I have a database that has a record for each family that will be placed in a Columbarium (above ground “grave” for one’s ashes after death). After I enter all the data for the family in a standard data entry form, I want to print out how the face plate will look with some of the data fields and some standard text. I’m struggling with how to create the face plate and launch a print of it from the data form. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks
Hello,
I can only give you some ideas to work with. What I present was done quickly (slower doesn’t make me any better at this type of designing).
Start with a form and fields you want. In edit mode, set the page size (menu → Format-Page Style). Add your decor and here is my sample in live mode with data:
Then I used File->Export As->Export as PDF…
The fields were set with properties having no borders, text centered and tried to match the background color of the Rectangle shape (70% transparency). The text Here Rests... is just text entered directly on the form. Guess you could use a label if wanted.
Hope this presents some ideas for you.
Edit:
Another question you will present is how to get this item selected. You can add a selection to the form. See the following links:
https://forum.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=100&t=42845
Edit #2:
Possibly easier selection is to base the form on a query. The query having a parameter to enter the selected account for display.
Edit #3:
Quick build in Report Builder:
Hesitate with this as graphics can be a problem.
And to sum up, here is the Q&D sample used for this post ------- FormTest.odb
Thank you for your quick response! I will try out your suggestion.
As far as my many years of experience goes, I say that this is the best solution, as well. Base used to have a report builder that would deal with this sort of use case but it was removed with the reason “not many users use this feature”… To add further streamlining you could come up with a macro that allows you to search for a specific entry in Base, then open a template in Writer and populate the fields.
You stated:
Base used to have a report builder that would deal with this sort of use case but it was removed with the reason “not many users use this feature”
Report Builder is still there and many things can be done with it. It does have some bugs when dealing with charts and some graphics, but it still can do quite a bit. Search my many answers on some of the produced reports.
I did not mention it here because of possibility of graphics, varying sizes for output, and varying text often to note some. Do not think Report Builder is the best choice for this but this would not be the first time I was wrong. Have added i to the answer & with it the sample Base file.
I stand corrected, sort of. I am on ArchLinux and I remember that some time ago I went to make use of the report builder and found it was no longer available in Base. It looks like this was an ArchLinux specific issue with their version of LibreOffice. From what I can remember and see at the moment, the report builder comes from Oracle which has caused some controversy. I sure wish we had a better solution in Base, for reports.
The Wiki link you provided is around nine years old. The missing Report Builder issue has occurred in many distros and not just ArchLinux. Don’t know of any ‘controversy’ per se as everything can be looked upon as having controversy. A ‘better’ report builder is not the main solution. Programmers are in much need. Regardless of the solution, you need someone to maintain it.