Custom Reports
If you pick Lists from the main screen, and then pick Alphabetical report, Numeric report, Ref order report, or Ahnentafel report you will be taken to the custom reports routine.
The first tab will let you set the margins, page numbers, etc.
The second tab is where you pick the people for this report.
When printing an alphabetical report or a birthday/anniversary report, you can choose to include everyone in the database, or you can pick the ancestors and or descendants of a person. You can select multiple groups such as the ancestors of a person plus the descendant of another person. As you select each group, it will display the number of people selected. If you make a mistake, you can pick the Clear button to start the selection over.
When creating an alphabetical list, you may choose to print each person's birth name only, or you may include the birth name plus the married name plus the alternate name for each person. That will cause many people to appear more than once in the report (once under each name.)
On the third tab, you can pick which fields to print on the report.
On the left side of the third tab you may pick from the list of existing custom reports that you have previously saved. (To save a report format that you create, pick File, then Save report.)
On the right side of the third tab is a list of fields that you can add to your report. You may create or modify reports by double clicking on the field you want. That field will be added to your report. The fields will print in the order that they appear in the center area of the screen.
The center area shows the fields for this report along with the number of characters in each field and the printed width. You may click in the first column to change the field number, or you may click in the second column to change the number of characters to print for that field. For example, when you are printing a name, you can set the number of characters to 30 instead of 40 and it will shorten any long names by changing the middle name to an initial. You should then also change the width to 30 or it will print 10 spaces after the name. If you want more space after a certain column, you can increase the width for that field.
The total width of your report will show at the bottom, along with the width of your paper. The width is based on the average width of letters. To print more than what will fit on one line, pick a smaller font or reduce the number of characters and the width for certain fields or else print multiple lines for each person by including field number 31 at the point where you want to start a new line. You may also want to change the printer from Portrait to Landscape to print more on one line.
If you pick, as one of the fields to print, the spouse name, or marriage date, it will normally print the first marriage for the person. If you include field 98 also, then it will print the last marriage for the person. If you include field 99, it will print all marriages for each person. Note, to show a person and all the spouses, you need to include field 2 or 3 to show the name of the person and also field 19 for the spouse's name and also field 99 which means all spouses.
To print addresses on laser labels, pick field 97 as the only field. In the column for number of characters, put the four digit number for the labels. The following numbers will work with Brother's Keeper: 5260, 5261, 5262, 5263 or for European paper sizes pick 7036, 7037, 7042. Often the first two digits will vary depending on the quantity of labels in the package you purchased. So if your package says 5160, then it is the same size labels as 5260. Print a sample sheet of addresses on plain paper to be sure you have the top and left margins set correctly. (To test on plain paper without printing several sheets, pick Lists, Numeric Report and set the starting and ending BK numbers to something like 1 to 30 to only print one page.) Then when you are sure it will print correctly, print on the actual label paper. To pick which address lines will print (for example if you want to add the Phone number to the label) go to the main BK screen and pick File, Options, Other, and set which of the 10 mailing address lines to print for each person.
To print 3 by 5 cards (index cards) pick a field number of 93 as the first and only field. Then when you click Print, you will be given a screen to select if you want one card at a time or a group of 3 cards for laser printers.
The custom reports may be printed (pick File from the top menu and then Print) or previewed on the screen (pick File from the top menu then Preview) or sent to a text file (Pick File from the top menu then Create TXT File.)
You may also have the custom report sent to a disk file as a comma-delimited file. Then a database program can import that file. To make a comma-delimited file, include field number 91 along with the list of fields that you want. Normally a comma-delimited file ends with the extension .CSV which stands for comma separated value. Pick File, Create TXT file to save as a CSV file when field 91 is included.
If you want to save the report so that you will have it available in the future, pick File from the top menu, then Save Report Format.
Press the Save Options button on the first tab if you want to save the current options (such as font size and margins) for this report. Then the next time you print a custom report, it will use the options you saved previously. The options are saved separately for the different types of custom reports (alphabetical, numeric, etc.)