Printing reports is adding space between lines

[Chuck Bytes]

I turned up my database to users last week. They are very impressed with what Alpha was able to do for them. I see many more months of continuing development. Needless to say, I really appreciate the forum.

I had 20 premade reports that look great on screen and printed fine then suddenly ... something went wrong.

Now when they appear on screen and are sent to the printer with some pages behaving as though a field is about 3-4 lines high of wrapped text.
Space appears inconsistantly between lines of data.

I say inconsistantly because...

If there are 10 pages to print, page 4 is double spaced and one of the fields drop about 3-4 lines. The data shows fine in the field that drops, but it acts like a comment field that grew, even though its only 10 characters wide.

In another report the spacing of the same data is fine but the same problem would occur on page 8 with different data that was fine in the previous report.

The only thing I can think that I did was to increase the length of that field in the table structure after I created the reports, is that a known issue or a taboo move.

I checked the report and made sure it was not a wrapped field and the length is set to show 10 out of 40 characters. I changed the structure back to the original lengths but the problem remains.

Anyone come across this before.

If there is no way to fix this issue I would like to move the data into my backed up copy as time is critical and users are continuing to enter more and more data but printing is messy.

[Ed Barley]

Re: Printing reports is adding space between lines

Hi Chuck,

If you increased the length of a field in the table structure, after making your reports, you need to make an adjustment in the reports, also the forms??

In edit mode, in one of the reports right click on the field you increased the length of, and on one of the tabs you will see where you can increase the length of the field in the report. Make it match your table structure.

There are many things that can change the way the report prints. See if that helps.

Also in the detail and other bands of the reports, have you picked shrink in the band properties?

See if that helps, and gets you in the right direction.

Also look at the very bottom of this window, there might be some hints that might also help you.

Ed

[Chuck Bytes]

Re: Printing reports is adding space between lines

Thank you but I tried all those items prior to posting. This is a real strange thing.

I've been at it now for about 8 hours now and I figured out the strangest thing.

I have assigned a sort order and query to the reports in both the button that activates them from the menu and also in the properites of the detail tab in the report. (click on detail, records and assign choices)

I noticed that if I change the sort order, it prints fine. What's up with that.

You're right to say that it could be many things but why is the sort order affecting the outcome of the spacing in the report. I wonder if it could have something to do with the indexing. I still really want to print in the order of choice, but I'm forced to print with only one sort order.

[MikeC]

Re: Printing reports is adding space between lines

Charles,
Check your field's number of total characters in your order expression (the field's widths)....has to be 240 or under. When over it can influence how the report looks as it will mess up not only the Order but also some/all of the Groupings you may have as well. This was supposed to be taken care of in v9 but is inconsistent so far in its implementation (Alpha was to automatically truncate the number of characters in some way).

Just a guess without a sample....

[Chuck Bytes]

Re: Printing reports is adding space between lines

What if I'm not using that field in any order or filter expression.
Even if I was, I'm looking to see where is it specified the number of characters of any field in within an expression.

I can clearly see now that the field which is being displayed in the report is wrapping as though it is using more characters than entered into the field. In the report itself I set the format below the number of characters required, but it still acts as though the characters are exceeding the width of the field which makes the field grow pushing down the next line.

I got many reports using this field and if I remove the field from any of the reports, it prints ok. When I change the sort order of the report, it affects which records extend the fields characteristics.

You're help is greatly appreciated but I've got to answer to this fast. I'm thinking of making a duplicate field and manually populating it with the required data then replacing the field.

Heck of a lot of work

[MikeC]

Re: Printing reports is adding space between lines

Charles,

What if I'm not using that field in any order or filter expression.

Ya got me....what if...Guess it is a moot point then???? :) I thought we were talking about fields in your order expression.

where is it specified the number of characters of any field in within an expression

http://support.alphasoftware.com/alp...ifications.htm
It looks as if the index limit is imposed on an order expression (even if not, believe me, there IS a 240 character limit!).

