In response to the request for “25 Most Desired Reports” GDJacobs said:

“I tried to create a Print layout that would allow me to print a note's content on letterhead, with just the first name of the primary link in the "To". I finally gave up and copied and pasted the info into another program. This is an example of what's needed in the templates. I know this is possible, but incredibly complicated to create from scratch.”

In response I am providing a simple template I created that does something like what Jacobs is describing.

Open the DayLite folder at http://homepage.mac.com/ramccluskey and download EulogiaDeskOf.dlreport.zip. Unzip it and place in the appropriate folder (~/Library/Application Support/DayLite/Templates/). If you double-click on it it will open in editor mode in DayLite and you can see how it works and modify it if you like. You can also base a new template on it so that it can be named whatever you wish.

This .direport merges the first names of selected contacts with the most recent notes linked to those contacts and the current date, using a simple memo template. This makes for a nice way to quickly print out notes to contacts and keep a record of them.

In my particular workflow I often send brief personal notes to my contacts at the end of a work day. Using this template I can type them whenever I want during the day and batch print them all at once. I can batch print the corresponding envelopes using a separate template.

I hope to develop a means of attaching the envelope printing directly to the memo printing at some point. However, as you may have discovered, merging multiple layouts from the same contact (or organization) selection is not as difficult as it may seem; once you have made your selection and opened the print window you can move from layout to layout, merging and printing each in turn, without leaving the print window. For example, if you have a layout like this one, you can select your contacts, open the print window, pick the memo layout and print the merged results. Then just move the focus to a different layout in the window (an envelope, for example) and it will immediately remerge the selected contacts with the newly selected layout.

One could also create a template that merges the details of the most recent completed task instead of the most recent note. Of course, it is "all or nothing" so all of the text in the task detail field would merge. This idea doesn't exactly correspond with the general purpose of task notes, but it can be done.

Thanks for the print template, Bob - with the minor modifications of name, etc., I've added it to those I will likely use a fair bit.

Thinking about the original request you were responding to, and your comments regarding taking notes during the day and then batch printing them any time, got me to thinking about the process a bit. The template you provided is based on selecting the contacts, and I'm thinking it would also be good to be able to batch print these from a list of today's notes (so I don't have to remember who I wrote notes for when I'm tired at the end of the day).

Inspired by your template, I've taken a shot at creating a Notes-centric version of the same thing - and I can't find a way to get just the linked contacts' first names (also can't seem to limit it to just one of the linked contacts). The "All Contacts as String" gets all linked contacts, and uses the full names.

I'm wondering if it could be done as a "Report" template that is basically the same as the print template, but allows you to choose which linked contacts to include if there is more than one? (Sort of like "merging" in the built-in editor).

Thank You Bob!

Just editing your template taught me so much in 20 minutes about how the report engine works and the possibilities. This is why having more default templates will help greatly!

I still have so much to learn, but this gave a boost.