@TXShooter It’s not a problem. Take care of what is necessary first.
Ok… I’m almost to a point of uninstalling LibreOffice. I can’t seem to import my spreadsheet data… keeps wanting to paste it all into a single cell. And while I was attempting to cancel an operation to Convert my Excel Spreadsheet, (didn’t want to overwrite the existing file), I received an Access Denied to the .xlsx file, and that spun me into a “BASIC runtime error” “Type Detection Failed” error, and that put me into LibreOffice Basic, to which I could not close because “BASIC is running”.
@TXShooter WOW. Your comment came out of nowhere. The topic has been about printing labels from a database and the next thing you mention is problems importing a spreadsheet. Now I’ll be glad to try to help but I can’t see what you are doing. One step at a time. Sounds like you are trying to import data from an Excel Spreadsheet. But to where? What actual procedure are you following? What end result are you attempting to achieve?
The ultimate goal is to print labels, but I still need to update and keep the database of sermons, so why store and maintain it in a spreadsheet?
I was attempting to follow these instructions:
https://help.libreoffice.org/Common/Importing_and_Exporting_Data_in_Base
I have used that process numerous times for tests & ask answers. Just did it again in about 30 seconds. Two things trouble me. First, are you going to use a split or embedded DB for Base. This was the first item I discussed in my answer concerning Base. Personally I would only consider split for the number of records you have. Second, the instructions you pointed to say to copy data from CALC. Are you? You can open your Excel file in Calc and just save as Calc .ods file. Then proceed.
As I indicated before about the “Convert my Excel Spreadsheet” (into .ods) comment before, I was attempting to convert my Excel file into a Calc file a second time (after re-saving my .xlxs file) when the troubles above took place with BASIC. I am attempting to utilize the split DB your instructions had me create. There’s a gap of instruction in transferring / using my data in / with that split HSQLDB_2.3.2 database, in which I attempted to follow those instructions on the link I provided above.
(By re-saving, I mean to say that I had forgotten to update the file by Ctrl-S after I had added a few new entries. I noticed these missed entries in Calc. And since I still had Excel open with the new entries in it, I chose the path of saving that file, and attempted to re-convert it into an .ODS file when that BASIC issue arose.)
The issue of getting that data into the DB is still not working as expected… but I’m not even sure that I’m following the correct set of instructions either.
I don’t see any gap. You create the split DB. Have the Base file (split DB) open at at the Tables section which is blank - no tables yet created. Now the spreadsheet. The first row of the sheet should have column descriptions. These will be used for Field names. The rest of the rows are your data. Select ALL rows starting with the descriptions. When all selected, right mouse click & select Copy. Then on the blank table area, right click & select Paste.
At this point a dialog appears. Give it table name & make sure “Definition and append data” is selected. The rest is just in case you want to change field names or data types. When you Finish, the table should be accessible. In a split DB you cannot modify fields in the normal UI. You can add or delete fields but modify must be done through SQL.
OK, the key point that was not illustrated anywhere (the gap) was that one must paste the spreadsheet’s clipboard data into the area of the “Tables”, which was misleading because right above that are three ways to create a table. I misunderstood it to mean that I had to create a table in some manner first, then paste the entries.
Now that I have progressed through those steps, one question comes up… I would like to set the ‘Record’ field to be the ‘Key’ field. Not sure how to do that, yet.
Open the new table in edit mode. Right click table name & select Edit. Not sure if you created a Key during copy process. If so, delete it - right click leftmost grey box on unwanted line & select Delete. To set key field, right click leftmost grey box on line with key field wanted & select Primary Key. Save the table design.
Just for future reference, the instructions were actually referring to the menu selection Edit->Paste. This would have produced the same results as right clicking in the blank table area. There was nothing about mouse clicking, just “choose”.
Alright… I pretty much got the start of this going.
I do have one question on the DB side of this thing… is the Calc spreadsheet linked to the Base DB in the split setup? If I make a change to one, will it reflect in the other, or are they separate?
Are the editing features of Base the same as in Calc? (I have come to realize just how unclean this spreadsheet is due to the person who maintained it before me, so I need to go through and clean it up… spellings, syntax, grammar, etc.)
Once I get this thing set up, I will need to focus on the CD Label design… not sure where to go from here for that… Draw? Write? Form Designer? a combination? With the Avery software, it was relatively simple to just insert and position fields, but the printable area was already established in the Template Design… not sure how to do any of that with this database, or where.
The MAIN-MAIN goal of all of this is to get things set up to put this info on our website for distribution reasons.
The DB is separate from Calc. The data was duplicated in Base from Calc. No connection. There is no checking in Base with the exception of what individual controls and or table Fields are set to edit. LO docs are here.
As for the actual label processing, that is all explained in my original answer including having a template to work with.
I’ve got my template open (.ott), and have a query in it, and pulled a field onto the ‘label’. I’m at a loss on how to manipulate things from there… all that I can do is to hit enter to make it go up or down… I can’t seem to figure out how to position the field where I want it. (This is not as intuitive as I would have hoped.)
Working with the LO-W Guides (10,11,14), I’m not really finding how you positioned the fields on your example. Again, seems like there’s an information gap. Help?
I added a screenshot of the field positioning issue.
This is just a word processor. Use to go to a newline, spaces to position the cursor to where you want the field. Then drag & drop the field wanted to the cursor location. Wherever the cursor is, you can put your field there.
A second look at your Query results shows more than 41 records were selected. It appears you may not have set this up properly in Base. The number of records in the query should only be what was input on the record selection form. The sample clearly shows the form, table and query for this. You can check the query result in Base by entering the selections, then running the query to see the selected records match what was selected.
Placed edit in DB instructions in answer to hopefully clarify the structure of the Base file.