break text field into multi page

[Henry]

Hi there, just a small question to ask, is that any to count the total line in a text field? Now i have created a small mailing system that let us easy to print out their letter. It contain a customer databases and a letter format selection. I have create a text box that let user to write their mail and the system will print out the mail with correct format(with mailing address and etc). Now the problem is if how can i perform multiper page printing? If one page i only allow user to fill in 30 line text, then it should break the contain of the text field in to different page.

I can't use patterncount for return key("

[Fitch]

Have you tried just making the body part and your text as tall as possible? Then set the text field to slide up and reduce size of enclosing part. FileMaker has gotten better about printing fields that span multiple pages (it used to routinely clip lines of text) -- you might also try specifying your page margins and your line height in pixels.

[Fenton]

One more help is to type the letter on a regular layout, then switch to a special Print layout (using Fitch's suggestion, sliding up, etc.) to print.

On the Print layout just insert the letter body as a Merge field. I've never seen FileMaker clip sentences in a Merge field (knock wood) like it does a regular field.

[spb]

The other guys' suggestions are worth following. But if you need a line count, figure out how many characters long a line will be (depending on margins, fonts, etc.) in the final printout. Say it is 80 characters.

Make a calculation field called LineCount where the calc is:

Length(TextField)/80

This field will contain the number of lines and you could use it in subsequent scripting, like:

If (LineCount > 30)

Show Message ("Time to go to page 2")

EndIf

The problem in using this during data entry, is the LineCount won't update to the new number until you exit TextField.

Steve Brown

[Henry]

Hi Fitch & Fenton, I have set the sliding up option and enlarge the merge field as body height. But I still can't get the result. I'm not sure whether i miss some step or not. Or can you attatch the sample file to let me know the setting?

Hi Steve, thank you for your reply. But i found that your solution not suitable for me because sometime user will not fill in full text as letter format. They will have line spacing and paragraph spacing.

Regards,

Henry

[Fenton]

If you set sliding up, and "also reduce size of enclosing part," and the text is aligned to top, then it should slide up. You have to set sliding for every object below it also, or they won't move, and will likely block movement of those below them. Empty space between objects is preserved, which sometimes causes unexpected results. Sometimes it seems to be a black art, but it does work.

Perhaps you should enclose your file, with a clear explanation of what you want to happen, and where. We don't really know what is wrong. Is it that some lower object is not sliding up? Or that you want to break the letter in some special way? There is very little that can go wrong with a simple merge field spanning multiple pages by itself, so we are perplexed (I am anyway).

[Henry]

Ok, now i have attatch the sample file letter.fp5. From this file i think you can know what i want to do.

Regards,

Henry

letter.zip

[Henry]

Hi Fenton, i found the solution already. I didn't enlarge the body and text as tall as possible to multiple page. I just put body part to fit the paper size(one page).

Thank you for helping

Regards,

Henry