You create exact forms using a special Word template that allows you to get that QuickBase data into a Word document. You can find the template from within any application:

Figure 12-1. Right-click the QuickBase Exact Forms.dot link, and you can choose Save Target As to download the template and store it on your computer.

After you’ve downloaded the template, look for it wherever you told your computer to save it. For example, if you downloaded the template to your desktop, look on the desktop for QuickBase Exact Forms.dot. Double-click the template to open it. When you open the template, Word launches (if it’s not already open). Depending on Word’s security settings, you may see a message box asking whether it’s okay for Word to run the macros in the template. (See the box in What’s a Macro? for the scoop on macros).

The template itself, shown in Figure 12-2, contains some advice for getting started and links to sample forms you can use for a little inspiration in designing your own. Before you start designing an exact form, don’t forget to delete this introductory text.

Figure 12-2. The QuickBase Exact Forms template looks like any Word document. Rather than starting you off with a blank page, however, the template offers both text and links to some examples: a sample invoice and a sample letter that you can adapt or use as a starting point to create your own form. Also handy is the link to QuickBase’s Help pages. Ctrl-click the link to open a browser window with advice on customizing exact forms.

Even if you’re designing your exact form from scratch, it’s easy to get started. The main thing to understand is field codes, which tell QuickBase which fields to use in your document. Whenever you want to insert data from a QuickBase record, type the field name surrounded by tildes (~), like this:

~First Name~ ~Last Name~

When QuickBase sees those field codes in your exact form, it looks in the field you’ve named and replaces the code with the actual field contents. So, when QuickBase looks at the record for Guy W. Sinclair, for example, where you’ve typed ~First Name~ into the exact form, QuickBase inserts Guy, and where you’ve typed ~Last Name~, QuickBase inserts Sinclair. And so on through all the records.

Use field codes as placeholders for the data you want QuickBase to insert. Here’s an example of field codes in a letter. If you type this:

QuickBase inserts the contents of those fields, making the result look something like this;

If you want to add a date to your exact form, you use a formula instead of a field code. The formula’s code tells Word what date to display, and also specifies the date’s format. For example:

Of course, you don’t always want today’s date when you’re printing out a batch of letters or invoices; the letters might not go into the mail until tomorrow or the next day. To prevent your exact forms from looking like old news before they even leave the office, use these formulas:

There are two ways you can add an image to your exact form. The method you use depends on whether you want to insert an image that’s attached to a record or whether you want to add a particular image (like your corporate logo) to each document that you print out.

You can send out an invoice that simply shows the total amount your customer owes, but if you do, you’re likely to field some phone calls asking for the details—like a list of the products you’re invoicing. The smarter approach is to include those details right on the invoice. You can have your exact form find those details and embed them in your invoice using QuickBase’s Report Link field. In a nutshell, when you create a relationship that links two tables, you designate one table as the master table and the other as a details table. One record in the master table (Invoices, for example) links to many records in the details table (Orders, for example). The Report Link field is a field that appears in the master table as a hyperlink. When you click the link, QuickBase shows related records from the details table. Say you’re looking at the Invoices table and you want to get a quick peek at all the orders for a particular customer. The Orders field is a Report Link field that shows a hyperlink. You click the link, and QuickBase displays all orders for that customer. Report Link fields are a great way to let users zip from one table to related information in another. (Read all about Report Link fields in Report Link Fields.)

You can put Report Link fields to work in your exact forms. First, find the name of the Report Link field: For example, check out the list of field names that appear on the Fields tab when you select Customize→Tables, and look in the Type column for Report Link. Once you know the name of the Report Link field that links to the records you want, treat it like any other field code by inserting it in your exact form between tildes. So if you want your invoice to list individual orders and the name of the Report Link field is Orders, type ~Orders~ where you want the list to appear. When your exact form generates this month’s invoices, each invoice lists that customer’s individual orders related to that specific invoice. Figure 12-3 shows an example of Report Link fields at work.

Figure 12-3. Inserting a Report Links field into an exact form is a lot like clicking a link inside a QuickBase table—QuickBase finds and displays the records related to the link. Notice how the ~Tasks...~ and the ~Issues...~ (top) are replaced by the actual data from the QuickBase table (bottom).

When you insert a table into the documents generated by an exact form, you can use formulas to specify which columns appear in the embedded table and how to sort and group its records. In essence, these formulas tell QuickBase to perform some sort of calculation on your table. Chapter 11 gives you the lowdown on working with formulas, but here’s how to use them to format tables that you embed in your exact form–generated documents.

To format embedded tables, you need to add database and field identifiers to your formulas:

If you don’t tell QuickBase which columns you want to display in an embedded table, QuickBase uses the default order (Figure 2-16) for those columns. If, however, you want the embedded table to display only certain columns or to display columns in a particular order, you can tell QuickBase to do that by putting your own values into this formula:

~=qdb.GetURL("targetdbid",
         "API_GenResultsTable^query={'10'.EX.'"+ field["Source
         Field"]+"'}^clist=18.17.21.22.24^options=nvw.ned.phd.nfg.sortorder-A^slist=3");~

To get this formula to work, you have to make some substitutions with actual information from the application for which you’re creating the exact form:

Besides choosing only certain columns and putting them in a certain order, you can also tell QuickBase to display just certain records. This comes in handy when you’re printing out invoices, for example, and you want the embedded table to show only those orders whose status is unpaid. The formula looks a lot like the previous formula for displaying certain columns, with a new section added:

~=qdb.GetURL("targetdbid",
         "API_GenResultsTable^query={'10'.EX.'"+ field["Source
         Field"]+"'}AND{'15'.EX.'criterion'}^clist=18.17.21.22.24^options=
         nvw.ned.phd.nfg.sortorder-A^slist=3");~

In this formula, the same substitutions you made for selecting certain fields apply. In the new section—AND{’15’.EX.'criterion'}—make these substitutions, as well:

By selecting and printing only pertinent records in an embedded table, you can avoid confusing your customers (“Why does the invoice show this order I paid for last month?”) and maybe even spare a few trees.

There’s another neat trick you can do when embedding tables in exact form–produced documents. Normally, an embedded table doesn’t group the records it displays into subtotals. If you want the table to show subtotals, use this basic formula:

~=qdb.GetURL("targetdbid",
         "API_GenResultsTable^query={'10'.EX.'"+ field["Source
         Field"]+"'}^options=
         nvw.ned.phd.nfg.sortorder-A.groupby-V^slist=3");~
         

To make this formula your own, make the same substitutions you made earlier for targetdbid, the number 10, and the phrase Source Field. For the number 3, substitute the fid of the field in the details table that you want QuickBase to group for subtotaling.

They say all good things must come to an end, so there may well come a time when you no longer need an exact form you created. Just as you open, save, and print exact forms from your QuickBase application, you also delete them from there.

You can delete an exact form in a flash:

Figure 12-8. To delete an exact form from QuickBase, navigate to the application’s Pages tab, find the exact form in the list of pages (two examples are circled), click Delete, and then confirm. It’s that simple.