Text Field Continuation Blocks

[PO_Davis]

On the form I am working on I have a justification block that has the potential to be paragraphs long.  I'm certain it is a scripting issue which I am rather lacking in. 

The form is currently 2 pages long and the Justification block is on page 1.  If I type in a justification and it exceeds the established space how do I arrange the form to create a 3rd page with a Justification (continued) block on the page?

[Niall_O_Donovan]

Hi,

Have a look at the example here: http://assure.ly/g80MVY.

In particular the textfield on example 4. This does not require script, however the page layout does need to be set to Flowed. See the difference between example 3 and example 4.

Also have a look at this example: http://assure.ly/gk8Q7a. While it is dealing with tables, it does show the effect of changing the layout from Positioned to Flowed.

Both include explanations and screenshots.

Hope that helps,

Niall

[PO_Davis]

Thank you for the help.  I accessed the slides in the link and followed the directions with no luck.  Specifically, I followed slide 3 and rather than extending to the new page it gives me the + arrow and the scroll bar on the side of the message and does not expand at all.  Any clue why this may be happening?

Adam

[Niall_O_Donovan]

Hi Adam,

The form needs to be saved as a Dynamic XML Form in the save-as dialog.

If it is sved as a Static PDF, then dynamic behaviour like growing fields will not work.

I suspect that this is the problem.

Niall

[PO_Davis]

You are right that did make a difference.  However, I now have another problem.  I have text fields after the expanding block

so the expanding block continues to expand over the rest of the blocks without adjusting.  So now I have all the text in the block written over the text in the other blocks.

[Niall_O_Donovan]

Hi Adam,

At the moment if you select the page and go to the Object > Subform palette, you will see that the content is set to Positioned. This means that while object can grow in height, they will maintain their positions on the page.

As a test, change this to Flowed. You will see that your layout is messed up with all of the objects stacked vertically on the left hand side of the page.

Now click undo and get back to the Positioned layout.

You have a bit of work to do first. Group all of the objects above your expanding textfield into a Positioned subform. Then do the same with all of the objects beneath the expanding textfield. Make the width of the subforms the same as the page and adjust the positions of the objects in the subforms, so that they match your original layout.

Now when you change the layout to Flowed, the positioning of the objects will not be messed up (well not as bad at least).

When the textfield extends now, the objects in the subform will be pushed down.

There is a relevant example here: http://assure.ly/e2jR0C.

Also have a look a the tables example here: http://assure.ly/gk8Q7a.

Lastly, I have an example that looks at the difference between Positioned and Flowed layouts. http://assure.ly/eSGQMt.

Hope that helps,

Niall

Assure Dynamics

[PO_Davis]

Well your example and directions have provided me the solution to my problem.  However, it has now created another one.  The items do in fact shift downward as the block expands.  The blcoks that follow afterwards are now expanding beyond the border and truncate themselves at the end of the document rather than continuing on the next page.  Do you have any further wisdom on how to rectify this problem?  On another note thank you for your help you have been a godsend.  I really need to find a training course for this program.

[Niall_O_Donovan · Accepted solution]

Hi,

You need to select the page and go to the Object > Subform palette. There you need to tick "allow page breaks in content".

This will create a new instance of the page when content overflows the first page.

Hope that helps,

Niall

[PO_Davis]

I already had that selected and it hasn't done anything to change the situation.

But I think I figured out where I've gone wrong.  When I select my flowed subform the program is not activating the features in my Pagination palette.