Variable formatting

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bill Sanderson
  • Start date Start date
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Bill Sanderson

I'm working on quite a simple report--donors and their multiple gifts over
time. The header, associated with last name and ID, has the name and
location information. Then they also want a notes field displayed, which is
of variable length, followed by detail lines for individual gifts.

It'd save a good many pages on this report, over time, if I could use one
header format for individuals for which the notes field is populated, and
another one (leaving out the space for the notes field) for which it is not
formatted.

Can anyone give me some clues about how to manage this? I suspect I am
thinking about it the wrong way around.

--
 
Could you just set the CanShrink property of the Notes field, so that it
shrinks when there are no notes?

Or set CanGrow so it grows when there are notes?
 
I've set both those, but the layout was that the notes field was a separate
line below the rest of the data about the donor. So--I've changed things.
I've changed the query to create a field concatenating all of the relevant
data with some appropriate punctuation and spacing--so now the header has
just this single field in it. That chops total pages in half for the report
over a years worth of data.

One issue still left, though: I'd like the last bit in the concatenation to
read:

Notes: [Notes] but only if the Notes field is populated. Now I have to
see if there's an if/then construct that can do this in the query column...
(sorry--total newbie, I'm afraid!)

--
 
Try:
"Notes: " + [Notes]

There are 2 concatenation operators in Access, and they are slightly
different:
"A" + Null produces Null
"A" & Null produces "A".

--
Allen Browne - Microsoft MVP. Perth, Western Australia.

Reply to group, rather than allenbrowne at mvps dot org.

Bill Sanderson said:
I've set both those, but the layout was that the notes field was a
separate line below the rest of the data about the donor. So--I've
changed things. I've changed the query to create a field concatenating all
of the relevant data with some appropriate punctuation and spacing--so now
the header has just this single field in it. That chops total pages in
half for the report over a years worth of data.

One issue still left, though: I'd like the last bit in the concatenation
to read:

Notes: [Notes] but only if the Notes field is populated. Now I have to
see if there's an if/then construct that can do this in the query
column... (sorry--total newbie, I'm afraid!)

--

Allen Browne said:
Could you just set the CanShrink property of the Notes field, so that it
shrinks when there are no notes?

Or set CanGrow so it grows when there are notes?
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Excellent--thanks--that's exactly the kind of thing I was looking for, and
it does the job!

--

Allen Browne said:
Try:
"Notes: " + [Notes]

There are 2 concatenation operators in Access, and they are slightly
different:
"A" + Null produces Null
"A" & Null produces "A".

--
Allen Browne - Microsoft MVP. Perth, Western Australia.

Reply to group, rather than allenbrowne at mvps dot org.

Bill Sanderson said:
I've set both those, but the layout was that the notes field was a
separate line below the rest of the data about the donor. So--I've
changed things. I've changed the query to create a field concatenating
all of the relevant data with some appropriate punctuation and
spacing--so now the header has just this single field in it. That chops
total pages in half for the report over a years worth of data.

One issue still left, though: I'd like the last bit in the concatenation
to read:

Notes: [Notes] but only if the Notes field is populated. Now I have to
see if there's an if/then construct that can do this in the query
column... (sorry--total newbie, I'm afraid!)

--

Allen Browne said:
Could you just set the CanShrink property of the Notes field, so that it
shrinks when there are no notes?

Or set CanGrow so it grows when there are notes?

I'm working on quite a simple report--donors and their multiple gifts
over time. The header, associated with last name and ID, has the name
and location information. Then they also want a notes field displayed,
which is of variable length, followed by detail lines for individual
gifts.

It'd save a good many pages on this report, over time, if I could use
one header format for individuals for which the notes field is
populated, and another one (leaving out the space for the notes field)
for which it is not formatted.

Can anyone give me some clues about how to manage this? I suspect I am
thinking about it the wrong way around.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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