Page 1 of 1
Census Templates
Posted: 09 Aug 2022 09:25
by ColinMc
I wonder if anyone has any work arounds to force a line break in the heading for AS Census Templates
Purely from a design/legibility viewpoint, I prefer the second version to the default first version.
- As1.jpg (32.26 KiB) Viewed 1725 times
- As2.jpg (46.74 KiB) Viewed 1725 times
Currently I simply add a line break to the last column that is visible (if I remember). But I'm wondering if there are any route to force one. I can see a minimum width setting, but not height.
Re: Census Templates
Posted: 09 Aug 2022 09:52
by tatewise
Sorry, I don't think that is possible because the table header text is defined by the {CENSUSGRID} keyword.
Re: Census Templates
Posted: 09 Aug 2022 16:33
by johnmorrisoniom
When you have entered everyone, use the option to add a line for someone not in your file and the move it to the top. This should put a blank line after the headers
Re: Census Templates
Posted: 09 Aug 2022 16:52
by ColinMc
Thanks but that's more complex than my current solution
Re: Census Templates
Posted: 18 Aug 2022 18:19
by NickWalker
The problem is that because of the automatic text wrapping some column headings might take up 1 line, others might take up 2 lines, some 3 lines, etc. so I'd have to be able to detect which header cell currently takes up the most lines and then insert a carriage return after that, which isn't really possible I think. You've said that you always add a carriage return after the last column but that would only work if the last column text took up the most amount of lines. For example in the 1950 USA Census below:
- Census headings.png (6.84 KiB) Viewed 1396 times
I think the solution is that if you had this option set it would add a carriage return to the end of
all the header cells and that would ensure that whichever of the cells takes up the most rows currently will get a blank line added.
I'll see whether I can incorporate this into the next version.
Cheers
Nick
P.S. I just spotted in that screenshot that salary is spelt wrong in the 1950 census template! I'll correct that in the next version too
Re: Census Templates
Posted: 18 Aug 2022 18:33
by BillH
NickWalker wrote: ↑18 Aug 2022 18:19
P.S. I just spotted in that screenshot that salary is spelt wrong in the 1950 census template! I'll correct that in the next version too
Nick,
You got that template from me and I had it spelled wrong.
Bill
Re: Census Templates
Posted: 18 Aug 2022 18:42
by NickWalker
BillH wrote: ↑18 Aug 2022 18:33
Nick,
You got that template from me and I had it spelled wrong.
Bill
Thanks for owning up Bill - I was far too polite to mention it
Re: Census Templates
Posted: 02 Sep 2022 08:52
by mezentia
Slightly off-topic, I have amended most of the templates to fine tune the column width as far as possible, but I find that even so, I'm usually left with columns having lots of white space at the right hand side. As a result, after every entry I have to change the column widths manually - both time-consuming and tedious. Would this feature be at all possible:
1. When the cursor is moved over a column boundary, to click twice and have the left column automatically re-sized to remove trailing white space.
2. To specify the maximum number of lines wrapped text can take up when the columns are re-sized.
3. To force word wrap rather that splitting words across lines when column width is reduced.
The reason for all of this is that the formatted tables often fall off the right hand edge of a page on narrative reports, therefore reducing column widths to the smallest possible whilst retaining readibility helps to get them to fit on a page for all but the widest census templates.
Re: Census Templates
Posted: 02 Sep 2022 09:38
by tatewise
FYI: FH V7.0.15 has a new feature for splitting tables that are wider than a report page.
However, minimising the width of a table to avoid splitting would be useful.
Re: Census Templates
Posted: 02 Sep 2022 10:55
by mezentia
Thanks, Mike. I will download that version now and give it a try.
Re: Census Templates
Posted: 02 Sep 2022 11:14
by NickWalker
mezentia wrote: ↑02 Sep 2022 08:52
Slightly off-topic, I have amended most of the templates to fine tune the column width as far as possible, but I find that even so, I'm usually left with columns having lots of white space at the right hand side. As a result, after every entry I have to change the column widths manually - both time-consuming and tedious. Would this feature be at all possible:
1. When the cursor is moved over a column boundary, to click twice and have the left column automatically re-sized to remove trailing white space.
2. To specify the maximum number of lines wrapped text can take up when the columns are re-sized.
3. To force word wrap rather that splitting words across lines when column width is reduced.
The reason for all of this is that the formatted tables often fall off the right hand edge of a page on narrative reports, therefore reducing column widths to the smallest possible whilst retaining readibility helps to get them to fit on a page for all but the widest census templates.
For census templates the 'Fit' button works very well and the feature I've added to the next version (described above) may help too. I do appreciate this doesn't work for non-census sources.
I think your other suggestions would be very difficult to implement because of the way the Microsoft rich text control operates.
Re: Census Templates
Posted: 02 Sep 2022 12:33
by mezentia
Thanks, Nick. I suspected that our dear friends at Microsoft wouldn't make life easy, do they ever
I remember trying the "Fit" option in a previous relrease of AS, but I stopped using it for reasons which I now forget, but I will revisit it as I have some further tweaks to templates that I need to make. In the meantime, I will look out for the next version.