Formatting for report

[Gula]

Hi all,

I need to make a report, in following format:

Item........Quantity........Price........Total

Item........Quantity........Price........Total

The data columns have to be alligned

The problem is that I need to show only those fields in the report that are filled out, i.e. I have fields for Item, and if Quantity is 0 don't show the item at all.

I couldn't do it with setting the layout because as I understand once I put the label or text field on the layout, I cannot remove it.

Then I decided to make a calculation field that produces a text and I had if..else for each item, but now I cannot allign the columns of text, plus some item names are manually entered and of not fixed width, those ones are not even approximately alligned.

If anyone have done something similar or know how to do it, please help me.

[ESpringer]

Gula,

I'm not sure I understand exactly what your situation is, but here are two thoughts:

(1) Put your field label not in the body of your report, but in the header. That way the label shows up just once, and applies to all items below it. (It sounded like you were worried about whether the label would show up even for records where the value was 0.) Also, make sure your field has neither border nor background color, so that there won't be conspicuously blank fields.

(2) Make sure that for the number fields, you apply Format > Number > Decimal: Do Not Display Number if Zero (all dollar-figures and item quantities can count as decimal -- just make zero places for the quantity). Also, make sure that all numeric figures are aligned to the right.

(3) Do you really need the tab leaders in there (the ............. stuff)? If so (and if it can't let up through the blank or short values), then you need to do a merge text report, and on the whole merged-text rectangular area use Format > Text > Paragraph > Tabs to set up tabs that are spaced in the right way, and have the . "fill character" assigned. Set up your merged text with tabs between. However, it's difficult to get different number formats (one with two decimal places and one with no decimal places) within the same merged-text field, so some dancing around with multiple merged text areas would be necessary.

Please follow through with further questions if these things don't get at your difficulty...

[Gula]

Well, I cannot have the labels in header, I need them placed vertically

I think I didn't clearly explain what exactly I'm trying to do

Suppose I have following:

(I put dots instead of white spaces)

White Paper.....33......$45

Blue Paper......43......$65

Pink Paper......0.......$0

Purple Paper....6.......$54

Now since Pink paper is 0, the report should look as follows

White Paper.....33......$45

Blue Paper......43......$65

Purple Paper....6.......$54

The name of the item is label

I will try your suggestions (3), bacause I never knew all that stuff, and I will come back with what I got.

[ktstem]

Perform a Find that omits any records with "0" quanity. That will get rid of "Pink Paper" appearing on your report. Did you figure out getting your columns aligned?

HIH,

Kate

[Gula]

I'm either not understanding something, or I'm not explaining properly...

I'm attaching sample file, please take a look at it.

I tried merge fields, but those don't remove the plain text - label part.

Test.zip