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Lee Irons

Book Manager Limitations

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I am now trying the Book Manager. I quickly discovered (unless this is a bug) that I can't put more than one of the same report into a given book. How can I design a book if, for example, I can't selectively place individual narrative reports for different persons in the same book? Am I missing something? Is there a way to string "books" together to make a "binder-clipped" book?

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I am now trying the Book Manager. I quickly discovered (unless this is a bug) that I can't put more than one of the same report into a given book. How can I design a book if, for example, I can't selectively place individual narrative reports for different persons in the same book? Am I missing something? Is there a way to string "books" together to make a "binder-clipped" book?

 

I have book definitions that have multiple copies of the same report. Can you further define the problem you're having?

 

If you want to put individual narrative reports for different persons you have to define an individual report for each person.

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When I add a second instance of the same report, even if it is for a differentr person, it first tells me that the reporyt already exists and asks whether I am sure I want to add it. When I click "Yes" it adds it. However, when I try to open the report, it gives a message "The report definition is in use by another user." When I click on OK, it opens the report window, but it won't let me make changes to it or save it. WHen I try to open the other narative report (the first one I put in the book), it gives me the same problem.

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Lee,

 

What Paul is saying is you have to create a second report definition of the same type of report for the additional person. You create additional saved definitions by using the Add button at the top of the report definition screen.

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I openned up the individual narrative report separately, selected a different person, saved settings, and then openned the book manager and added a second individual narrative report to a book with an existing individual narrative of a different person. Now I don;t get the same problem I got before. However, both individual narrative reports are now for the person for whom I saved settings when I openned up the individual narrative report separately.

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Lee -

 

On the Report Definition Screen, set your focus person and use the Add button to give that report configuration a distinctive name, maybe including the focus person's name. Save your settings. Now change the focus person and again use the Add button to create yet another distinctive report configuration with the second person's name. You need separate report definitions for each focus person - for the narrative report in this case - each report configuration with a distinctive name. You can have as many report configurations as you want for any report.

 

Virginia

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I openned up the individual narrative report separately, selected a different person, saved settings, and then openned the book manager and added a second individual narrative report to a book with an existing individual narrative of a different person. Now I don;t get the same problem I got before. However, both individual narrative reports are now for the person for whom I saved settings when I openned up the individual narrative report separately.

That's because you saved the same report definition with different settings. The book manager does not save individual copies of the report definition, but is working with your saved report definitions. If you need to use more than one definition of the same report type, you need to save a new report definition, not change the original one. Use the Add button, and give the new definition a different name, then save it.

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Lee,

 

What Paul is saying is you have to create a second report definition of the same type of report for the additional person. You create additional saved definitions by using the Add button at the top of the report definition screen.

 

When I open a inidvidual narrative report definition screen inside the book manager, the "Add" button is grayed out. Anyway, I'm Not sure how this would accomplish adding an individual narrative for a different person at a different sequence in the book. Am I correct in asuming that the book is generated with reports in the sequence in which they appear on the scren in the book manager?

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Lee -

 

On the Report Definition Screen, set your focus person and use the Add button to give that report configuration a distinctive name, maybe including the focus person's name. Save your settings. Now change the focus person and again use the Add button to create yet another distinctive report configuration with the second person's name. You need separate report definitions for each focus person - for the narrative report in this case - each report configuration with a distinctive name. You can have as many report configurations as you want for any report.

 

Virginia

 

Okay, now I've figured out what you were trying to tell me. This is a really wierd way of doing things. I have to clutter up my report menu with a bunch of specific reports for different individuals and focus groups just to prepare to compile a book. It would make more sense to set persons and focus groups for reports in a given book in the Book Manager rather than in the report menu.

 

At any rate, anyone who blunders into this like I did will lock up their computer trying to do it the way that seems to make more sense from a user-friendly perspective. In general, I am finding the human interface engineering aspects of the software to be outdated and lacking. It is too bad, because TMG * has the best narrative sentence design capabilities I have found.

Edited by Lee Irons

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Lee,

 

What Paul is saying is you have to create a second report definition of the same type of report for the additional person. You create additional saved definitions by using the Add button at the top of the report definition screen.

 

When I open a inidvidual narrative report definition screen inside the book manager, the "Add" button is grayed out. Anyway, I'm Not sure how this would accomplish adding an individual narrative for a different person at a different sequence in the book. Am I correct in asuming that the book is generated with reports in the sequence in which they appear on the scren in the book manager?

 

You can't create a new report definition from within the book manager...you can only edit and existing one...You have to create each report and save outside of the book manager.

 

Yes reports appears in the sequence they appear on screen in the book manager.

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You can't create a new report definition from within the book manager...you can only edit and existing one...You have to create each report and save outside of the book manager.

 

Yes reports appears in the sequence they appear on screen in the book manager.

 

Got it. Thanks Paul. Should be able to do this from within the Book Manager. The software is making me plan my book outside of the Book Manager before I can assemble it in the Book Manager. Thus, it is not really a complete Book Manager. And then the Book Manager does not even let me preview the book as I assemble it. Outdated human interface. Let's hope the developers move TMG into the 21st century for V9.

Edited by Lee Irons

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I created a book with a few reports and then clicked on Create Book. All this did was create a separate file for each book. It did not create a single book file with the reports actually concatenated on the pages. I read the help file and it does not provide any ideas on how to create an actual book. Though I did find the following incorrect note: "NOTE: To create a book with endnotes, the output must be directed to screen or printer." You can't direct the output for reports in a book to the screen. The system excludes all such reports when Create Book is clicked, which actually makes sense, since it does not actually create a book. And how would endnotes work if there is no actual book file?

 

Next, I tried to sebd the book to the printer... nothing happened. I set the correct printer in Printer Setup, but the program seems to be trying to still output each report to a separate file.

 

Finally, I tried openning the word documents for each report that was generated by Create Book. I can se the files in my folder. But when I try to open them, I get a "This file ould not be found." error in Microsoft Word. When I set the reports to be generated in Adobe Acrobat, I can open the files just fine.

 

Buggy. All of these problems and deficiencies, unless corrected, would drive me back to FTM 2012, even with its less capable narrative sentence design capability.

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