If your order fields width combine to be more than 240, just use and expression using Left(your_field_1, 100) + Left(your_field_2, 100) limiting whatever fields are necessary to be within the 240 total limit.

[Chuck Bytes]

Re: Printing reports is adding space between lines

Good, at least I learned something about setting field widths within expressions.

I created a duplicate field with a slightly different name and posted the values from the old field to the new. Replaced the field in the report with the new one and the same problem occurs.

So there must be an issue with the report right!
I recreated the report from scratch checking all field formats.
SAME THING AGAIN !!! AAarrggHH!

• I doesn't happen to all records, only about 20 out of a 100 depending on the sort or expression I build
• Also, depending on the sort, it chooses a different set of records on different pages for the same report.

I don't know what else to try.
So can anyone direct me to a paid support that will be able to address this issue. It just doesn't look good that right after roll out the system isn't able to provide reports.

[Stan Mathews]

Re: Printing reports is adding space between lines

Alpha Support Main Page

Paid Support
Product support for anything other than what is described above is available by purchasing a Support Incident. Details on what a support incident is and how to purchase are below.

[Ed Barley]

Re: Printing reports is adding space between lines

Chuck,

Can you post a stripped down version of your app. ?? Or the application with no sensitive data in it?

It is easier to get a direct answer and help, If the board can look at the app.

Ed

[Chuck Bytes]

Re: Printing reports is adding space between lines

That would be great Ed, if I could do that it would be a nice way to get help.
Is there a special thread where one can drop a stripped down version. I would take out as many reports as possible and strip the data down to only a few records.
Then i could zip it all and upload it to where-ever ....

Would you mind explaining how to do an upload and to where :o

[Stan Mathews]

Re: Printing reports is adding space between lines

While posting, scroll down. If your Additional Options section is collapsed, expand it with the button at top right.

[Chuck Bytes]

Re: Printing reports is adding space between lines

OK, TOO easy, i should have looked before asking. So when I upload the file, I assume it's going to post into my thread.

Currently the zipped cutdown version is 11mb so I'll have to cut it down even more to the allowed 5m, soon as i'm done with that, I'll post it.
I'm also assuming if I have image files as part of the records, I should delete those to save space.

This is going to be a single table file (no set)

I'm going to do some testing first to make sure the error still exists with the smaller amount of data. So this may take some time.

Thanks so much guys, really!...

[Chuck Bytes]

Re: Printing reports is adding space between lines

So here goes, hope I did this right. I pressed the upload button after browsing for the file, told me to please wait but I see no confirmation. I'll post this reply, please let me know if it worked and where it went.

I compressed with 7-ZIP as the zip function in Alpha didn't get me under 5mb. Reducing the application any more is going to be tough. I zipped the whole folder to ensure the information is available.

I stripped this thing down to nothing so there are errors in the forms of missing fields because they are JPG files, normally it's not in such disarray.

In case this direction is required ...
Extract the files to :\ZTE Database Program\*.*
There is a shortcut in the unzipped folder to start the app called
'Shortcut to ZTE Tracking Database'.
It normally resides on a network drive S:\ZTE Database Program\*.*

Starting the app will take user to 'Main Menu' from there it speaks for itself.

I would like to reiterate a couple of points.
The same report sorted various ways affects how the error is generated. I took the same reports and presorted them to show the afects. I wrote in the report titles the way the error displays.

In some instances, reports using the same fields displayed without error, don't ask me how. Sometimes the previews look fine, but print with the error.

Thank You in advance guys.

[MikeC]

Re: Printing reports is adding space between lines

Charles,
If you successfully uploaded your sample in zip format it simply failed to attach. Go to the advanced reply (or edit existing post), choose the paperclip icon at the top of the post text box and choose your attachment--but have your cursor where you want the attachment to go as that is what dictates the placement in your message.

[Chuck Bytes]

Re: Printing reports is adding space between lines

OK, don't quite see the advanced reply but I'll try this paperclick if it doesn't work
I'm going to have to try again tomorrow morning. So beat from working all last night, ready to drop.