Repeat Layer Description When Layer Splits Between Pages


by Pat Cummings » Thu Jan 14, 2010 9:02 am

When a layer you are describing in a report extends from one page into subsequent pages, you want to be able to repeat the layer description at the top of each new page on which it occurs. (The alternative is to leave it unlabeled and force the reader to page back until the original description is located.) You also want to indicate that this description is for a layer continued from a previous page, not simply for a new layer that happens to start at the top of the current page.

In any column of the Text vs. Depth type, if there is a Bottom Depth Expression, the report can determine if the bottom depth for a layer will occur on the same page as the Depth (the top of the layer) or will not occur until a subsequent page:

BottomDepth Property.jpg (73.26 KiB) Viewed 51 times

When the report determines that the layer will extend into one or more subsequent pages, it will automatically repeat the reported data for that layer. In other words, the Bottom Depth Expression property has the behavior of replicating the Text Expression to subsequent pages automatically, when appropriate. 

In this case, the Material Description column does have a Bottom Depth assigned, so when the layer extends into Page 2, the description of the Lithology will be repeated at the top of the Material Description column on that page. 

In order to mark it as a repeated rather than a new layer description, the continuation phrase is assigned in the column’s Configuration Properties tab:

ContinuationPhrase.jpg (81.46 KiB) Viewed 51 times

An extra space, parentheses and italic formatting separates the continuation phrase from the repeated description:

RepeatedText.jpg (43.1 KiB) Viewed 51 times