Save/Send Records as PDF or Excel from FileMaker Pro
One of FileMaker’s most time-saving features has been around since FileMaker 8 and deserves a mention every now and then just in case you’re new to FileMaker or haven’t fully explored all of FileMaker’s vast amount of features. With some of the incredible user-based features added to FileMaker in the versions since FileMaker 8, the ability to save records as a PDF or Excel spreadsheet from the File menu may have flown under the radar. These features can also be added to the customizable Status Toolbar for faster access.
Saving records as a PDF
From the File menu, click on the “Save/Send Records As” sub-menu and choose the “PDF…” option. You will be prompted to enter a file name and location where you want the PDF to be saved. There are also some other options that should be noted which are similar to those you can choose when printing. Keep in mind that the PDF will be formatted exactly as your FileMaker layout is formatted and will include all layout elements within the page margin boundaries. You can choose to save the following sets of records:
- Records being browsed – if the layout is set to List view, the PDF will contain a seamless list of records, but if it is set to Form view a new page within the PDF will be created for each record.
- Current record – only the currently displayed record will appear on the PDF. While this is not a desired behavior for a List view, for Form view layouts you may only want the current record to appear as a single page in the PDF.
- Blank record – this option is for creating a PDF that is formatted like the FileMaker layout, but doesn’t contain any data. This option is excellent for printing blank forms that need to be mailed or filled out manually. When using this option, additional options are displayed in the Appearance dropdown list to automatically include underlines and borders around fields on the PDF without changing the FileMaker layout.
Simply choosing a record set and saving the PDF doesn’t provide any more value than “printing” a layout to PDF using the Mac OSX print-to-PDF feature or using a PDF printer driver in Windows. But the extended options in FileMaker can add a great deal more to your PDF.
The Options button includes PDF specific settings such as meta-data (author, subject, keywords, etc.), security settings to add a password to the PDF, and default PDF view settings. Also, the check boxes on FileMaker’s “Save Records as PDF” dialog box allow you to automatically open the PDF after it’s saved or automatically attach the PDF to an email draft in your default email client. For developers, using FileMaker’s Save as PDF feature is available as a script step and can be integrated into your report scripts to quickly and easily automate report distribution through email.
Saving records as Excel
The other option in the “Save/Send Records As” sub-menu is “Excel…”. Similar to the PDF option, you will be prompted with a dialog box where you can enter the spreadsheet file name and location where you would like the spreadsheet to be saved. Also, you can choose whether to save the “Records being browsed” or the “Current record”. There is an Options button to add meta-data to your spreadsheet including worksheet name, title, subject, and author. The same check boxes are available to open the file after saving or automatically attaching the file to an email message in your default email client.
Unlike saving a PDF, the spreadsheet will not contain FileMaker formatting, so selecting the “Current record” would result in a single row spreadsheet and selecting “Records being browsed” would result in a multiple row spreadsheet regardless of the current FileMaker layout. Additionally, you can choose to save the spreadsheet in the new .xlsx format or the older .xls format.
To make the Save as Excel process even easier, all fields on the current layout will automatically be included as columns in the spreadsheet. Developers can take advantage of this feature in scripts by creating a hidden layout that is active when the spreadsheet is saved. Fields can be added or removed from the spreadsheet by simply adding or removing them from the layout.
If you have any questions about this tip or have ideas, suggestions about other topics to explore, please contact me at jason.mundok@itsolutions-inc.com or 866.PICK.ITS.
