Centering Mailing Labels if line is Blank

[shane201980]

Ok, so I'm back again with another question.

I'm currently setting up reports and mailing labels for my Access project, and i've run into a problem with the Mailing Labels. I have 2 Address fields, but most contacts only use 1. I've set up my Mailing Labels to have 4 lines to allow the printing of the 2nd Address field, and it is set to "Can Shrink" so that if it does not exist i don't have blank lines on my label. Everything fits great, but all the contacts with only 3 lines are pushed to the top of the Mailing Label. Is there any way to center these labels, or change how the label shrinks when a line is blank?



FYI - I cannot make any further changes in Design Mode or else those Mailing Labels with a total of 4 lines will not print correctly.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

[rpeare]

the can shrink is probably not what you want, I've had more luck modifying the label so that instead of

Address1
Address2
Address3
Address4


You'd have something like

Address1
=iif(Isnull(address2), address3, address2)
=iif(isnull(address2), address4, address3)
=iif(isnull(address2), null, address4)

where basically you're shifting all of your addresses up one space if your address 2 is null

[shane201980]

rpeare, thanks for the response, I've been thinking about this for a good minute now. I always like iif statements, they help keep some control based on your information. But unless i'm looking at this all wrong, I'm still stuck with the same problem of centering the label. The "Can Shrink" method actually moves up the data automatically if a line is blank. For instance if there is no address in the "address2" line, then all following rows will move up and fill that space as if it was not there; and no coding required. With your method (which I like, don't get me wrong), still requires 4 boxes holding the information as if there could be a possibility of a 4th line, and if not then the data shifts up. This method of shifting the data up uncenters the information in the mailing label.

It's almost like I need some way of reorganizing the layout if a line is blank (I'm almost positive that's not possible), or just accept the fact that a large portion of the mailing labels will be top aligned.

Let me know if I misinterpreted your layout above, but I do think it gets me back to the same result. Thanks!

[rpeare]

What I'm proposing is that you NOT have the CAN GROW/CAN SHRINK options turned on. Have it set to a fixed height that you know will fit the way you want it to, then if you use the example I showed your only empty lines will be at the bottom of the label where they won't be as noticable.

[shane201980]

Ok, I follow you. The "Can Shrink" is currently doing the exact same thing, the blank area is only at the bottom of the label. What i had been hoping for was to be able to re-center the information on the label if it only has 3 lines. It's strictly cosmetic, as it appears more professional with the label vertically centered. Yours and mine puts out the exact same result, and I can live with a not perfectly centered label. Thanks so much for your time, and knowledge. i never thought about coding the labels with iif statements, but that will help me on my next label type project coming up.

Thanks again!