Easy report formatting question

[qwkphkr]

Hello all,

I basically wanted to know if there is a way to create a horizontal "can grow" vs the obvious vertical one? Any help is appreciated.

Tony

 

[Remou]

It is possible to format controls on the fly:

Private Sub Detail_Format(Cancel As Integer, FormatCount As Integer)
'Approx 567 twip/cm
If Len(Me.AText) > 5 Then
    Me.AText.Left = 200
    Me.AText.Width = 2500
Else
    Me.AText.Left = 2000
    Me.AText.Width = 250
End If
End Sub

 

[qwkphkr]

I'm not to familiar with vba, I know that this goes in the event field, but which one?

 

[Remou]

It is a Format event for Detail:
[tt]Private Sub Detail_Format(Cancel As Integer, FormatCount As Integer)[/tt]

After that, you will have to play around with VBA. You will need to decide what change in a field or control will cause this particular control to grow.

[tt]Me.AText.Left[/tt]
Moves the position.

The reason there is no standard way of doing this is that it is, I think, quite an unusual thing to do. Perhaps you can rethink your layout and find a way around? These events can slow reports down.

 

[qwkphkr]

Thank you for all the help so far. It might help to explain further, I have a name field in my table for "Firstname", "Lastname" and "Middlename". When I generate and invoice for this customer, my goal was to have the spacing normal rather than have to create a field in the report that was large enough to accomodate any size name I get in the table. Does that make sense? I'm not really sure that it's necessary to have the names broken down in this manner however I felt that from a data manipulation standpoint (sorting and searching primarily) it would be best. Any further thoughts?

 

[Remou]

I think you will find that the best bet is to have the name at the right size for the window envelopes or labels that you use.

 

[qwkphkr]

Yes, but for example if you have three customers. One named Ted, one named Tony, and one named Josephina, when you format the report it will look like this:

Ted Jones v/s Ted Jones
Tony Smith v/s Tony Smith
Josephina Maggio v/s Josephina Maggio

Because the firstname field has to be sized to accomodate the largest firstname you have in the table.

 

[lespaul]

have you combined the names in the query to a single field? That may accomplish what you are trying to do:

SELECT FirstName & " " & LastName From TableName

should return

Ted Jones
Tony Smith
Josephina Maggio

with a single space between the first and last names.


Leslie

Anything worth doing is a lot more difficult than it's worth - Unknown Induhvidual

Essential reading for anyone working with databases:
The Fundamentals of Relational Database Design
Understanding SQL Joi

 

[qwkphkr]

that's exactly the trick I needed, thanks to everyone!!

Tony