 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
MS Access Forum / Reports / Printing / April 2008Form like report
I've developed some Access forms that are "form-like". In other words, I have multiple text fields stacked vertically. I wish somehow these fields could grow, but in forms they are not allowed to dynamically grow. So my work-around is to allow the user to double-click the field to show the entire content of the field without having to scroll through the field. In reporting grow works fine. However, the kicker is that Access reports will cut a field into two parts if it straddles a page boundary. I've read suggestions of this forum that one way to is split each text field into separate groups where the header, detail, and footer sections are used to separate the growing text fields. However, with about 40 or 50 text fields that may grow this seems very ackward. 50 would require 17 groups. I don't know the limit on the number of groups, but I suppose that could also become an issue. Does anyone have an idea for a work-around? Thanks, Leif Steve Lebans is the best there is with this sort of thing. Go to this site and download the example database that demonstrates how to simulate Growing on a form: http://www.lebans.com/cangrow.htm  SignatureDave Hargis, Microsoft Access MVP > I've developed some Access forms that are "form-like". In other words, I > have multiple text fields stacked vertically. I wish somehow these fields [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > Thanks, > Leif >I've developed some Access forms that are "form-like". In other words, I >have multiple text fields stacked vertically. I wish somehow these fields [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] >don't know the limit on the number of groups, but I suppose that could also >become an issue. I think you might be out of luck on this one, The number of report groups is limited to 10 and you only get one header and one footer per group. There is exactly one detail section regardless of the number of groups. So, with 10 groups, you can get a maximum of 21 separate sections that will keep together on their own page. I think the best you can get with this arrangement is to put two or three text boxes side by side in each section. A different arrangement that might be viable is to use some subreports to get another 10 groups per subreport, Then the main report can get 21 keeptogether subreport sections for each main report section. More than a little messy, but I think it will do the job. SignatureMarsh MVP [MS Access] This is no fun... Perhaps the MVPs can suggest this as an upgrade to Access. Perhaps a do-not-break property for text related controls. It won't do me any good, but perhaps it will help some person down the line... > >I've developed some Access forms that are "form-like". In other words, I > >have multiple text fields stacked vertically. I wish somehow these fields [quoted text clipped - 26 lines] > each main report section. More than a little messy, but I > think it will do the job. >This is no fun... > >Perhaps the MVPs can suggest this as an upgrade to Access. Perhaps a >do-not-break property for text related controls. It won't do me any good, >but perhaps it will help some person down the line... That suggestion has been made more than once, but KeepTogether is already complicated enough. Just getting KeepTogether to work in subreports where page related stuff is severely limited is somewhat amazing. Note that you will probably exceed other limits with a table that has 50 some text fields. E.g. a single record can contain a little less that 4K of data. So, if your 50 Text fields can average no more than about 80 characters. Your situation is normally dealt with by using multiple tables in a 1-1 relationship. This table structure makes using subreports much more straightforward. SignatureMarsh MVP [MS Access] Thanks for the 4K limitation information. I was not aware of that. I my particular case, however, the text will be absent or very short. I was wondering if something like what was done for forms, in Klatuu's post, could be done in reports (lebans's Can Grow database form)? In otherwords, analysize the size of the text field and if it looks like it will split to the next page next force it onto a new page? Not easy, if it is possible, but it is a more general solution, although it might not work across subreports. > >This is no fun... > > [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > tables in a 1-1 relationship. This table structure makes > using subreports much more straightforward. >I my particular case, however, the text will be absent or very short. I was >wondering if something like what was done for forms, in Klatuu's post, could [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] >but it is a more general solution, although it might not work across >subreports. You can do that in reports too, but with 50 text boxes, it can get more that a little complicated in either a form or a report. Not only that, but forms do not have to worry about page boundaries. You can use Stephen Lebans' TextHeightWidth function in a sections Format event to get a very good estimate of the height that a text box will be after it grows. Working from top to bottom of a section and keeping track of the accumulated heights and spaces between the text boxes thus far, you can compare the eventual size of a text box to the report's Top property (that provides the section's position on the page) and then make a page break control visible to push the text box to the next page. Personally, I have to advise against that idea and recommend using subreports instead. SignatureMarsh MVP [MS Access] |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2008 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.