Windows and Mac handle fonts a bit differently. When viewing a field on a PC vs. viewing a field on Mac, the PC increases the size of the font within the field. Many Developers aren't aware that, when a Windows User views a text field, part of the text is cut off. It looks fine on their Mac but Windows handles it differently. Many well-known public demos produce a splash screen (with a few paragraphs of text about the solution). But, on Windows, the bottom 3 lines are cut off and unreadable! Some Developers even lock their solutions in that state so I can never enter the field to pop it so it can be read. It's a personal irritation of mine.

What font are you using? I don't have it appear in my font list and I wonder if it is x-plat. Try Verdana. Also, be sure to allow plenty of room between the tabs for the maximum expansion. Of course, since you have spaces in your heading line (bad boy), then you'll have to go back into that calc line and add padded spaces again to adjust it; whereas, if you would have kept tabs in the heading line, it would adjust when you change the detail.

One of the problems with nifty displays of columnar text fields (such as audit solutions) is that, if a line is longer, it wonks the entire line. You might turn the report to landscape so you have room to expand it even more. In addition to font-display issues, you will have printer issues (each printer requires a different buffer size on the borders) - called unprintable area. Always design your reports with larger-than-needed margins.

As for relational; sure. I'll add it on my (overflowing) plate for next few weeks and we'll see if we can't restructure you properly. But just think of what you would have missed ... you are a Tab Master now!

UPDATE: BTW, use tabs even on the lines (Order # and Acct) - no spaces - tabs only through the whole thing. That last line (when I now view your gif) means your tabs are off. And your gif looks landscape but your file wasn't.

2nd UPDATE: Hint on working with tabs if you need to expand them - start with the last tab and increase it - then work your way up the list. If you start at the top, you'll overlap and FM won't let you. Much easier to grab the last tab and expand a BUNCH - even way past what you think you need. Once you get all tabs expanded, then start with the top tabs and begin decreasing. Your display points to the fact that all those prior name lines are too large for the tab allowed - that the REAL tab is less than their length and the shorter name lands on it. After you change each tab, exit and view the results so you know how much movement (and which columns) are adjusting.

LaRetta

Edited March 19, 200718 yr by Guest

Hi LaRetta,

I think my new title of Tab Master may be premature.

I went in and changed the font to Verdana I hadn't done anything to the fonts so it was using only the default.

I changed the tab settings very drastically and the 2 blank lines never moved.

Perhaps something is wrong with my calc statement because it seems something is overriding what I am trying to do with the tabs.

Currently, I can't get it to give me a preview copy via my printer. So can you tell me what to look for in the calc. I just inserted spaces between the ' ' thinking that was how I was supposed to adjust the columns.

I am not clear on what you mean by spaces in the heading. I just used the A option on the tool bar and drew a box and then put the text in. Is there another way to do it?

You have done so much already. Don't spend much time on the relational.

Lastly, can you recommend what book I should get to learn FM better?

I took the tutorial and read on the forums and went to databasepros.com and downloaded his scripts and have attempted to find what I can.

Thanks,

Randal