Text box moves down and left after adding placeholder

[SteveP]

I'm creating a form (with InfoPath 2003) where questions are in an outline
format. The text boxes are tabbed over to sit under the questions. Here's
what it looks like:

1. Question 1:
[text box]
2. Question 2:
[text box]
etc...

I have the text boxes set to a fixed width (500px) and Auto height
(everything else is the default 1px).

As I'm working with the form, I often click "Preview Form" and then "Print
Preview" to see what the completed form will look like in hard copy. Before
making any additional changes to the text boxes, everything lines up fine,
but...

When I add a Placeholder to the text box, it causes the text box to move in
the print preview. I drops a full line down and moves all back over to the
left, like this:

1. Question 1:
<----Carriage return?
[text box] <----Undo tab?
2. Question 2:

[text box]

This seems to happen whether I use a regular Text Box or a Rich Text Box
(though I prefer to use the latter for formatting reasons).

(On the Text vs. Rich Text subject, why is there no "Cannot be blank" option
in a Rich Text Box?---not as important to me as my main question).

Any help would be appreciated.

Steve P.

 

[Greg Collins [InfoPath MVP]]

Please try using a layout table instead of tabs... you will get much more consistent results this way.

 

[SteveP]

Thank you Greg. I tried that and it seems to work (note that I've only been
using InfoPath for a week and am feeling my way through it).

A quick follow-up question is: what is the rationale behind not having a
"Cannot be blank" check-box for Rich Text Boxes?

Thank you,

Steve P.

 

[Greg Collins [InfoPath MVP]]

I'm not exactly positive the reasoning, but because Rich Text caintains markup, it is much more difficult to identify what "blank" is. If the field has an empty <div></div> tag as the content, is that considered "blank"? That's debatable. Its a very tricky question as to what is really blank when you deal with markup.

 

[SteveP]

Thank you for all your help Greg. I was able to accomplish my goal using a
standard Text Box. The Layout Tables definitely take a lot more time, but
it's working great for my purposes.

Thanks again,

Steve P.

 

[Greg Collins [InfoPath MVP]]

Glad to help, and that everything is running well for you.