Narrow columns (sorry for x post)

Crossposted with Eclipse Birt forum:
I have to do very dense reports with narrow columns, It seems, and I have not yet twisted myself completely around this, That the column widths get governed by the contents, both headers, which I can shorten. But also the the length of any expressions, even if the expression result is "narrow" If I attempt to narrow the column the height gets doubled to provide for word wrap on the text of the expression rather than its result. Thoughts???

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mwilliams

Hi Dartdog,

Does this just happen in the designer's layout screen, or does it look this way when you preview as well? What version of BIRT are you using?

Dartdog

Thanks for quick reply.
The designer does not let me make columns narrow enough, it arbitrarily re-spaces to use available width, and seems to not want to allow word wrap in some headings or possibly due to expressions in total and subtotal fields, don't really know, on rightmost columns seems to "behave better" but the middle column won't allow narrowing. When I look at preview, I get narrower columns, but then on PDF i get roughly what is in the designer view.

Using newest version 2.3.1v2008630 but have run updated though yesterday. The Designer version is build 2.3.1v20080917-1340

mwilliams

Dartdog,

Have you tried specifying the height/width of columns in the property editor? Fixed layout may help with PDF as well.

Dartdog

Thanks for suggestion.

mwilliams

Let me know if it helps at all.

Dartdog

I try to set the width and it seems to "hold" briefly then reset... I'm doing some other data prep stuff. But my quick experiment seems to say that this is still problematic, is there a secret to make the settings stick? Also since there is no "save" function for the designer, I can't really determine if stuff sticks Other than run the report..... Am I making sense here?..

mwilliams

Dartdog,

Do you have a report design made from the Classic Models Sample Database that has this issue that you could attach for me to run? Or can you at least attach your report design so I can see what you're working with? I won't be able to test on it, but I'll be able to see what you've done.

Dartdog

Sorry don't have it on classic cars!

mwilliams

Dartdog,

In the general section of the property editor for the whole table, set the width to 100%. This automatically makes the table run 100% from side to side within your margins. Then try setting the widths for all six columns in %'s that add up to 100%. This keeps you from having to know all the exact dimensions inside the margins. And like I said before, changing the "Layout Preference" of the report to "fixed" may help too. You'll just have to play with that. Obviously this is just a suggestion to try since I can't run it to test. I don't know if this will work for your design. If not, I'll try to build a similar one with the Classic Models sample database to test.

Dartdog

Thanks! I'll give it a go!