Text overflow to next page.

Hi John,



I was originally attempting to flow rich text from one text field into another with Acrobat Pro 7.0. When the first text field fills up, the remaining text spills into the next field.



Well, the only way to do this is to use javascript in the Custom Keystroke area of the properties within the first text field. I have the beginnings of a javascript that will allow text to flow into another field but... the second text field strips away the rich formatting.



I cannot find any assistance in completing my script so I thought I would work around the issue by exploring "content areas" in LiveCylcle.



I created three horizontal content areas on a single page (top: 5"w / middle: 3"w / bottom: 5"w)and one text field (in Body Tab) within the top content area. When text fills up the text field (within the top content area) the rest spills into the middle content area and then into the bottom content area. The problem is... the middle content area is set at 3" not 5". The text field does NOT spill from a 5"w to 3"w to 5"w... it spills at 5"w to 5" to 5". The middle content area's narrower width is ignored most-likely because the text field has to be set to expand in height before the delimted content area causes a spilling action.



Anyway, my goal is to create an interactive form (poster) that will allow a user to paste their rich text into a text field (top) that will flow into a second (narrower) text field. I would prefer to do this in Acrobat instead of LiveCycle but I'm not very good at Javascript yet. This is what I have so far:



var Text1 = this.getField("Text1")

var Text2 = this.getField("Text2")



console.println(event.fieldFull + " " + event.change)

console.println(" " + event.changeEx)

console.println(event.change.length + " - " + event.changeEx.length)

if (event.fieldFull == true) {

N1 = event.change.length

N2 = event.changeEx.length

Text2.value = event.changeEx.substr(N1);

this.getField("Text2").setFocus();

}

Hi



I am not exactly sure what you are trying to do.



Do you have a content area that when it's width increases, for example, you want an adjacent content area's width to decrease? Or when a content area is filled, that you then overflow the remaining data into a second content area . Both options are possible.



First, here are two different things to think about:



1. A Flow Content subform can have a flow direction of 'Western Text'. This will flow the fields within the subform horizontally across the page first, then vertically. (see the object subform tab)



2. The second thing you might try is create a text object and then within that text object you can create floating fields. These fields will automatically stretch to the width of data entered. A floating field is available through the insert menu. (although if using floating fields, save often. My designer occassionally blows up when I resize a text object that has floating fields)



If you want to overflow text into a second content area then let me know. I have written some javascript that determines if a set of data records will fit within the physical bounds of a text field. If the records do not fit, then I write them out onto a subsequent attachment page which spans an unlimited number of pages.



John

John, I thought you might be able to help me with a similar problem:



Data flow between content areas



GregRWelch - 05:05pm May 12, 2005 Pacific



The following statment is from LiveCycle Help: ...if an object that merges data expands so much that it will no longer fit in one content area, the object spills into the next and subsequent content areas...



MY PROBLEM IS... the width of the first content area dictates the width of the second content area... and so forth.



My QUESTION IS... is it possible to allow text to spill over and into a contant area of a different width?

Thanks, John. Your information was extremely helpful and probably makes Adobe Designer the program that I need. The User to User Forum is a great resource, as it utlimately puts me in contact with those with experience in many facets of Adobe- such as yourself.



Kind regards,



Kathy Potter

Hi,<br /><br />what you are trying to do is possible. There are atleast two general ways of doing this.<br /><br />If the text data comes from a single field, then the xdp form can easily place the data onto each page and create a new page when required. You can repeat a header and footer onto each page as well.<br /><br />in the repeating part of the page, you need to create your field that will repeat. This can be a single row field with the layout width property set to expand. Bind this field to your data source.<br />Wrap the field in a subform and set the subform property to Position Content. Once the following header and footer subforms are created, set the overflow leader and overflow trailer properties for this subform to those of the header and footer subforms.<br /><br />Then, wrap this subform in another larger subform. This will be set to Flow Content. Add the header and footer subforms here (with appropriate fields).<br /><br />That should give you an idea of how it can work. <br /><br />If the repeating data is a concatonation of several fields, then it can be done programmatically. The same structure is used as created above, however, don't bind the repeating text field to the data source. Instead, here is a javascript code snippet that will help to create multiple subforms:<br /><br />var fileBlk = xfa.record.files.files_item.all;<br /><br />for (i=0; i<fileBlk.length; i++) {<br /> attPoliceFile = fileBlk.item(i).agency_code.value + ":" + fileBlk.item(i).policeFileNo.value;<br /><br /> this.Attachment.AttachmentDetail.instanceManager.addInstance();<br /> this.Attachment.AttachmentDetail.all.item(i).policeFiles.rawValue = attPoliceFile;<br />}<br /><br />To get page numbers, go to the Custom Library tab, and grab the Page n of m field.