Help with Base report

users
#1

Hi,

I am new to this list and need some help with Base.

Can anyone help me to create a list report which has one field that may
expand to more that one text line? Most lines of the report in the
detail report section are just one line deep. However, a few fields may
wrap round to more than on line, so the height of the corresponding text
box needs to be expandable and, of course, the height of the detail
section as well. (i.e. similarly to MS Access - sorry, I'll wash my
mouth out ;-)).

Cheers

Harvey

#2

Hi, thanks for your reply. I built the report with the Base report
wizard and then did some editing. In this case the database itself is
'within' Base. (I have done some other database work with MySQL in the
backend, but this case in point is a much smaller example)

Cheers
Harvey

#3

Hi :slight_smile:
'We' are at quite a few trade-shows, exhibitions and all sorts of
things. The Marketing Team keep a calendar to help people find out
about what is on in their area or perhaps combine with a trip
somewhere. It would be good to use it to co-ordinate volunteers but
it's also good to help 'us' meet each other afk.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#4

Hi :slight_smile:
How did you create the report? Did you use the report building wizard
on Base or did you use Writer? Also are you using an external
back-end or is the database all 1 big file?
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#5

Hi Harvey,

Can anyone help me to create a list report which has one field that may
expand to more that one text line? Most lines of the report in the
detail report section are just one line deep. However, a few fields may
wrap round to more than on line, so the height of the corresponding text
box needs to be expandable and, of course, the height of the detail
section as well. (i.e. similarly to MS Access - sorry, I'll wash my
mouth out ;-)).

When you say "expand to more than one text line", what exactly do you mean ?

I thought that text/memo field data was wrapped automatically in the
report builder and the section expanded as a consequence ?

You might be better off using the mailmerge functionality of Writer
instead of the Report Builder, just a thought.

Alex

#6

Dear Alex,

Hi Harvey,

>
> Can anyone help me to create a list report which has one field that may
> expand to more that one text line? Most lines of the report in the
> detail report section are just one line deep. However, a few fields may
> wrap round to more than on line, so the height of the corresponding text
> box needs to be expandable and, of course, the height of the detail
> section as well. (i.e. similarly to MS Access - sorry, I'll wash my
> mouth out ;-)).

When you say "expand to more than one text line", what exactly do you mean ?

I thought that text/memo field data was wrapped automatically in the
report builder and the section expanded as a consequence ?

You might be better off using the mailmerge functionality of Writer
instead of the Report Builder, just a thought.

Alex

I am fetching records from a query and putting them in various text
boxes in the 'detail' section of a report. Two fields of each record
may, however, contain more text than fit into the corresponding text box
and would need to be printed on more than one line. Unfortunately, I do
not know how to the change the text box height dynamically to allow the
full text of the record field to be displayed. Obviously, if that were
somehow possible, also the height of the 'detail' section would have to
be increased for that record (and both would have to be reset for the
next record). The height of a text box (in the properties table) is
'fixed' and I can find no attribute that would make a text box
'expandable' as needed for the above. Where can I do that?

Cheers
Harvey

#7

Hi Harvey,

I am fetching records from a query and putting them in various text
boxes in the 'detail' section of a report. Two fields of each record
may, however, contain more text than fit into the corresponding text box
and would need to be printed on more than one line. Unfortunately, I do
not know how to the change the text box height dynamically to allow the
full text of the record field to be displayed. Obviously, if that were
somehow possible, also the height of the 'detail' section would have to
be increased for that record (and both would have to be reset for the
next record). The height of a text box (in the properties table) is
'fixed' and I can find no attribute that would make a text box
'expandable' as needed for the above. Where can I do that?

Ah, that rings a bell as an oft requested feature improvement. You might
want to wade through LO's bugzilla to see if someone hasn't already
registered this - it may well even have come up on this mailing list before.

At present, there is no way that I know of to do what you want, other
than making your text fields sufficiently dimensioned when creating yur
report to take account of the odd record or two that exceeds the single
line.

Alex

#8

Hi Harvey,

I am fetching records from a query and putting them in various text
boxes in the 'detail' section of a report. Two fields of each record
may, however, contain more text than fit into the corresponding text box
and would need to be printed on more than one line. Unfortunately, I do
not know how to the change the text box height dynamically to allow the
full text of the record field to be displayed. Obviously, if that were
somehow possible, also the height of the 'detail' section would have to
be increased for that record (and both would have to be reset for the
next record). The height of a text box (in the properties table) is
'fixed' and I can find no attribute that would make a text box
'expandable' as needed for the above. Where can I do that?

Ah, that rings a bell as an oft requested feature improvement. You might
want to wade through LO's bugzilla to see if someone hasn't already
registered this - it may well even have come up on this mailing list before.

At present, there is no way that I know of to do what you want, other
than making your text fields sufficiently dimensioned when creating yur
report to take account of the odd record or two that exceeds the single
line.

Alex

#9

Well, it doesn't sound like a bug, but rather a feature that may or may not be supported.
I had the thought I might try a macro, but I need help for that and
pointing in the right direction.

Harvey

#10

Hi Harvey,

Originally I used Alex's method and made the height of the text box twice
what I needed, to accommodate the overflow. But this has the effect of the
report lines being effectively double spaced, except for just a few long
lines. It also uses twice as much paper, if the report is printed.

So I wrote a macro that creates a second record to accommodate the overflow
text. It is a bit tricky getting the second record to sort after the
appropriate first record, but I have succeeded in getting it to work.

I haven't attempted to modify the report's text box height dynamically -
that I think would be quite tricky! If you are interested in looking at my
code, (written in basic), I could post it on the list. Just let me know.

Noel

#11

Hello Noel,

I think the 'right' approach must be to 'patch' the height of the box
and, thereupon, the height of the detail section at the loading of each
record. I suspect there must be some way of accessing those attributes
which is documented somewhere. I suppose the slightly more difficult
bit might be to find the right way to calculate how high the box should
be to accommodate the (in my case) concatenated text string.

Cheers
Harvey