Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!
Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!
-
Congratulations gkittelson on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!
Form Field size vs. Text Form Field Length
- Thread starter Gdead
- Start date
I do not think this is possible. Formfields are dynamic, that is they fit the size of the existing entry. Although they do have a default size of 5 characters - unless of course you have made your own default value. But even if you DID made a default value of the maximum length, as soon as a different entry was made the formfield will resize to that entry. So if the entered value was smaller (likely I assume), the formfield would shrink, and again, any surrounding text will shift.
There are possible solutions though. It would take some VBA. You could use bookmarks instead and take a user entry and add or subtract spaces to maintain a fixed length. Hard to say. Why is this critical?
Gerry
There are possible solutions though. It would take some VBA. You could use bookmarks instead and take a user entry and add or subtract spaces to maintain a fixed length. Hard to say. Why is this critical?
Gerry
- Thread starter
- #3
- Thread starter
- #5
No can do (at least I do not think so) without some VBA parsing of the user input, and resizing of a bookmark. As far as I can see, what you are asking is to create a maximum text length FIXED space.
However, I still have to wonder at the significance of this. WHY does it matter? You have to realize that if you created a way to fix the apparent length, then if the user inputs a smaller length then that input will have gobs of blank space around it. This seems weird to me. The user input could likely be text floating around with space on either side. Why would you want that?
Gerry
However, I still have to wonder at the significance of this. WHY does it matter? You have to realize that if you created a way to fix the apparent length, then if the user inputs a smaller length then that input will have gobs of blank space around it. This seems weird to me. The user input could likely be text floating around with space on either side. Why would you want that?
Gerry
Lilliabeth
Technical User
Put the form field in a table cell and specify the height of the row.
- Thread starter
- #8
The form is actually an internal Sales Order Form. It is printed out and then when an order is taken, the appropriate information is written in the spaces provided. (ex. Name________________ Ship Date_________)
What I want my sales staff to have the option to do is fill in these spaces on their computer and then print out the order. ( ex. Name_John Doe_______ Ship Date_3/07/06_)
This way the Order Forms will look exactly the same whether they are hand written or typed.
Q: Why don't I scrap the whole form and start over?
A: This company is 121 years old. When I started here 8 years ago the did not evan have a computer. I installed the LAN, trained the staff, and hired new ones. When I did the conversion to computerize the inventory and accounting, the most important request was could I design invoices that looked like our old ones that were hand typed? I did...and they were sold. Chalk one for IT.
G-Dead
What I want my sales staff to have the option to do is fill in these spaces on their computer and then print out the order. ( ex. Name_John Doe_______ Ship Date_3/07/06_)
This way the Order Forms will look exactly the same whether they are hand written or typed.
Q: Why don't I scrap the whole form and start over?
A: This company is 121 years old. When I started here 8 years ago the did not evan have a computer. I installed the LAN, trained the staff, and hired new ones. When I did the conversion to computerize the inventory and accounting, the most important request was could I design invoices that looked like our old ones that were hand typed? I did...and they were sold. Chalk one for IT.
G-Dead
1. The easiest way, from a technical point of view, is simply create the form with the appropriate spaces and train the staff to use Overwrite in those spaces. Voila! Done. However........as we all know (all too well), training staff is often the hardest route.
2. Lilliabeth's suggestion. Use tables. Although this can also have some issues. See below.
3. Use a UserForm. Have all input done on the UserForm, then take the input and place it in the form. You could easily expand contract the actual input to fix the space you want to place it in.
However....the issue remains the same. And frankly, it is a dumb one.
Name_John Doe_______ Ship Date_3/07/06_
Name_Elmer Clarence FuddShip Date_3/07/06_
....ooooops....guess what! Oh my gosh. Golly me! What...darn diddley......that name does NOT fit without pushing Ship Date over!!!! Well heck...now what? Funny thing about hard "things" like space on a computer screen. You just can't take your pen and write smaller.
The REALITY is (damn it!): paper is paper; a computer screen is NOT, repeat NOT, paper!
