I've been attempting to implement Steve Cassidy's solution, starting  
with copying and pasting a preview version of each report into a  
container field. It took a bit of fiddling because I had to find each  
report individually, copy and paste it, show all records, go to the  
next record, find that individual record, and repeat. It's a kludgy  
process and it runs very slowly, about 20 records per minute. I have  
18,000 records!
The script I am using is below. Am I missing something or making it  
harder than it needs to be?
Thanks in advance...




On Oct 15, 2012, at 4:17 AM, Steve Cassidy wrote:

> On 15 Oct 2012, at 04:59, Jay Erlebacher wrote:
>
>> Thanks.
>>
>> But the essential problem I have is this: How do I get a formatted  
>> report exported from FMP6 together with the associated fields?
>>
>> Exporting into iPhoto does not allow me to associate the fields so  
>> I need another workaround.
>>
>> Your help is much appreciated!
>
> Hi Jay
>
> I see a lot of people here are missing the essential point... that  
> you have a FMP6 database which, using data stored in various fields,  
> is able to print a nicely formatted report. And you want to capture  
> that report into a new sql (or similar) software system.
>
> I reckon, given that you are working in FMP6, that any solution is  
> going to be a bit kludgy. You'll probably have to live with that.
>
> What springs to my mind is the old Enter Preview Mode, Copy and then  
> Paste trick (in a script). I used this for many years as a way to  
> preserve a report in the database as-printed. I don't remember all  
> the details, but that is essentially it:
>
> Prepare your report for printing as usual
> Enter Preview Mode
> Copy
> Go To Layout (with the container field used to store the report)
> Go To Field (the container field)
> Paste
>
> You can do that in a loop, going through all your records one by  
> one. By this method you can get an image of every report reasonably  
> quickly (well, overnight perhaps, depending on how many reports  
> there are!!). I cannot recall, and perhaps never knew, what format  
> those images are stored in. But I believe it is something useful/ 
> manipulatable.
>
> Next step is to export those reports with the other field data. I'm  
> not sure about that one – again it's a while ago – but I believe it  
> can be done somehow. You may have to resort to a plugin (such as  
> Troi File) that would enable you to name the exported images with  
> some kind of unique ID. It may even be necessary to use a plugin to  
> get the images out; you did mention that FMP6 does not export  
> container fields, but I can't recall that.
>
> However, rather than messing around with plugins, it may be simpler  
> to purchase a copy of FMP12. Get the report images as above, import  
> the images and other required data (the key fields you mention) into  
> a new FMP6 database (which will presumably be simpler than the whole  
> system) and convert that to FMP12. From FMP12 you can easily export  
> the report images with a suitable file name. By this method, you end  
> up with a nice copy of FMP12 to play with. (You'll need it anyway,  
> because the lovely commercial program you are being forced to use is  
> sure to be short of a few screws...)
>
> I'm hoping that these ideas might trigger some memories in others  
> out there who remain more familiar with these old techniques. If  
> not, get back to the list and I'll have a look through the archives  
> to see if I can pull out some useful nuggets.
>
> Best of luck!
>
> Steve