I'm trying to accomplish something that seems pretty easy, but I can't
figure it out. Any help is greatly appreciated.

I have event that I use Filemaker to manage all sorts of information
and generate name tags for attendees. The name tags have a logo and are
created for the registrant and their guest, but sometimes the
registrant will have more than one guest. I'd like to generate the name
tags for all of them from the same layout, but can't figure out quite
how to do that.

The data for all names is in the same table. I currently use 4 layouts
to generate the labels.

Layout 1 > Registrant Name
Layout 2 > Registrant's Guest
Layout 3 > Registrant Assistant
Layout 4 > Registrant Assistant's Guest

Name Tag Layout:
---------------------------------------
LOGO
Name
Location

Filmaker Layout (Preview - single page):
---------------------------------------
Registrant 1 Name Tag | Registrant 2 Name Tag
Registrant 3 Name Tag | Registrant 4 Name Tag
Registrant 5 Name Tag | Registrant 6 Name Tag

What I want to be able to do is dynamically determine whether the
Registrant has a Guest, an Assistant or an Assitant's Guest (or all 3)
and create the print file from that layout.

Like this:
--------
Registrant 1 Name Tag | Guest 1 Name Tag
Assistant 1 Name Tag | Asst's Guest 1 Name Tag
Registrant 2 Name Tag | Guest 2 Name Tag

Left to right or vertical - whatever will work.

Any ideas on how to approach this?

Thanks.

In article <4561e3d6$0$26900$9a6e19ea (AT) news (DOT) newshosting.com>, Nick Fury
<nickfury (AT) hargray (DOT) com> wrote:


If it ain't broke, don't fix it. )

You've got a system that works, so why try to make it more complicated?
I'd probably just create a script to print the four Layouts one after
the other. You know it works, although it might waste a few labels if
you're using label sheets in a laser / inkjet printer rather than a
specific Dymo-style label printer. Spare labels usually find some use
around and office - on folders, re-using envelopes, etc.


If you really want to change it, then it depends on how those names are
being stored.

If all of the names are in separate records then it's just a simple
matter of printing a Name Tag layout for all the records ... in which
case I can't see why you're currently using four Layouts anyway (unless
the name tags are designed differently, eg. a different background /
"watermark" graphic). This would be the best way to design such a
system since it also makes it very easy to know how many people are
attending - FileMaker will tell you the number of records in the side
toolbar / Status bar.

Since you are using four Layouts, I would guess that you've got the
Registrant's name and their Guest(s) names in one record,
ie. each record has fields like:

Registrants Name
Assistants Name
Guests Name
Assistant Guests Name

There's a couple of ways to print labels in this case, but the usual
way is to script the transfer of the names to separate records within a
new "Name Tag Printing" table / file that's specifically designed for
the job. Then you're back to the first case of just printing the same
layout for all records.



Helpful Harry
Hopefully helping harassed humans happily handle handiwork hardships ;o)