Reports - keeping last page from having one sentence, or just a signature ....

[drgarytraub]

Is there a way to be certain that a report with several pages, does not have one sentence, or just a signature on the last page, i.e., make the last page have at least a few sentences.

Also, I have a report that has many headings and then below the heading is a paragraph or two. There are times that just the heading is the last thing on a page, and then the next page has the paragraphs. I would like to keep the heading/tile with the content or at least the first few sentences of the paragraph. Is there a way?

[Ronald Anusiewicz]

Are you talking free-form reports or layout-table reports?

[Ted Giles]

Look at the KEEP TOGETHER option.

[drgarytraub]

Hi Ron,

Free form


Hi Ted,

My understanding of "Keep Together" is that it works in the detail section, and in my report, there is no detail section as it is only reporting on one record

[mikeallenbrown]

This has always been a struggle for me. I have many reports that are from data entry type UX's where the user must write out their own narratives. This makes much of the report highly variable in length. That in turn makes the page count variable and thus where all of the individual sections land variable. I force page breaks on the report in various locations as a compromise. The consequence is that with shorter narratives this leaves vast white space on my reports. I don't have a good solution for this other than the page breaks.

[Ted Giles]

Keep together works on more than just the detail section if you want it to.

You could probably determine the likely size of a report - based on your experience - and chop the detail section into smaller chunks so that the probability is that te last page will have more detail.

Else, create a report footer with a disclaimer or advertising of some sort.

I am fighting SSL CERTS at present. Will look a bit later if I fix things.

[Ronald Anusiewicz]

Hi Gary,

Long time no see. The short answer is no. That said, there are a few things one can try that help. I’ve attached an example of one of my reports. This report in the past has been as short as one page or as many as 50 pages. Some work out just right some will be as you described.

One of the tools I use is the “Continuation Header” and sometime a “Continuation Footer”. Another trick is to leave no space at the bottom of a section putting any desired spacing at the beginning of the next section. Another trick is to use the function Alltrim() where possible.

I have spent hours trying to resolve these types of issues and this is the best I have come up with so far.

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[Russell Craycraft]

The best thing I've used so far is just a page number. Simple and effective for users to understand, but every report seems to be different, even if most contain the same layout/format.

[Ted Giles]

Yep, "PAGE X OF Y" in a prominent place is an option.

I have been fiddlin' with word count and dynamically setting the detail size. Not resolved as yet.

[Russell Craycraft]

I was thinking about that. You could do something where if numberOfCharacters in detail field is between a-b then run javascript action to open Report A, and if numberOfCharacters is between b-c, then open Report B.
It's just a matter of if the juice is worth the squeeze for the client.

[Ted Giles]

I suspect Gary is doing it "pro bono", so no pips being squeezed.

[drgarytraub]

Actually, I figured out a way to do it. I use Xbasic to create each paragraph (could be a few lines, whatever you want) as a separate record in a SQL table, and then create a report using the records in the detail section, and checking the "Keep together on page option"