Expanding a field when printing.

[tanbog]

Hello,

 

I am in a bit of a pickle here. I have a small database implemented in FM11 that records information about clients and some notes made by staff. I have to add a print out feature that produces a print out of certain information from the database, however, the document produced must also allow for additional hand written notes to be written - it will later be used in an interview and/or filed in a paper file.

 

The first page of the document is just information from database so is fine. Page 2 however consists primarily of 2 boxes (two different sets of notes) and a small section at the bottom for the signature of a supervisor and filing information. 

 

Either/both of the fields the boxes are populated from could be empty, have a small amount of text or have a large amount of text.  Both boxes need to have a minimum size below which they will not shrink. Below is a - pretty crummy - attempt to draw what the print layout of page two should look like. At a minimum this page should always fill a single A4 page. and the supervisor section should always be at the bottom of the page.

 

No Text or                

a small amount         Lots of text.

(minimum size)         (any reasonable length)     

 ______                    ______

|            |                  |            |

|______|                  |            |  

_______                  |______|  

|            |                  _______

|            |                  |            |

|______|                  |            |

++++ ++                   |            |

                                |______|

                                ++++ ++

 

Top and bottom boxes should be independent. One could stay minimum size while the other grew many times normal size.

If the text in either box is too big for the minimum size then it is ok to overflow onto a third (or more) page, otherwise it should  always reach to the bottom of page 2. 

 

I have played around with several solutions but nothing works very well. My basic idea has been to make a dedicated print layout with mostly merge fields from the relevant table. 

 

Sliding up has not worked as needed as;

1. I still need to set a maximum size and shrink down from it, which I don't really want to do and
2. there appears to be no way to set a minimum size for a field sliding up.
3. Fields with no content appear to completely disappear.. 

In summary what I want to do is have a print layout with two boxes that have:

1. A minimum size
2. Expand to accommodate large amounts of text

 

I feel like this should be easy...

 

Any ideas?

 

 

 

 

[Lee Smith]

FileMaker does not expand fields. You need to design your print layout to accommodate the field with the most content, and then use the slide up feature shrink the objects up accommodate your print look.

 

Start by reading this help page on Removing blank spaces

[tanbog]

 

 

You need to design your print layout to accommodate the field with the most content, and then use the slide up feature shrink the objects up accommodate your print look.

 

I have no flexibility in the design. It is based on a paper system and I have zero chance of changing it.

 

The only way sliding up will work is if there is a way to set a minimum size. That I could work with.

 

An idea that comes to mind at the moment is to insert non-printing characters or some other nonsense into any field that is not the minimum length but that strikes me as a silly solution and I would love to hear better ideas.

[comment]

Why don't you let these "boxes" shrink to nothing if necessary, and use another object to limit the sliding of the subsequent object / containing part?

[tanbog]

 

 

Why don't you let these "boxes" shrink to nothing if necessary, and use another object to limit the sliding of the subsequent object / containing part?

 

Could you possibly give me an example?

 

I did toy with some line segments at some point. I "drew" on the sides of the box. But the vertical lines do not shrink up which leaves a box which is always maximum size.

[comment]

Could you possibly give me an example?

 

 

Se if this helps:

 

SlideLimit.fp7.zip

[MikeKD]

Ah; thanks for that - does the slide only happen when you preview?

[comment]

Ah; thanks for that - does the slide only happen when you preview?

 

Yes - and that's the kind of question you should lookup in the help. 

[MikeKD]

Fair point! :-)

[tanbog]

Se if this helps:

 

SlideLimit.fp7.zip

 

That works great, thanks!

 

Only one -  probably dumb - question though, how do I stop the blank space created at the bottom of the document when all the content slides up from being printed?

[comment]

how do I stop the blank space created at the bottom of the document when all the content slides up from being printed?

 

If I understand correctly, you want to turn on the "Also resize enclosing part" option for all sliding objects.

[tanbog]

If I understand correctly, you want to turn on the "Also resize enclosing part" option for all sliding objects.

 

AH thanks again. I missed the tick box on a field at the bottom of the page.