I have a text box that contains two data columns from excel in which I’m trying to format the text correctly on a postcard. LocalVariable1 is the first line justified right and LocalVariable2 is on the second line justified to the right. The text (both lines) MUST be formatted so that it is aligned to the bottom right of the text box to meet up with existing static text of the postcard design. The text box is about 3.75” wide x 1” tall in order to not allow text to go within other static elements of the design.

I have a couple issues happening that I would think should be simple, but I just can’t get it to work. First, there are some lines of text that are longer company names from LocalVariable1. Right now, I have defined a style with ArialBlack 18 point text. I would like to have an expression that when the text is too long to fit within the box it will have the text go to a smaller point size, but not any smaller than lets say 15 point. If it still extends past the width at that point, I would like the excess text to wrap or drop to a second line, but separate at one of the spaces between words and stay at 18 point.

If there is no data within LocalVariable2, then I want it to skip that blank line. When I have the word wrap button on for the text box, my option to have the text formatted to the bottom right is grayed out. When I right click on the text box and look at the alignment, I can select to align to the “bottoms” radio button, but when I click out, it defaults back to “no change” for horizontal and vertical alignments.

I can’t seem to get the data to be able to format correctly.

My initial problem was that some company names are very long and I also had some couples names like (fictitious example) “Dr. Patrick S. Fitzsimmons and Ms. Maria L. Walters” where I needed to split the data from one field to two within excel using a method that separated them into LocalVariable1 for the first part and then LocalVariable2 for everything after and including the word and. If this could be part of the expression for the word wrap, perhaps I could just use the excel list “as is” and only have to deal with one LocalVariable within the text box.

Can anyone help with this? Thanks!

Hi tadams1,

There is a lot going on in what you describe and there will be no simple way of achieving this. I do recommend you keep all the logic in PlanetPress and have the regular Excel fields filled without bothering about their width within Excel, so it is consistent when fed to PlanetPress. From there, we'll need to use a lot of presstalk to evaluate the scenarios, the width of each field, to then apply the right approach to display as intended in all cases.
This will be a lot of work so I recommend you open a support ticket so you can get the assistance you need. Even through tech support, that is technically outside the support scope, but we can give it a shot for a few hours. It might get completed or at least give you a good starting point, from which you'll need to finish on your own, or have professional services involved.

Thanks.

Thank you. I opened a ticket.