan@thebbandj.net.

Did I mention that lunch was free?

Here's the scoop:

Kentucky FileMaker User Group Meeting

Greetings FileMaker enthusiast,

Please join us for a Kentucky-based FileMaker user group meeting. This will be a great opportunity to meet other Kentucky FileMaker users, obtain training from a Senior Consulting Systems Engineer from FileMaker and discuss the strategy to kick off this new local user group. Lunch will be provided and we will be raffling off a FREE copy of FileMaker Pro 10 Advanced.

Date & Time:
Thursday, November 19, 2009
10:00 AM - 1:00 PM
(Lunch will be served)

Location:
Universal Design
1234 S. 3rd Street
Louisville, KY 40203
Google Map: map

Registration:
http://www.udreg.com/kyfmp/ 

Agenda
1. Welcome and review of FileMaker resources/tools available to the community
- Bill Kaiser, Business Account Manager, Midwest US, FileMaker, Inc.

2. FileMaker Product training and review - Bill Heizer, Senior Systems Engineer, FileMaker, Inc.
Two hour session including building a simple solution from excel data and reviewing the new features in FileMaker 10.

3. User Group discussion and Q & A - Jonathan Fletcher, Louisville based FileMaker 10 Certified Developer

Questions? Contact:
Bill Kaiser
bill_kaiser@filemaker.com (630) 978-7460

____________________________________________________________

© 2009 FileMaker, Inc. All rights reserved. FileMaker and the file folder logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of FileMaker, Inc., in the U.S. and other countries.

There's a great new utility out, called ClickToFlash, that blocks all the "Flash" from a site until you click on them. I have been using it for about a week and find it quite handy. I don't have to look at a lot of ads anymore and I can decide how and when I want to view videos. I can even download the videos in many cases.

This morning I hit a site and found, well, this:

I found it quite humorous that someone thinks they can do EVERYTHING with flash. If I decided that I wanted to view it anyway, I can click on each window, or I can click one of the little gears in the upper left corners and choose "Open All on Page" from the popup.

Or not.

j.