Useless space...

[Sue]

I have a report which includes field which may not contain any data. I've
tried using the "can shrink" property on both the text box containing the
data as well as the section of the report in which this field resides, but
nothing is suppressed - I wind up with useless space.

Help?

Thank you & happy new year!

 

[Sue]

I neglected to mention -
I've tried various suggestions found on this board, including ensuring that
there was no other control on the same line. I've tried using text boxes,
combo boxes, and concatenated expressions. I've ensured that both the details
section of the report and the fields in question are set to "can shrink".
I've eliminated labels and included them. The result is the same - useless
space.

 

[Marshall Barton]

I neglected to mention -
I've tried various suggestions found on this board, including ensuring that
there was no other control on the same line. I've tried using text boxes,
combo boxes, and concatenated expressions. I've ensured that both the details
section of the report and the fields in question are set to "can shrink".
I've eliminated labels and included them. The result is the same - useless
space.

Either some other control is preventing the section from
reclaiming the space or the text box does not contain either
a Null or zero length string. You can test for those
situations by setting the text box's BackColor to red to see
if it is or is not shrinking.

If the text box appears in the report, then inspect the
value. Just because you can't see a value doesn't mean it
doesn't contain one or more spaces or unprintable
characters.

If the text box does not appear in the report, then there is
some other control with its Top above the bottom of the text
box.

 

[Sue]

I followed your suggestions & see that the text box appears red when I set
the back color to red. I can't find any control that appears anywhere within
the horizontal plane of the offending text boxes, however.

Any further suggestions?

 

[Marshall Barton]

I followed your suggestions & see that the text box appears red when I set
the back color to red. I can't find any control that appears anywhere within
the horizontal plane of the offending text boxes, however.

If the text box is red when you run the report, then double
check its value. The text box will only shrink if its value
is either Null ot a zero length string.

Try adding another text box and set its expression to:
=Nz(Len([name of shrink text box]),0)
If this does not display 0, then you have an inappropriate
value in the table's field (probably a space).

 

[Sue]

I did what you suggested & didn't get a display of "0", then went to the
original table and to the field in question. In each record, I hit "delete"
multiple times wherever I saw a blank. Same result - no suppression of blank
rows.

I'm sure once I figure out what the problem is, I'll feel as stupid as a box
of hammers.
--
Thanks for your time!

I followed your suggestions & see that the text box appears red when I set
the back color to red. I can't find any control that appears anywhere within
the horizontal plane of the offending text boxes, however.

If the text box is red when you run the report, then double
check its value. The text box will only shrink if its value
is either Null ot a zero length string.

Try adding another text box and set its expression to:
=Nz(Len([name of shrink text box]),0)
If this does not display 0, then you have an inappropriate
value in the table's field (probably a space).

 

[Marshall Barton]

I did what you suggested & didn't get a display of "0", then went to the
original table and to the field in question. In each record, I hit "delete"
multiple times wherever I saw a blank. Same result - no suppression of blank
rows.

I'm sure once I figure out what the problem is, I'll feel as stupid as a box
of hammers.

After you "deleted" the value in the table field, did the
text box stay red?

If it did, then, just in case there are multiple lines of
blanks, try going back into the table. Click in the field,
hit Ctrl+Home and then Shift+Ctrl+End followed by Delete.

If that doesn't do it, the only other thing I can think of
is that the text box contains has a control source
experession that is concatenating something to the field
value.

 

[Sue]

The text box is red only where data exists in the field. Where there is no
data, there is no red... but there's just as much space as if there were
indeed data in the field.

Your next suggestion was:

If it did, then, just in case there are multiple lines of
blanks, try going back into the table. Click in the field,
hit Ctrl+Home and then Shift+Ctrl+End followed by Delete.

Do I need to do this with each field?

 

[Marshall Barton]

The text box is red only where data exists in the field. Where there is no
data, there is no red... but there's just as much space as if there were
indeed data in the field.

Your next suggestion was:
Do I need to do this with each field?

If the red is not showing when there is no data in the text
box, then the text box is shrinking. The problem is then
that there is some other control with its Top above the
bottom of the shrinking text box that is preventing the
section from shrinking.

You said there are no other controls in the same horizontal
band as the shrinking text box, but the evidence says
otherwise. Double check that other controls that you may
think are below the shrinking text box do not intrude into
that band, even by a little bit.

If you have trouble finding such a control, try (in design
view) clicking on any control and using the Tab key to cycle
through all the controls in the section.

 

[Sue]

I thought sure your "tab through controls" idea would reveal the problem, but
there was no shared real estate. So for the heck of it - being completely out
of ideas - I set the "page header" control's "visible" property to "NO". And
the unused space in the "details" section promptly vanished.

I'll be darned if I can explain that.

You've stuck with me patiently & I appreciate your help!

 

[Marshall Barton]

I thought sure your "tab through controls" idea would reveal the problem, but
there was no shared real estate. So for the heck of it - being completely out
of ideas - I set the "page header" control's "visible" property to "NO". And
the unused space in the "details" section promptly vanished.

I'll be darned if I can explain that.

That's a new one on me! I can't imagine what the visibility
of the page header section or its controls has to do with
shrinking the detail section. I can see where that might
affect the detail section's KeepTogether behavior, but not
its shrinking.

 

[Sue]

I'll be dipped if I know.
Feels like the Twilight Zone.

Again, thanks.