PTD8

Print fields are the smallest addressable units of information that can be printed in the selected location of the report. Currently, there are four categories of print fields: System, Static, Dynamic, and database table derived.

TheText icon is the source of the dynamic print field and can be dragged into the Print Template Workspace as such. On landing, it will be assigned the name of dynX where X is a numeric value assigned by STEP FORWARD e.g. dyn1. This name will appear in the field itself and in the Local Name column of the Print Palette's Display fields view under the heading Dynamic. This system assigned name can be replaced with a more meaningful name of your choice.

Dynamic Print fields
Dynamic fields can hold all types of data - textual, numeric, date, time etc., but only visual attributes of the representation of data can be known in advance. For example, dynamic fields will have their text alignment, font, number of decimal places (for FLOAT and MONEY data types) etc. set at the time of constructing the print template. However, their contents remains unknown until run time, and it usually changes from one call to the template to another. During the runtime, the contents of the dynamic fields is taken from the Report Procedure variables.

Please note the distinction between the definability of the Field data types as it relates to the four categories of print fields: System, Static, Dynamic, and database table derived.

Other Inspector options may apply. When you actually work with a Report Template, any features which do not apply will be deselected. For the purpose of these explanations we will use only dynamic Print field Inspector views for each of the Field data types. To keep the explanations non-repetitive and not belabor the obvious:

features will be explained once, if the same tool occurs in another Inspector view, no further comment will be made;
the Alignment tool is intuitively obvious;
the vernier Adjustment, % tool is explained as part of the Workspace.

Print Field Inspector - Field data type: Text

Please Observe Caution when making a Text field expandable:
When laying out a design in which you wish to use a Text field with Add lines if needed to fit all text (expandable text field) and provide no Max # of text lines limitation, be aware of its potential impact on other fields of the report. That is, field positioning is fixed within a group of fields in a given Print Template segment (Header, Body, or Footer); therefore, if an "expandable text field" is positioned above other print fields in the same segment, and depending upon the amount of text to be printed and the number of lines separating the fields, the volume of expandable text may encroach upon and overprint data called for by subsequent print fields i.e. the requirements of the "expandable text field" do not defer or reposition printing of these subsequent print fields. There are a few options that you can employ:

If the subsequent print fields are used to provide static data such as in signature lines of a form letter, place a Separator between the "expandable text field" and define the signature area as the Footer segment.

If the "expandable text field" must be part of a given segment, then make it either

the last field of the segment - this will push the next segment or template to accommodate the needs of the "expandable text field;" or,

specify a Max # of text lines equal to the blank lines specifically provided for between the "expandable text field" and the next field in the same segment.

In some situations it may be advantageous to make the "unrestricted expandable text field" to be the only field of a Body segment and then control its life cycle.