Varying text line

[James Gill]

I have a report layout with a single line I am trying to fit 3 fields onto. The line contains static text along with 3 fields that will contain contact name, current date, and staff name. i.e. - "REPORT SENT TO <> ON <> BY <>."

The issue that I am running into is that the Contact Name field can potentially contain anywhere from 1 to 6 different contact names (July and Jill and Debbie, e.t.c.) and I need the line to auto format to accommodate this. This of itself it not a huge issue as I can create a text field that uses the field names contained inside of <<>> and it will automatically adjust the rest of the text to accodate this.

My issue is that when a Contact Name field contains a single name "Joe" I need the extra empty space to extend to the right margin and be underlined for consistency sake. How would I do this?

[comment]

Use a tab? You can also specify a fill character for the tab.

[James Gill]

I guess I'm not following "Use a tab." I've attached a picture of the layout section in question with the fields of main concern circled.

The left field is the one that will vary the greatest. (Bill and Jill and Phil, e.t.c.). The right field only contains a single name. Also notice that these fields are underlined. I've tried accounting for the varying length of names in the SentTo section by using a solid freehand line but this does not match up with the underline of the text. Also, the underline of the text itself is a lot darker than the hairline that I have defined for the rest of the report.

Hope this helps.

Screen_shot_2010-05-25_at_4.22.42_PM.pdf

[comment]

I guess I don't understand what your required result should look like. If you want to maintain a constant width between "REPORT SENT TO" and "ON", and have the entire width underlined uniformly, then it would be best to use a "real" (i.e. not merged) field with a bottom border.

[James Gill]

Ok, I attached two more screenshots of the issue. It's sort of hard to tell because I haven't pasted the rest of the report, but the length of <> field can vary greatly. To make the report look correct, the underline section of the <> field needs to extend to the right edge of the report margin regardless of how much data is actually in the <> field.

I hope the two attachements show the issue a little better.

[comment]

How about:

PrintLine.zip

[James Gill]

According to the specifications of the client, the report HAS to be formatted so that the spacing is consistant between fields. I almost yget the functionality I want by using a text field with and then inserting the data fields with <>. The ONLY problem is that the <> field does not extend to the margin as it should.

Edited May 26, 2010 by Guest

[comment]

the report HAS to be formatted so that the spacing is consistant between fields.

That's quite different from what I understood. Why don't you attach a picture of the intended look?

[James Gill]

The two attachements on the above post are the intended look. Note that on the first attachment the Report Sent To line contains "Susie, Bill, and Christine" and the second attachment only shows "Susie" in that field. I want Filemaker to be able to automatically adjust in order to accommodate varying name lengths but I want the underline section of the part that says "James Gill" to always ends at the same point.

It's worth pointing out that using <> and then underlining the text works great. The only problem is that the field to the right doesn't extend to where it needs to since it only underlines the actual data.

I'm not sure if I'm making sense here

Edit: I attached a stripped version of the report I am trying to produce. I can't give out the actual layout as I am under an NDA at this point.

Report.fp7.zip

Edited May 27, 2010 by Guest

[comment]

So how does my attachment above differ from your intended look?

[James Gill]

On the first record you have one name in the recipients field. This leaves way too much space between the left and right sides of the persons name. The format that I'm looking for is 3 spaces before the data, the data, and then 3 spaces after the data.

Edit: I added your printline database file. The first record should coincide with the top line. The second record coincides with the bottom line.

PrintLine.fp7.zip

Edited May 27, 2010 by Guest

[comment]

Did you look at my file in Preview mode?

[James Gill]

Ah hah................

[comment]

I am sorry to say that even now - after 13 messages in the thread - I still have no idea what you want to accomplish. I suggest you copy the following text, place it in a word processor or something, format it exactly like you want it to look, and post the screenshot of the result.

REPORT SENT TO Susie ON 5/9/10 BY James Gill

REPORT SENT TO Susie ON 10/25/10 BY Anthony Williamson

REPORT SENT TO Susie, Bill and John ON 5/25/10 BY James Gill

REPORT SENT TO Susie, Bill and Christine ON 5/25/10 BY James Gill

---

BTW, I don't even know what you meant in your last post. It could be read either as "Yes, I did, but that's not what I want." or ""Ah-hah, now I understand - that's exactly what I need."

Edited May 27, 2010 by Guest

[Zcast]

The simplest solution is to place "hard" lines on the form layout. Then no matter how many names, 1 or 365, the line length will extend to the right margin like you want.

[comment]

No kidding. :joust:

[Zcast]

I believe Mr. Gill is making a mountain out of a mole hill. Simple solution to a most complicated problem. Sorry, you did all that work, comment.

[James Gill]

Ya, sorry about this. That's the problem with the whole "the client is always right" approach. In this case, the client that was asking for this solution was very specific in the format of the ENTIRE layout (lines, spacing, font, e.t.c.) and if it wasn't exactly like they wanted then they weren't happy. When I say exact, I'm talking literally line spacing down to the pixel, which is why it made it such a PITA.

After much back and forth, I finally convinced them that the easier solution in this case was to add a dedicated line just for the "Report Sent To" section and now all is well. Thanks for the help on this though, Comment.

Edited June 8, 2010 by Guest