In Base, is there an easy way to export a report to an easily editable Writer document?

asked 2020-10-17 11:26:17 +0100

ptoye
121 ●19 ●23 ●30

updated 2020-10-17 18:04:20 +0100

I have a database of names and addresses, and I want to convert it to a Writer document that I can reformat.

I can make a report with
Name
Addressline1
Addressline2
etc....

It's easy to create a Writer document, but each record finishes up in its own table. This has a problem: although the fields are in a single column in the report, the table has two columns and it doesn't seem to be possible to remove the second one.

in addition, I can't select the entire output and adjust the column widths as one - I have to select each record and do it one at a time. Rather time-consuming.

In the end, what I want to finish up with is a document with (probably) 3 columns. I don't mind if the records are vertically of horizontally arranged. But I can't see an easy way of doing this without writing a load of LO Basic.

Has anyone any ideas how to achieve what I want?

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When I posted this, the report fields in the 2nd paragraph were vertically arranged - something in the formatting here has changed that.

ptoye ( 2020-10-17 11:27:48 +0100 )edit

@ptoye: this is an artefact caused by the markup language used on this site.

To force paragraph break, type Entertwice otherwise lines are joined like in HTML pages (anyway this site is based on HTML).

To have preformatted text displayed as you typed it, suffix every line with 5 spaces.

You can have a try to it by editing your question.

ajlittoz ( 2020-10-17 12:15:06 +0100 )edit

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answered 2020-10-18 00:56:56 +0100

frofa

1861 ●6 ●13 ●21

updated 2020-10-18 23:19:11 +0100

Hello: Look at these TWO posts and my final comment to see if they help you:

Post a comment back if either gives you a workable solution to your problem.

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Thanks a lot @frofa the second one worked brilliantly. A shame that Report Builder is so buggy and undocumented.

ptoye ( 2020-10-18 13:45:53 +0100 )edit

Glad you got something to work for you. Note that the first method described above produces a column listing in a Writer document without lots of separate tables (as in method 2) so it very easy to edit the column widths, etc - so you might want to try it out at some stage.

frofa ( 2020-10-18 23:07:40 +0100 )edit

@frofa Thanks again. As I don't want to split the records between columns the table mechanism works fine. It was the bit about making sure the fields in the report are as wide as possible that made it work for me. Or course, if Report Builder didn't add extra unwanted columns in the table it would be even better. But Report Builder is so buggy anyway that reporting yet another bug is unlikely to produce results. Life's too short.

ptoye ( 2020-10-19 11:01:08 +0100 )edit

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answered 2020-10-17 14:28:10 +0100

mgl

390 ●7 ●21 ●23

Hello @ptoye

Have you seen this post ? Ratslinger proposed to re-build completely anew teh report. Try not changing the column order while editing the report. Design a new report with the fields listed in the proper order. If you do not succeed with the wizard, try a new report from scratch.

To show the community that the question has found its answer, please click on the ✓ aside the top of the correct answer and vote by clicking the ^ caret of all usefull answer.

Please do not use Add Answer but edit your original question to enhance the details of your question (answers are reserved for solutions to a problem on this Q&A site). Thanks in advance …

Kind regards, Michel

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Thanks @mgl.

@ajlittoz I've edited the original post to get the correct formatting.

It seems that LO v 6.4 might work, given Ratslinger's answer. I've always found him very helpful in the past.

I see that 7.0.2 is now available - any idea how usable it is?

ptoye ( 2020-10-17 16:52:15 +0100 )edit

Hello @ptoye

Don't rush to 7.0.2 which is under review, unless you would need a special feature developed in 7.0.

Don't forget to tick in the ✓ aside the top of the answer!

Kind regards, Michel

mgl ( 2020-10-17 16:58:51 +0100 )edit

@ptoye: apparently your edit was not saved

ajlittoz ( 2020-10-17 17:02:38 +0100 )edit

@ajlittoz I think (hope) it is now.

@mgl I've tried version 6.4.2 but there's no change. I still get the unwanted extra column in the table. I'll keep well away from 7.0. But I regret that this doesn't answer my question.

ptoye ( 2020-10-17 18:06:42 +0100 )edit

Beware of the width of the items in the page header. If their limits do not match the ones of the columns in the detail section, extra columns will be added up.

Did you try both ways to build your report, with or witout wizard ?

mgl ( 2020-10-17 18:20:20 +0100 )edit

If you eventually still get stuck, you may attach to your question description the data base with a few raws of non confidential data and the troublesome report. We might help you to sort it out.

mgl ( 2020-10-17 18:36:28 +0100 )edit

Thanks again @mgl - @frofa has provided a link to a solution which works fine. It seems there's an unfortunate collision between the output from Report Builder and the table handling in Writer.

ptoye ( 2020-10-18 13:48:43 +0100 )edit

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In Base, is there an easy way to export a report to an easily editable Writer document?

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