Summarizing records in an AppleWorks Database

Question

Level 2

235 points

Summarizing records in an AppleWorks Database

Hello,

I use AppleWorks DB for more than 6 years.

In the Layout Mode, when I want to insert a part (to create a Sub-Summary, or a Summary) AW ask me to choose a field for this sub-summary (or the grand summary).
I choose the field (lets suppose is the Name field) and after I choose some fields to appear in the part that I inserted.

In the Browse Mode, I know that to be able to view the records summarized I need to sort the records by that particular field according to which I summarize the records (the Name field).

This is to let you know that I understand the basics.

Now comes the problem and the question:

sometimes it does not work and sometimes it works; I have spent hours of work trying to get the records summarized, sometimes with no success.

Is there some hidden trick that I should know, in order to get things done at the time I ask them?

Thanks in advance,

Lucas (the guy from Rio grande do Sul)

Posted on Nov 9, 2005 12:48 PM

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Answer 1

Brie Fly

Level 5

7,925 points

Nov 9, 2005 1:15 PM in response to Jorge Lucas

Is there some hidden trick that I should know, in order to get things done at the time I ask them?

Is "Window >Page View" active in all cases? No Page View = no summary (although the printed report will include the summary in any case).

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Answer 2

Jorge Lucas Author

Level 2

235 points

Nov 9, 2005 4:58 PM in response to Brie Fly

John,

Right on the point!

I have "ClarisWorks 4.0 _ Guia do Usuário" (yes, it means User's Guide and it also means that we can learn another language in this forum).

Now it is night time and my eyes are 51- year old; I do not know if for these two reasons or because the trick was really hidden, but I did not found this on the manual. And I want to give you this return tonight.

How could I guess?

Thank you.

Lucas (the guy from Rio Grande do Sul)

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Answer 3

KOENIG Yvan

Level 8

41,845 points

Nov 9, 2005 7:15 PM in response to Jorge Lucas

Hello Jorge

From this link:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=50038

you will be able to download the AW 5 user's manual in SPANISH (or in ENGLISH, or in FRENCH).

It is not exactly the AW6 one but this late one is not available to download (except if you read JAPANESE).

In the AW5 issue you will discover some interesting features.

In the AW6 Help available from the Help menu, you may read:

Summarizing database data
You can create two types of summaries. A grand summary summarizes data in all the visible records of the database. A subsummary summarizes data in a subset of records.
You must follow these steps, which are described below:
1 Define summary fields.
2 Insert a summary part onto a layout and insert the summary fields.
3 For subsummaries, sort the records by the field that you are grouping the records by.
4 In Browse mode, switch to Page View to see the summarized data.

As I was born on 1943/12/31, you may guess how old my eyes are 😉

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE jeudi 10 novembre 2005 2:15:16)

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Answer 4

Brie Fly

Level 5

7,925 points

Nov 9, 2005 10:21 PM in response to Jorge Lucas

Good, good, good. Now rest peacefully (but only until the sun rises again).

I'm not sure, but I think I had once discovered this nuance somewhere in my copy of the ClarisWorks Office Bible.

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Answer 5

Jorge Lucas Author

Level 2

235 points

Nov 10, 2005 7:26 AM in response to Jorge Lucas

Hello again,

Well, ..., the sun rised again (a beautiful sunny day, as I guess you do not have now in the north hemisphere). I took my printed copy of the Claris works 4.0- Users Guide, looking for that instruction. Now, with all this natural light, my 51-year old eyes, with no glasses, can see much better in the printed sheets.

It was there, but I did not notice it because some language confusion: I use the Mac OS X and AppleWorks in English (it is easier to understand the shortcuts) and my manual is written in Portuguese.

In the Portuguese manual, this instructions came in a straight note (not in steps) and, at the end, using the expression: ... sort the registers and pass to the visualization of the page.
It was not emphasize, and I never saw the relation between visualization of the page and the option in the Window Menu Page View.

The ClarisWorks 4.0 Portuguese manual I have is almost the same one Yvan gave the link
<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=50038> to download the AppleWorks 5.0; after downloaded it I just see that in Chapter 9 it does not have Publish and Subscribe (feature not supported anymore), but has the Chapter 11: AppleWorks and the Internet.

And so, after several years, of right and wrong procedures, Yvan showed me what was all the time in the AW 6 Help Menu, in steps. I did not go to the Help Menu, because I thought that I knew the part I was doing, because sometimes it worked that way.

Anyway, I thank John and Yvan and I want one more thing:

Act I: It does make sense for you that this option in the Window Menu be named Page View?

act II: Is this intuitive, for a native English speaking person, or to someone very good on English?

Act III: The intuitive option, in my opinion, would be: View Summaries, or Summary View.

Regards,

Lucas (the guy from Rio Grande do Sul)

Reply

Answer 6

KOENIG Yvan

Level 8

41,845 points

Nov 10, 2005 10:44 AM in response to Jorge Lucas

Hello Jorge.

I'm quite sure that now you understand why often think to add "look in the help" at the very bottom of my responses.

I am certainly not "very good on English".

Act I: It does make sense for you that this option in the Window Menu be named Page View?

