Can Grow In Impromptu

[goofaholix]

I'm presenting a lot of data in a one to many relationship on a report.

Normally Grouping the report from the main table and formatting the report to 'Associate' it's data with the group formats the report just fine.

However the data i'm working on now contains a lot large text fields that can vary greatly in size. This makes fitting it all on the page in a way easy on the eye quite difficult.

If I keep data in a single list as above each row groes to the maximum size required but looks quite a mess.

I've tried putting the main table as a single row and the other table that can have many rows in a sub report in the header or the footer but as far as I can see the size or the sub reports, headers, footers etc is fixed and can't grow or shrink according to the size of the data displayed.

Crystal Reports has a Can Grow attribute you can set on most componants of a report. You can set the componant to it's minumum size and it grows as big as necessary before displaying the next coimponant, but I haven't been able to find this attrute anywehere in Impromptu.

Is there any way to do this in Impromptu?

Thanks.

Bruce

 

[griffindm]

Bruce,

If you have a couple of text fields that requires dynamic sizing, together with other data that does not, I would reverse your approach (sort of), and try it this way:

Put all of the 'normal' data attributes into a group footer with static sizing. Put only the dynamic text fields into the detail area of the report. Then size them to share the width of the report equally (or not, depending on the characteristics of the data), and set them as dynamically sized vertically.

That should give you a more attractive and readable output.

Not certain this exactly meets your requirements, but it may help.

Regards,

Dave Griffin


The Decision Support Group
Reporting Consulting with Cognos BI Tools
"Magic with Data"
Want good answers? Read FAQ401-2487 first!

http://www.decisionsupportgroup.com

 

[CognosProfessional]

I believe the 'can grow' attribute from crystal is similar to the dynamic setting in impromptu.

CP

 

[goofaholix]

Yes the Can Grow is the same as dynamic, the trouble is I need to apply it to either a headfer or footer, or a sub report, or a frame. Either of those would do it but I can't see the functionality there.

The trouble with putting the normal attributes in a footer and the large text fields in the detail is that there are potentially many of the text field from the joined table per text field from the main table. But if this is the best option I think I can make it work.

Thanks.