Chunks_ Posted July 7, 2014 Posted July 7, 2014 HI Guys, This question should be a piece of cake for you.... I'm looking to create a custom word template for a report. I have created excel templates that do all sorts of wizzy stuff with vbscript, pivot tables etc however I just cant remember/work out how to simply get the fields in to a custom report for word. For reference the reason I'm making a custom report is, if I have all the information in the report for a standard template it will not run due to exceeding width limit so I want to organise differently (plus I want to make it look nice ) So where I'm at (not far): I use the edit button to open up the user defined template. What I'm struggling with is the next part. How do I get the tags into the report? and how do I find out what the Tags will be. I'm using office 2013. Just a simple step by step so I know how to add/find the tags I require would be great. Thanks
vikpaw Posted July 7, 2014 Posted July 7, 2014 It sounds like you're using a Wordlist report. You can't do much with them. You could reduce the data you are bringing in like change address blocks to individual lines so it doesn't exceed the width, but otherwise it's just going to try and whack everything in a table. Or possibly a photo grid. If you want to control the layout with fields, you need to use an RTF Form report, but they are a whole headache in themselves. Starting with the page layout which is hard coded to Letter with random page margins. If you design your report based on this you can make a custom template and there is a tick box for macro support and with macros enabled, you'll get an extra menu that has all the available fields in to use. They can be fiddly, there is a useful Quick Reference Sheet on how to edit them in the SIMS Documentation.
Chunks_ Posted July 8, 2014 Author Posted July 8, 2014 (edited) Yeah I was, I wanted to include images of the students in the report. However I thought RTF (Rich Text Format) didn't handle images, hence the name, but I was wrong. In the end I managed to get the report kinda working however I have issues with the fields now. I was pulling through some assessment data. In the report I was filter by aspect name then having the result, then I was doing the same again with a different filter. When I try and use the tags in the template, I appear to have 2 labelled the same ...Aspect name or whatever but when the report is run it only ever pulls the data from the first filter and not the second for both the tags.... any ideas? Edited July 8, 2014 by Chunks_
vikpaw Posted July 8, 2014 Posted July 8, 2014 For this sort of thing, it might be easier to run sub-reports, and call them from the main one, however it gets complex and takes longer to run. You can change the tag labels in the report designer, on the right half of the screen, top middle, there is a box that gets auto populated, but you can overtype it. Try that and see if it works. I'm guessing it just pulls back the first match it can, which will always be the first filter. Pics are defo possible.
Chunks_ Posted July 8, 2014 Author Posted July 8, 2014 Yeah I managed to change the tags and it works ok now.... Is there a command for like or something. Would like to have maybe 9 of these small boxes to a page... Ive managed to kinda do it with columns but would like to make it more tidy with a next record or record next tag if there is one?
creese Posted July 8, 2014 Posted July 8, 2014 All you need should be in the 'Insert Report Field' drop down.
creese Posted July 8, 2014 Posted July 8, 2014 BTW if using Photos you can adjust the size like so... .
vikpaw Posted July 8, 2014 Posted July 8, 2014 Yeah i think it works strangely though. I think if your data is in a table, you have to put as the last row, and edit out the borders or something weird. It's in the quick ref sheet.
Natashac15 Posted February 10, 2015 Posted February 10, 2015 Hi . Wondering if anyone can help me please, I am using a custom defined RTF report In SIMS, I have put in all my dad that was needed and the report is fine, BUt when I edit the template and add the school logo the report does not run? Can someone help please? Thank you
vikpaw Posted February 10, 2015 Posted February 10, 2015 (edited) Check the macro security in Word, it needs to be set to low, or allow all. I think prompt would work but is a pain. hang on, sorry, if it works before you edit it, then you might be breaking it. When you edit an RTF the page setup gets screwed up, so check that, it's still set to what you need. Or the image you're putting in could be too big, or you're overwriting one of the merge fields... Edited February 10, 2015 by vikpaw addition / clarity
Natashac15 Posted February 10, 2015 Posted February 10, 2015 Thank you I will try this. Are you any good with recording macro's/formulas in excel, so when I run a report from SIMS this is all automatically calculated? Does that make sens, Thank you
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