[FX.php List] [OFF] printable very wide table?

Gjermund Gusland Thorsen ggt667 at gmail.com
Tue Dec 14 16:04:27 MST 2010


media="print" for CSS has page breaks.

2010/12/13 Joel Shapiro <jsfmp at earthlink.net>:
> Hey Steve
>
> Thanks for the confirmation.
>
> And that's correct...  I'd originally proposed creating excel files from the
> PHP but the client said nope.
>
> Cheers,
> -Joel
>
>
> On Dec 13, 2010, at 10:51 AM, Steve Winter wrote:
>
>> Hey Joel,
>>
>> Not really, and I have in fact done pretty much exactly what you're
>> proposing for exactly the reasons that you mention, the variability of
>> printers and printer settings are a minefield, so a 'known quantity' like a
>> .pdf is a great way to get round it... assuming that actually putting the
>> data into a spreadsheet for the end user isn't an option...??
>>
>> Cheers
>> Steve
>>
>> On 13 Dec 2010, at 18:46, Joel Shapiro wrote:
>>
>>> Thanks Dale & GGT
>>>
>>> I'm aware of media="print" for CSS, and I use that on printable pages.
>>>
>>> The client's request is to be able to print spreadsheet-style tables with
>>> potentially dozens of columns, so this will definitely require multiple
>>> printed pages.  They've suggested using fixed-height divs to simulate fixed
>>> page breaks so that rows A thru X would print at the same places
>>> consistently on each page, with each page having a different set of
>>> columns... but it seems to me that with all the different possible printing
>>> environments for indiv users (e.g. browser print settings: scale to fit,
>>> print header/footer; & printer specs: fixed page margins...) it'd be pretty
>>> much impossible to get the rows and pages to line up correctly &
>>> consistently for all users.
>>>
>>> Which is why I'm thinking that a PDF, in which I *could* set page breaks,
>>> is a more reliable option.
>>>
>>> Can anyone think of anything better?
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> -Joel
>>>
>>>
>>> On Dec 11, 2010, at 12:05 PM, Dale Bengston wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi Joel,
>>>>
>>>> I'm not sure what your objective is - to get it all to fit on a single
>>>> page widthwise and "flow" down, or to print it on multiple pages across and
>>>> down. If it's the former, you can do this by changing the browser's print
>>>> settings to do a "shrink to fit." This works differently in all browsers, so
>>>> beware of differences. In fact, most printing settings are browser- or
>>>> OS-specific (print setup), so getting stuff to work consistently is a big,
>>>> frustrating drag.
>>>>
>>>> One thing that does work is specifying a different style sheet for
>>>> screen and print. This allows you to do cool things like suppressing your
>>>> navigation buttons for printing, and shifting all elements to black and
>>>> white. There are a few print-only CSS attributes as well, but they're not
>>>> widely supported. (In fact, Firefox 3.6.12 - Mac and Windows - just
>>>> magically started supporting page break CSS.) If you're just printing a big
>>>> ol' HTML table, it will break across pages pretty well without much
>>>> intervention.
>>>>
>>>> Here's an overview of media types supported in CSS:
>>>> http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/media.html
>>>>
>>>> Hope this helps,
>>>> Dale
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Dec 10, 2010, at 5:41 PM, Joel Shapiro wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi all
>>>>>
>>>>> I've got a request to have a printable web page that would be a
>>>>> potentially _very_ wide table (data coming from FM).
>>>>>
>>>>> I've suggested to the client that instead we create an excel
>>>>> spreadsheet from the data so users can print from Excel, but the client
>>>>> doesn't want that.
>>>>>
>>>>> In FMP, the client is thinking they could create a layout w/ all text
>>>>> rotated 90 degrees, so the "width" could be indefinite as it runs from one
>>>>> page to the next.  I've done a quick test of CSS transform:rotate and that's
>>>>> not gonna work well for the web page.
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm thinking of outputting to PDF, making sure the row height is
>>>>> consistent across all pages, so a user could line up the pages after they've
>>>>> printed...  but thought I'd check in here to see if anybody's got any
>>>>> thoughts or suggestions.
>>>>>
>>>>> TIA,
>>>>> -Joel
>>>>>
>>>>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>>>> Joel Shapiro
>>>>> FileMaker Pro
>>>>> database & web design
>>>>> http://www.jsfmp.com
>>>>> 415-269-5055
>>>>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>> Steve Winter
>> steve at bluecrocodile.co.nz
>> m: +44 77 7852 4776
>> 3 Calshot Court, Channel Way
>> Ocean Village, Southampton SO14 3GR
>>
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