The "Page View" item is not available mainly to show summaries, it is here to give the ability to display on screen the document as it would be printed. It's a kind of Preview feature which makes sense for someone which want to look at the complete doc without printing it.

act II: Is this intuitive, for a native English speaking person, or to someone very good on English?

I am unable to respond. I discovered this feature in the french version. In this one, it is named: "Prévisualiser" which is the french counterpart for "Preview".

Act III: The intuitive option, in my opinion, would be: View Summaries, or Summary View.

As explained in Act I response, display the summaries is not the sole object of this feature.

Yvan KOENIG

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Answer 7

Barry

Level 9

60,344 points

Nov 10, 2005 2:13 PM in response to Jorge Lucas

Hi Lucas,

John and Yvan have this welll in hand, but I thought I'd drop in a few comments on your closing questions.

] Act I: It does make sense for you that this option in the Window Menu be named Page View?

Page view is a view of the document as it will be printed, using your currently selected printer settings. Word processor documents are always shown in Page view. In Draw, Paint, Spreadsheet and DB documents Page view can be deselected to allow viewing the entire document as a continuous sheet.

] act II: Is this intuitive, for a native English speaking person, or to someone very good on English?

This probably depends on where you first come upon the term. In the spreadsheet, Page view shows where the page breaks will occur when the document is printed, In Draw and Paint, where document sizes are set by the user (in Format > Document), Page view is useful to show where the page breaks come in the illustration. In these cases, yes, Page view is an intuitive term.

] Act III: The intuitive option, in my opinion, would be: View Summaries, or Summary View.

For the specific purpose of seeing the summary information, yes, this would be a more obvious term. The question that then arises is "Is using 'View summaries' to show summary information independently of showing page breaks worth the additional complexity (in terms of both program code and user interface) of an additional menu item?" Claris's answer to that question wasn't the same as M$'s response to similar questions.

Regards,
barry

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Answer 8

Jorge Lucas Author

Level 2

235 points

Nov 11, 2005 1:10 PM in response to Jorge Lucas

Hello,

Well, after so many years doing the summaries the wrong and the right way, and not knowing what to expect each time, I got this done.

And I understand the choices ClarisWorks did about the menus (when you look only by your side, you can miss the hard work of the other side).

And since nobody made a comment of a detail in my previous post, I will do it again; there is only
b one more thing
:

<http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/specialeventoct05/>

to say to John, and also to Yvan and Barry:

b Thank you.

Lucas (the guy from Rio Grande do Sul)

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Answer 9

FVS

Level 1

122 points

Nov 14, 2005 12:46 PM in response to KOENIG Yvan

Hi Yvan,
Do you have a Template for a invoice database? I'd like to see if I could use
something like that instead of doing it from scratch. I would appreciate it.
Thank You. fvs

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Answer 10

Jorge Lucas Author

Level 2

235 points

Nov 15, 2005 2:58 AM in response to Brie Fly

Hello John Brie Fly Haumann,

This change was made by you, or it is a part of Apple's maintenance of this forum?

I suppose that was made by you and if you do not mind, what it does mean?

I looked at the dictionary and I could find two things:
1) a fly that like creams (?)
2) Briefly (here I remember a reply I saw, probably posted by Peggy, that was very precise: " No".

This is going to be your style?

Regards,

Lucas (the guy from Rio Grande do Sul)

Reply

Answer 11

Brie Fly

Level 5

7,925 points

Nov 15, 2005 5:35 PM in response to Jorge Lucas

Hello John Brie Fly Haumann,

2) Briefly (here I remember a reply I saw, probably
posted by Peggy, that was very precise: " No".

This is going to be your style?

Regards,

Lucas (the guy from Rio Grande do Sul)

Others can only hope. 😉

Reply

Answer 12

Peggy

Level 8

42,071 points

Nov 15, 2005 6:16 PM in response to Jorge Lucas

I doubt that I was the one to give such a brief answer. Perhaps twice in the thousands of posts I have made have I ever been so brief. Even if the first word/sentence is "no" I always try to explain why.

Peggy

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Answer 13

Barry

Level 9

60,344 points

Nov 16, 2005 12:10 AM in response to Peggy

I doubt that I was the one to give such a brief
answer. Perhaps twice in the thousands of posts I
have made have I ever been so brief. Even if the
first word/sentence is "no" I always try to explain
why.

Peggy

And it sure wasn't me!

😉

Barry

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Answer 14

KOENIG Yvan

Level 8

41,845 points

Nov 16, 2005 12:46 AM in response to Barry

Hello Peggy and Dale

Don't worry 😉

A response like a single "No" may be one of mine !

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE mercredi 16 novembre 2005 9:46:15)

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Answer 15

Jorge Lucas Author

Level 2

235 points

Nov 16, 2005 10:27 AM in response to KOENIG Yvan

Hello Yvan,

I always found difficult to find a person that admitted that:
1) is rich
2) was responsible for a car' accident.

Now, I got you admitting that was the one to give an straight " No" as an answer.
This is not a crime and it just means your objectiveness.

Peggy said that was not her answer and even Barry, that I did not accuse, came in to say that was not him; neither I know that he had a surname.

Strange thing was John' answer to my question: he did not answered it.

Regards,

Lucas (the guy from Rio Grande do Sul)

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