Hi there,


after failing with Open Office Base and MS Access as frontends for my
MySQL database, I'm looking for a free or cheap (windows-) tool that
is capable of printing CD/DVD labels, which should look somewhat like
this (read with monospaced font please):


------------------------------------------------------ <
<master record data> m
------------------------------------------------------ a
s
<1st detail record data> t
<more fields of 1st detail record> e
<even more fields of 1st detail record> r
r
e
<2nd detail record data> c
<more fields of 2nd detail record> d
<even more fields of 2nd detail record> a
t
<more detail data records...> a
>
------------------------------------------------------


(The vertical line is in fact text rotated by 90 degrees, and not
letters printed downwards as the drawing might suggest.)

Open Office Base can print detail data sets as tables only, not as
repeating sets of more than one line and is not able to print rotated
fields at all.

Access can do both, but can't print master record data besides space
occupied by detail data. BTW Access 2003 does not display or print
rotated Unicode-fonts, which is a bug and cost me a full afternoon to
figure out.

I tried Access forms as well, which are fine displaying rotated text
in the right position, but can't do repeating sets of detail data
lines.

The only solution I found so far is to create two reports, one for the
horizontal and one for the rotated text, and to insert the sheets
twice when printing, which is not quite satisfactory.


Any hints how the above layout can be achieved highly appreciated.


Have a nice one,
Peter

PS: I'm not so much into programming, so I'd prefer a GUI-only
solution.

On 8 Jun, 12:12, "pzinckg...@mmsw.de" <pzinckg...@mmsw.de> wrote:
> Hi there,
>
> after failing with Open Office Base and MS Access as frontends for my
> MySQL database, I'm looking for a free or cheap (windows-) tool that
> is capable of printing CD/DVD labels, which should look somewhat like
> this (read with monospaced font please):
>
> ------------------------------------------------------ <
> <master record data> m
> ------------------------------------------------------ a
> s
> <1st detail record data> t
> <more fields of 1st detail record> e
> <even more fields of 1st detail record> r
> r
> e
> <2nd detail record data> c
> <more fields of 2nd detail record> d
> <even more fields of 2nd detail record> a
> t
> <more detail data records...> a
> >
> ------------------------------------------------------
>
> (The vertical line is in fact text rotated by 90 degrees, and not
> letters printed downwards as the drawing might suggest.)
>
> Open Office Base can print detail data sets as tables only, not as
> repeating sets of more than one line and is not able to print rotated
> fields at all.
>
> Access can do both, but can't print master record data besides space
> occupied by detail data. BTW Access 2003 does not display or print
> rotated Unicode-fonts, which is a bug and cost me a full afternoon to
> figure out.
>
> I tried Access forms as well, which are fine displaying rotated text
> in the right position, but can't do repeating sets of detail data
> lines.
>
> The only solution I found so far is to create two reports, one for the
> horizontal and one for the rotated text, and to insert the sheets
> twice when printing, which is not quite satisfactory.
>
> Any hints how the above layout can be achieved highly appreciated.
>
> Have a nice one,
> Peter
>
> PS: I'm not so much into programming, so I'd prefer a GUI-only
> solution.

I use MS Word and the Mail Merge function for this sort of thing.

It occurs to me that you must have a restriction on the amount of
detail lines that you can print, otherwise you can end up off the end
of the label.

Hi there,


On 8 Jun., 13:18, Captain Paralytic <paul_laut...@yahoo.com> wrote:

> I use MS Word and the Mail Merge function for this sort of thing.

is that including (vertical) main record fields side by side with
detail record fields? I'll give Word a try then, didn't think Word
would be more versatile than Access when it comes to DB reporting
though.


> It occurs to me that you must have a restriction on the amount of
> detail lines that you can print, otherwise you can end up off the end
> of the label.

I'd use three reports with different detail level, depending on the
number of detail records per main record.

Have a nice one,
Peter

pzinckgraf@mmsw.de wrote:
> Hi there,
>
>
> On 8 Jun., 13:18, Captain Paralytic <paul_laut...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> I use MS Word and the Mail Merge function for this sort of thing.
>
> is that including (vertical) main record fields side by side with
> detail record fields? I'll give Word a try then, didn't think Word
> would be more versatile than Access when it comes to DB reporting
> though.
But this isn't reporting. Word is more versatile for printing requirements.

On Jun 9, 3:44 pm, "Paul Lautman" <paul.laut...@btinternet.com> wrote:
> pzinckg...@mmsw.de wrote:
> > Hi there,
>
> > On 8 Jun., 13:18, Captain Paralytic <paul_laut...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> >> I use MS Word and the Mail Merge function for this sort of thing.
>
> > is that including (vertical) main record fields side by side with
> > detail record fields? I'll give Word a try then, didn't think Word
> > would be more versatile than Access when it comes to DB reporting
> > though.
>
> But this isn't reporting. Word is more versatile for printing requirements.


I use fpdf (www.pdf.org) for something similar. It's not a GUI
solution though so it may prove troublesome even though the example
scripts are very useful.

On Jun 9, 4:47 pm, strawberry <zac.ca...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Jun 9, 3:44 pm, "Paul Lautman" <paul.laut...@btinternet.com> wrote:
>
> > pzinckg...@mmsw.de wrote:
> > > Hi there,
>
> > > On 8 Jun., 13:18, Captain Paralytic <paul_laut...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > >> I use MS Word and the Mail Merge function for this sort of thing.
>
> > > is that including (vertical) main record fields side by side with
> > > detail record fields? I'll give Word a try then, didn't think Word
> > > would be more versatile than Access when it comes to DB reporting
> > > though.
>
> > But this isn't reporting. Word is more versatile for printing requirements.
>
> I use fpdf (www.pdf.org) for something similar. It's not a GUI
> solution though so it may prove troublesome even though the example
> scripts are very useful.

I meant www.fpdf.org - not the Parkinson's Disease Foundation!