Attachment Field Display Options or Box Drawing Chararcters as Text

[dscottf]

I use a report/subreport to generate check lists. There are literally hundreds of reports with dozens of rows in each report. It prints out hardcopy that allows users to take the checklist(s) into hazardous areas, and after reviewing relevant item, check it off as complete, not complete or not applicable. Most of the data is textual...but on occasion I would like to insert a table instead of sentences for the source row. THe tables are not complicated. In essence, I'm would like to be able to create a table and paste it into the text field in the database, where I normally enter the text.


Going back many many years ago, you could create a pseudo table or menu using ascii box drawing characters. Just use a monospace font, put your cursor in ovr mode and build away. I use to have a program that would allow you to design your table by selecting the appropriate box draw chararcter and then use your arrow keys to draw the box; then it would generate the pascal code you could paste into your Pascal source code. It was slick. The font selction in Windows doesn't include all the box drawing characters to let me do this; so instead I tried creating a table in Word, then saving the word doc in an attachment field. Only the icon is displayed unlike an OLE field where you could choose what would display. Afer a little digging I was able to save it as a picture and have it display using the attachment, but it looks sloppy because it only displays raster pictures instead of vector based (even though emf is suppose to be supported).
Several questions then:
1) Is there any way to create a table using a box drawing character set (I'll use a text field then) and if not...
2) Create a table (vector image) as an attachment that can be displayed when the report is run.
3) Create a table as a named range in Excel or table in Word that could be displayed in an attachment field?
Any guidance or pointers to other sources would be appreciated.

[ItsMe]

You cannot use a combination of Labels and Text Box controls to draw a grid?

[dscottf]

Hmmm...hadn't really thought about it from a grid point of view, but it makes sense. I made a grid of labels in layout mode and by turning on/off the appropriate borders could make a nice looking table. By looking at my data, I would need 12 columns at the most, so I made a row of 12 labels; then made 20 rows. I could create just about any table I need by doing that, through hiding rows and turning the approriate borders on/off. It's complicated though and means I would have to I store some sort of (table) definition in a new field so I could make the changes during the On Format event. I was hoping for something simpler, but it can work the way you mentioned. I don't think that using a grid of text boxes would add much. There's nothing to bind them to since each table is different.

[ItsMe]

Use Labels within Group Headers to identify columns. Place controls in the Detail section and or Header sections. Use the Report's intrinsic Grouping and Sorting features to create multiple rows of controls.

I suggest you do a rough draft by using the Wizard to create a Report.

[dscottf]

I've created a grid and programatically hid/shown borders to create a table...but the bottom line is that it's too complex to use when adding different tables.

I have gone back to the idea of creating a table using Excel and then using the Windows snipping tool; copy and save it as a png file. I have an attachment field that contains the image, then display it using the OnFormat command. It works, but I'd like to determine the size of the attached image so I can set the control to match. How can I find out the dimensions of the image when it's saved as an attachment? If the control was an image control, I could use the ImageHeight and ImageWidth property, but how can I do this when the image is in an attachment control?