Expanding subform from right to left

[Former Community Member]

Hello,



I was required to create a subform with text fields in the lower right corner of my form. The text fields expand in width dependant upon data from a data source. The subform, likewise, expands dependant upon the amount of data in the text fields.



My question: since the subform is required to be in the lower right corner of the form, can anyone tell me how to anchor the subform on the right side and have it expand out to the left? By default, it appears to anchor on the left side and expand out to the right -- which is then off the page in my case.



Thank you for your assistance.

[Former Community Member]

try changing the anchor select list on the Layout tab of the expanding subform and fields to "Bottom Right".

[Former Community Member]

Thank you for the suggestion John.



The anchor option does not appear enabled for subforms. It is available for text/graphic/other fields, however.



Any additional ideas?



Maryanne

[Former Community Member]

That should work, something else might be missing.



I am using LiveCycle Designer 7.0.



Are the subforms Flowing or Position subforms? Not sure if that makes a difference.



I have a flowing subform wrapping around a position subform and the anchor option on the layout tab is available for both subforms.



Make sure that you have selected a subform (see the heirarchy tab) when clicking on the Layout tab.



Also ensure that the expansion is set for height and or width.



My forms are dynamic, although the help suggests that the Anchors work on Static forms as well. Data basically expands from the point of the Anchor.



For me, I am merging data into these fields. Not sure how it works if you are typing into these fields.



Try searching for Anchor in Adobe Designer Help.



Hope that helps.

[Former Community Member]

Thanks for your helpful suggestions, John.



I am using Livecycle Designer for Documentum 7.1. I have a flowing subform (Western text vs. top to bottom) on a static form that is set for expansion. I, too, am merging data into these fields from a datasource.



I did search through HELP and found something on anchorType which did not provide any benefit.



I will explore some of Adobe's sample forms to see if I can discern why my particular instance does not enable use of the anchor option in the layout tab.



Much appreciated!

[Former Community Member]

I'm using 7.1 and here is my experience with getting a text type to expand to the left as more text is added.



I anchored the text to the upper right using the layout tab. Then when I typed into the text area in the Body Pages view it expanded to the right (darn!). BUT, the AnchorX value in the layout tab remained unchanged at the correct inches. So I figure the text is keeping the right attributes, but the Body Pages view is displaying wrong. If I Preview, it displays correctly. Also, if I save the pdf, close it, and re-open it, it displays correctly (that is until I add more text and it starts expanding to the right again.



I guess that is a bug in Designer 7.1.

[Former Community Member]

I'm not sure it can be done on a flowing subform. Western text will always place items within that subform from left to right. Aside from setting reserves to "set a buffer" between the edge of that form and the left side of a screen, I'm not sure what you could do really. I know I've done a lot of work arounds for making objects "look" ok on a flowing subform. I use a lot of reserves and sometimes spacer rectangles.



Now, I'm not sure what the maxLength of your data is, but it's possible that you do one long text box. Now, you can change the "look" of it in the code.



I don't have the exact code you may need, but I've changed the look of one of my text boxes to look larger or smaller based on a radio button selection like this:



if (this.rawValue=="textsmall"){

sTTContent.txtTTSel.margin.rightInset="2in";

}

else if (this.rawValue=="textmedium"){

sTTContent.txtTTSel.margin.rightInset="1in";

}

else if (this.rawValue=="textlarge"){

sTTContent.txtTTSel.margin.rightInset="0in";

}



In this case, if short is selected, the field looks shorter because the reserve is longest. Likewise the field looks longest if long is selected since there is no reserve.



My guess is you'd have to do something that would count the number of characters within that field and then alter your display that way.



If any other people have any ideas on better ways to place content, I'm still somewhat new to the tool and am just explaining some of the things I've done to perform work-arounds :).



Good luck!

Lisa