Printing Considerations

Screens or layouts in PORTAL have been designed for viewing your data in specific ways. Some layouts or screens are suitable for viewing data on the screen, while others are designed to be printed. While you have the ability to print any PORTAL screen, it does not always make sense to do so. Instead, if you wish to print, you should navigate to a view (or layout) that is designed for printing. These are generally found on the Lists/Forms, Labels, Letters, and Reports organization screens.

For example, the INQUIRIES Overview screen contains pertinent biographical information, but is not designed for printing. There is too much color on the screen and items are not arranged for the best display on a printout. Instead, if you want to see inquiry information in a printed list, navigate to one of the layouts that is formatted for printing.

Printing a Layout

PORTAL does not automatically print any layout for you. Instead select File > Print from the FileMaker Pro menu at the top of your screen. The Print dialog box will appear. Make your selections and click the Print button.

1. Navigate to the layout you wish to print.
2. From the FileMaker menu click File > Print.
3. Select the correct Printer.
4. Enter the correct number of Copies to print.
5. Click the Preview button to preview the print job.
6. Click the Print button to print.
7. Click the Cancel button to cancel.

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Print Setup

There are a number of settings in the Page Setup dialog box and the Print dialog box that can affect the success of printing a report, a letter or a set of labels. The Page Setup or Printer Settings can be scripted to change, depending on the layout, or settings can be added to a script and this can help with printing. However, if this is not done correctly it may create a situation that is hard to troubleshoot if problems are encountered.

1. Navigate to the layout you wish to print.
2. From the FileMaker menu click File > Page Setup.
3. Select the correct Paper Size.
4. Select the Paper Orientation.
5. Select the Scale.
6. Click the OK button.

Using the Print dialog box it is also possible to help document the system by printing the field definitions, or the scripts or copies of the screens. It is important that if the person hosting the files prints any of these they remember to then print at least one job using Print Current Found Set. The last setting of the system Host is the default setting for each guest that logs into the system, and users will be surprised if they suddenly see field definitions printed when they are trying to print a report. Each user can change this before printing, but users often do not notice the settings.

1. Navigate to the layout you wish to print.
2. From the FileMaker menu click File > Print.
3. Click the drop down box under Copies and Pages and select FileMaker Pro.
4. Select what you want to print—in general, it is best to leave the Print set to Current Record. Select Field Definitions to print a list of the fields in the solution. Select Script and choose the script from the drop down box to print the script.
5. Click the Preview button to preview the print job.
6. Click the Print button to print.
7. Click the Cancel button to cancel.

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