Just can't figure out how to make a text block (containing text and several merge fields) flow into two or three columns on the same page... Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Jari V

In Layout mode, go into Layout Setup (under the "Layouts" menu in v5) and have it print in columns.

"making the text flow automatically into columns would be very useful"

Ahhhh... if you want to have text automatically flow from one column to the next, like a desktop publishing program: FMP cannot do that.

The closest you can get is making each paragraph a separate record.

I've already set the layout to have two columns, but the contents of the text block in the left column still won't flow into the right one in preview mode.

I've also tried to stretch the text block to cover also the right side column, no difference.

The total lenght of the text block varies based of the contents of the merge fields in different records. Therefore making the text flow automatically into columns would be very useful.

I'm starting to run out of ideas, so any help would be very much appreciated.

Thanks,

JariV

So it wasn't just me being dumb...

I noticed in some other postings a clever use (beyond me...) of combining calculation and "Middle" etc. functions to flow the text. Anything like that would't do the trick in this case? (Still hopeful...)

Thanks anyway,

Jari V

There was an article in FileMaker Pro Advisor magazine a couple of years ago that gave a script for parsing a long text field into paragraphs so that you could have page breaks between paragraphs (as necessary) while keeping individual paragraphs intact; the same script would probably work for you too.

Their website is http://Advisor.com/www/FileMakerProAdvisor FileMaker Pro Advisor Magazine