we have created a BOM via generate report that results in a rather long CSV table. Even after formatting this list is too long to fit one one page. I have searched for an option to split and continue the table on another page but no luck so far. Is there a way to do this without having to break the link and explode the table? (then I can obviously split it but not update) I imagine something like in Indesign, where you would drag the bottom up and continue the same text block in another place.
Indesign’s “Frames” work great for this…I wish LO would have similar.
For what you need all I can suggest as a workaround is to make use of the Tabs in your Excel workbook (I think you can span a table across multiple tabs/worksheets).
…then you’ll have to link the Excel a few times, but choose the Tabs sequentially on each page you add it to. But that’s still better than splitting the table & file reference.
You can also import a Cell Range into LO, of course. but I figured you already tried that? That would be easy but only work if your table isnt changing constantly.
You can also paste your table into different pages and move it up so you see different parts of it in each page. Really crude, but might work. If you want you can even mask it with white rectangles.
Masking it is a brilliant idea for a cheap workaround! Let me try that - at least the links should be kept. Agreed, there is much to improve in layout but the general concept of having a 2D layout program works. There is a lot of functionality we are used from other programs that we are missing in layout (auto index, plugins etc etc don’t get me started) and a couple of bugs that were never ironed out. Guess the focus was always SketchUp.
If you have created a report in [menu] File > Generate Report (and saved it to the model!) the headers wouldn’t change that much. If you insert a table that was generated by that report in one of your scrapbooks, with the different CSV Reference Options (eg, the Row-Columns) for the header, copy that and set them to following rows, you can drag them in your current LayOut document fairly easy. Even set up different styles for the headers.
(you could do this only for the current document, but you might get other documents that need long lists, too, so a scrapbook is ideal for that)
see this post:
Once inserted from the scrapbook, you need to relink it to the current report and all tables that refer to the original from the scrapbook are replaced. (Yeay, component-like-functionality, except they have different Cell ranges)
Thanks for all your suggestions - will have to try @MikeWayzovski the scrap book link tactic. The report will change from model update to model update so will have to test if the cell range import works.
For now (and lack of time) I went for the super crude masking option putting the full list on the bottom layer with white rectangles to mask it, then copied to the next page and masked the next part… I know, crude, but hey it worked. Thanks guys, you are life savers.
