Bromcom (Again) - fields on pages

[garethEds]

Afternoon everyone,

 

In SIMS we could tag a Word file to show the beginning and ending of a page. These tags were <<Report Section> and <</Report Section>>

 

Does Bromcom have something similar? I'm having a bit of a nightmare with my merge document putting tables all over the place.

 

Thanks

 

Gareth

[garethEds]

To add to this - managed to get fields to hide for subjects not taken but it still leaves the blank page. 
 

a bug?

[bobsmith]

Have you not been assigned a CSM? Ours ironed out all these little issues really early on in the migration process.

I've just gone back to SIMS (changed schools - not MIS) - but we're looking to jump my new school over to a modern MIS in the spring. So a little rusty on my bromcom workarounds.

Certainly this isn't a fundamental problem you're having - my bromcom reports worked just as well as my SIMS reports did - but much easier to update them!

[garethEds]

On 27/11/2025 at 13:26, bobsmith said:

Have you not been assigned a CSM? Ours ironed out all these little issues really early on in the migration process.

I've just gone back to SIMS (changed schools - not MIS) - but we're looking to jump my new school over to a modern MIS in the spring. So a little rusty on my bromcom workarounds.

Certainly this isn't a fundamental problem you're having - my bromcom reports worked just as well as my SIMS reports did - but much easier to update them!

 

Hi Bob - a CSM? Would that be Customer Service Manager? We have not been given access to Bromcom (from what I know) and all support queries have to go through the LEA. I have reached out to @Bromcom_John and he has come back to me with the docs (that I have followed) - but it is not working. The report works as designed I think - in that it deletes tables that are not needed, but it is then leaving a blank page. I think this is because it sees the Word page break as that page is being used so keeps the blank page in there. In SIMS we could use <<Report Section> and <</Report Section>> and it would delete any blank pages even if there were page breaks.

 

I just don't know who to ask about this and am at a loss. 

[garethEds]

On 27/11/2025 at 13:26, bobsmith said:

Certainly this isn't a fundamental problem you're having - my bromcom reports worked just as well as my SIMS reports did - but much easier to update them!

 

HI @bobsmith - Hi again - I'd be interested to see how you have done them - if you could spare me a few minutes on Monday. How have you forced a new page in a Web Merged document?

[bobsmith]

Happy monday.

Can't show you anything as I've not got any of my bromcom files since leaving my last school.

Personally I don't think I've forced a new page - none of my report designs required that.

Can you post up a sanitised example of what you're trying to achieve?

and yes - a CSM was a customer success manager - but interested to hear that you're having to go through the LEA -  was this an LEA procurement rather than something your school did?

[garethEds]

@bobsmith - Yes, we are LEA procured so everything goes through them. They are just so busy that I get a bit frustrated. We managed to get a Teams call in today and by talking to them I managed to work out the best way of doing what we want.

 

Which is....

 

1 massive table with fixed size rows that pushes each part of the table across into a new page. This was the first step - but full rows with headers in were still being left behind. So idea number two - copy a field that was being used and place it in a row where here was a heading (and change the colour to white). Then when that field was empty, it hid the row. Magic - that worked. So I spent time putting fields into rows that they had no business being in.

 

All in all - a silly way of doing things but it works now. @Bromcom_John - I'd really like to speak to someone about this if possible (not put it in the ideas section). It's been flagged a few times in the Community.

 

GJE