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    Invelos Forums->DVD Profiler: Layouts and Reports Page: 1  Previous   Next
Newcomer evaluating DVD Profiler -- confused
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DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantMBlue72
Registered: February 1, 2009
United States Posts: 3
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Hello All:

I am evaluating DVD Profiler against the "usual suspects" and like it quite a bit. I am struggling a little with the GUI but am generally impressed with the power of the application, the smoothness of the movie lookups and the activity of this forum. So, I am seriously considering purchasing it.

However, unless I am missing something, I am finding the report/output capabilities pretty weak. I really hope I have overlooked something! I am only trying to print simple "list" style reports with various data fields included. I have carefully read the help file and experimented with editing reports. It seems to me that the reports are limited to approximately 18 DVD fields, 11 Film fields and 10 Personal fields. Can this be right? I definitely do not want to be disrespectful, but find this very limiting. For example, I would like to include the "Disc Location" and "Last Watched" fields in even the simplest reports.

I appreciate any help any of you can provide. If these limitations are real, how do you all get around them??

Thanks,

Dave
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar Contributornorthbloke
Registered: March 15, 2007
Reputation: High Rating
United Kingdom Posts: 5,459
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Disc Location is available via the Disc Information content. If you add it to your report and look at the values to the left you'll see Show Location: True/False and Show Slot: True/False

However you are right, as far as I can tell "Last Watched" is not available in a report.
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar Contributorhydr0x
Registered: April 4, 2007
Germany Posts: 882
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Quoting northbloke:
Quote:
Disc Location is available via the Disc Information content. If you add it to your report and look at the values to the left you'll see Show Location: True/False and Show Slot: True/False

However you are right, as far as I can tell "Last Watched" is not available in a report.


Probably because Last Watched changes all the time and Ken didn't expect anyone was willing to print out those pages again and again just for a small piece of changed data.
- Jan
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantMBlue72
Registered: February 1, 2009
United States Posts: 3
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Thank you both for your replies.

Northbloke ... yes, your suggestion helps. I turn "Show Description" to False and leave "Location" and "Slot" as true and it works well.

hydr0x ... I guess what I'm thinking is this: I plan on having a "DVD Notebook" that will contain two sections. The first section is a very brief listing of all our DVDs -- one line for each DVD. That line would contain Title, Collection Number, Location, Run Time, Our Rating and Last Watched. The second section would contain summaries of each DVD (three or four to a page). I would hand write onto the abbreviated list (first section) whenever we watch a DVD or add a new one. This serves as a "control document" and a reminder for me to update the watch date and also a reminder which DVDs haven't been entered into the database yet. I imagine I would reprint this section maybe four or five times per year, only as I update the database itself. The second section would not be reprinted -- once I print a summary for a DVD, it goes into the book and stays there.

By the way -- I have found the excellent plug-in "CSVExport" by Mark Harrison. This plug-in allows the selected data fields to be exported in CSV format to a file that can be imported by programs such as Excel. It works very smoothly and offers a good workaround for what I am trying to accomplish. (Thanks Mark!) Although this approach requires another few steps, it may be worth the effort to gain the other advantages of DVDProfiler.

Thanks again and I am still hopeful of hearing other users' ideas,

Dave
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar Contributorhydr0x
Registered: April 4, 2007
Germany Posts: 882
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I see. I don't get why you'd need that (I just enter that info right away, everything else is a mess) but to each his own I hope CSVExport does what you want
- Jan
 Last edited: by hydr0x
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar Contributorruineddaydreams
Registered: Dec. 2, 2002
Registered: March 14, 2007
United States Posts: 1,339
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I very rarely use reports, and if I do, it's for inventory checking purposes... but I would like to add on here...

I think the problem is that most users use the program on a constant basis, so we only keep the last watched info in the program, and update as we watch.... it's a digital world.... we also update the database, as we add new titles... If I am reading correctly, you plan on doing it in a note book first... never heard that...

either way... im sure you will find the program quite acceptable for most of your needs... and feature requests are always welcome.
-JoN
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantDick Sigrist
Registered: January 29, 2008
United States Posts: 10
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I am also a new comer, and I am also confused.  I have read the Report Help file and it says the following: Select a report element icon, then click on the report content editor to place the item. You can also click and drag to draw the element to a specific size.

When I click on an element, such as Genre in Film, I cannot see how it gets to the report.  I cannot seem to drop and drag any elements to the report.

What am I doing wrong?
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantMBlue72
Registered: February 1, 2009
United States Posts: 3
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Dick:

As one newcomer to another -- although a little fiddly, the report capabilities allow a good deal of flexibility. (I am starting to get used to DVDP's approach.)

In your example, left-click on Genre, then move cursor to wherever you wish to place the field and left-click again. DVDP drops the field there. 

Hope this helps,

Dave
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantDick Sigrist
Registered: January 29, 2008
United States Posts: 10
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Thanks, this report writer is a bit crude, but it looks like it has the fundamental features.  I am a bit concerned about the constraints on how much data can be used, but so far it looks like there is enough to do the job.

I have worked with many other report writers, such as Crystal Reports, and this one is a bit primative - however since it is free, it is a good product.

I would like to see some new features, but it appears to me that unless they were critical, there is no need to for improvements.  For example, when you want to fine tune the location of an element, in other report writers you use CTRL and the arrow keys to move the fields up/down or left/right.  Other report writers have an "alignment" feature that allows you to keep all of the flields horizontally or vertically aligned.  They also allow automatic alignment of the column header with the text in the column.

But as a whole, I can work with it.

Dick.
Invelos Software, Inc. RepresentativeKen Cole
Invelos Software
Registered: March 10, 2007
United States Posts: 4,282
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DVD Profiler's report editor supports CTRL-Arrow to move items.  Additionally, CTRL-ALT-Arrow moves by increments of 10 units.
Invelos Software, Inc. Representative
DVD Profiler Unlimited RegistrantStar Contributorhydr0x
Registered: April 4, 2007
Germany Posts: 882
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Quoting Ken Cole:
Quote:
DVD Profiler's report editor supports CTRL-Arrow to move items.  Additionally, CTRL-ALT-Arrow moves by increments of 10 units.


It's alive   
- Jan
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