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Anchor properties

Child Edge Percent

Child Edge Type

Child Object Name

Collapse Horizontally

Collapse Vertically

Parent Edge Percent

Parent Edge Type

Parent Object Name

Anchor restrictions

Examples

Example 1:  Centering fields horizontally

Suppose you want to horizontally center a field within a repeating frame that has its Horizontal Elasticity set to Variable.  You also want the field to be a fixed distance from the top edge of the repeating frame.  Since you don't know how large or small the formatted repeating frame will be, you need to use anchors to center the field.

To center the field horizontally within the repeating frame do the following:

Example 2:  Centering fields vertically

Suppose you want to vertically center a field within a repeating frame that has its Vertical Elasticity set to Variable.  You also want the field to be a fixed distance from the top edge of the repeating frame.  Since you don't know how large or small the formatted repeating frame will be, you need to use anchors to center the field.

To center the field vertically within the repeating frame, draw an anchor from the center of the left edge of the field to the center of the left edge of the repeating frame. In positioning an anchor on an object's edge, you can shift-click to move along the edge in increments of 25%.

The field will now be centered vertically within the repeating frame.

Field centered horizontally within a repeating frame

Example 3:  Collapse Vertically and Horizontally (field)

Suppose that you have anchored Field B to Field A, and you want Field B to move both vertically and horizontally into the space where Field A would have printed on the logical page.  Do the following:

 graphic depicting field Field B anchored to Field A

On the first logical page of the report, Field A prints and takes up so much room that Field B cannot fit on the logical page.  Therefore, Field B prints on the second logical page, where Field A does not appear.  The anchor collapses and Field B moves into the position that Field A would have appeared in had it appeared on the logical page as painted.

 graphic depicting result when Field A takes up full page

When Fields A and B do print on the same logical page, the anchor does not collapse and the fields maintain their relative position to one another.

Note:  the settings for the Parent Edge Percent property and Child Edge Percent property for the anchor must be the same in order for the child to be positioned at the same place horizontally in the example above.  

Example 4:  Collapse Vertically (field)

Suppose that you have anchored Field B to Field A and Collapse Vertically is set to Yes.

graphic depicting field Field B anchored to Field A

Assume that on the first logical page of the report, Field A prints and takes up so much room that Field B cannot fit on the logical page.  Therefore, Field B prints on the second logical page, where Field A does not appear.  Since Collapse Vertically is set to Yes, the anchor collapses in the y direction.  Field B maintains its relative positioning to Field A in the x direction even though Field A does not actually appear on the logical page.

graphic depicting result when Field A takes up full page