Custom Number Format

[Harold Porter]

Brendan,

I have a couple quick questions:

1) Is there a way to set a custom number type up to introduce leading zeros into a number field? In my forms, I like to set the first field to a record number format with the incremental numbering turned on. I would like to be able to see record 0001 in my list view for the first record, rather than just 1. Is this possible?

2) When I put multiple photographs in a photo field, it works no problem. But when I print a pdf of the form out, only the first photo shows up. Is it possible to make all of them show? I don’t want to have to make a half dozen photo fields, if it is possible to just use one.

BTW I recently upgraded and like the changes in TF 5, and I also have successfully used the Cloudant service. Thank you for all the effort and untold hours you put into this product.

Regards,

Harold

[Brendan]

Hi Harold,

1. There’s no number formatter that will preserve insignificant digits in the Number field. The Number field is mostly designed to participate in mathematical calculations (computing totals, averages, custom formulas, etc.) So in mathematics, leading 0’s are insignificant and are therefore discarded. It’s certainly possible to have the system display leading 0’s at some point though. It’s just not there now.

2. Right. I need to have Tap Forms print multiple photos. Oddly enough it actually does when printing the record details view on the iOS version. They’re completely different engines which generate the printout between the Mac and iOS versions though.

[Harold Porter]

Brendan,

Thank you for the reply. If I might trouble you with one more question.

The particular form that I am building is an inventory form. The default printout works great, with one exception. A record may end up occupying 2 or 3 letter sized sheets of paper depending on how many photographs have been entered. My final pdf report will have several hundred pages in it, and it would be great if I could use the record ID number as a header field for the printout so that it appears on the top of each and every sheet for that record. In other words, if the first three sheets were record 1, each sheet would carry that record number in the header. The next 3 sheets would have record 2 in the header. That way, the individual records could be identified, without having to resort to reviewing the page number sequence. Especially if the intent is to extract each record and then staple them together separate from one another. Printing the whole she-bang is much easier than printing each record separately.

I don’t know how many users actually create forms that are intended to be report printouts. But a little more flexibility with printed report formatting would be a very welcome future addition to me. I am finding myself using Filemaker less and less, and Tap Forms more and more. I really enjoy your program. Especially with the new Cloudant sync. The update from IOS entry to replication on the OSX app is lightening fast. I am really impressed. It has turned my iphone into a data entry powerhouse. Especially when attaching photo’s to records in the field. What you have created is exactly what I had hoped Filemaker Go was going to be, but never was on the iPhone.

Also I wanted to let you know that TF5 5.0.3 build 754 crashed on me about 6 times today. I have never had TF 3 or 5 crash on me until today. Each time it was on a form with multiple photograph fields open and populated on the screen while I was trying to adjust the width of the app screen (OSX). I have purposely resized the photo’s down to 640×480 with resultant file sizes around 80kb to keep the database size manageable in the final PDF form. Just thought I would pass that along.

Regards,

Harold

[Brendan]

Hi Harald,

If you could please email me the crash log that comes up that would be very helpful. I may have already fixed the crash in 5.0.4 which is available on my website. I’ll be sending a new build to Apple shortly too.

I do plan on improving the reporting engine in Tap Forms. I always knew that the current reporting engine was a stop-gap measure so that you could at least print something out until I build a real reporting engine. I’ve worked with some pretty good reporting engines in the past and I hope to be able to write one of my own to put into Tap Forms at some point. That’s the plan anyway.

Thanks,

Brendan

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