Sorry, but you are stuck. Your options are limited. Either the space is fixed...or it is not.
Now you could if you really, really, want to do some work.....and again frankly, this is dumb....parse the input, AND if it is too long to fit your fixed space (either within a paragraph, OR within a table) apply a different character style to make a smaller font size.
However, unless your are using Courier, you got another problem. Proportional fonts (i.e. kerning).
I sympathize, I really really do. But I strongly believe it well past the time to coddle users with this stuff. I have a very intense user bias. I DO think that user perspective should be paramount. BUT...the fact of the matter is that we do deal with hardware and software that has design. Purposeful design...and limitations. Just because users may want certain things does not mean that they can have them. Period.
Unfortunately all too often non-IT people seem to think that computers are magical.
I had a company that insisted that they wanted certain screen elements in a particular way. Same as your problem - because they wanted it to look like their paper forms. I demonstrated to them that they could:
A) have all the elements across the screen they wanted, BUT the elements were then so small staff could not read them;
B) not have the same paper design, but in fact a much more efficient design that actually made more logical sense (input wise), and made it EASIER for staff to work with;
C) upgrade all their video hardware so they could get higher resolutions.
Do you know what they did? They went back to paper, muttering about "stupid computers". I no longer have any sympathy whatsoever. Again, it well past the time for babysitting this stuff. Reality bites.
Gerry
2. Lilliabeth's suggestion. Use tables. Although this can also have some issues. See below.
3. Use a UserForm. Have all input done on the UserForm, then take the input and place it in the form. You could easily expand contract the actual input to fix the space you want to place it in.
However....the issue remains the same. And frankly, it is a dumb one.
Name_John Doe_______ Ship Date_3/07/06_
Name_Elmer Clarence FuddShip Date_3/07/06_
....ooooops....guess what! Oh my gosh. Golly me! What...darn diddley......that name does NOT fit without pushing Ship Date over!!!! Well heck...now what? Funny thing about hard "things" like space on a computer screen. You just can't take your pen and write smaller.
The REALITY is (damn it!): paper is paper; a computer screen is NOT, repeat NOT, paper!
Sorry, but you are stuck. Your options are limited. Either the space is fixed...or it is not.
Now you could if you really, really, want to do some work.....and again frankly, this is dumb....parse the input, AND if it is too long to fit your fixed space (either within a paragraph, OR within a table) apply a different character style to make a smaller font size.
However, unless your are using Courier, you got another problem. Proportional fonts (i.e. kerning).
I sympathize, I really really do. But I strongly believe it well past the time to coddle users with this stuff. I have a very intense user bias. I DO think that user perspective should be paramount. BUT...the fact of the matter is that we do deal with hardware and software that has design. Purposeful design...and limitations. Just because users may want certain things does not mean that they can have them. Period.
Unfortunately all too often non-IT people seem to think that computers are magical.
I had a company that insisted that they wanted certain screen elements in a particular way. Same as your problem - because they wanted it to look like their paper forms. I demonstrated to them that they could:
A) have all the elements across the screen they wanted, BUT the elements were then so small staff could not read them;
B) not have the same paper design, but in fact a much more efficient design that actually made more logical sense (input wise), and made it EASIER for staff to work with;
C) upgrade all their video hardware so they could get higher resolutions.
Do you know what they did? They went back to paper, muttering about "stupid computers". I no longer have any sympathy whatsoever. Again, it well past the time for babysitting this stuff. Reality bites.
Gerry
- Thread starter
- #10
Actually, I don't drink coffee. I have a sleep disorder and if I get 90 minutes a day, that is a LONG wonderful sleep for me. So...I type fast, and I gotta do something with my time. I was multi-tasking with that post. Working on a painting and posting. Brush stroke....type a paragraph. Brush stroke...type a paragraph. But wait...HEY!!!!...it is clear out! Time to attach the camera to the telescope and take some shots....
Gerry
Gerry
- Status
Similar threads
- Question