ACC2000: How to Create a Line That Can Shrink and Grow in a Report

The detail section of a report can grow and shrink vertically if you set its CanGrow and CanShrink properties to Yes. However, line controls do not have these properties and cannot grow or shrink as the detail section does. This article demonstrates how to use the Line method to draw a line that can grow and shrink as the detail section does.

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The Line method accepts two sets of coordinates. The first set (X1,Y1) determines the top left position, which is the starting point of the line. The second set (X2,Y2) determines the bottom right position, which is the end point of the line. The X1 and X2 arguments for a vertical line always have the same value, because these arguments specify how far from the left margin the line is printed. However, the values of the Y1 and Y2 arguments of a vertical line differ, and that difference specifies the height of the line.

Because the detail section of a report can grow or shrink to varying sizes, you can set the Y2 argument to a value that is greater than the expected maximum height of the detail section. Thus, the line is never shorter than the height of the detail section.

NOTE: Microsoft Access has a limitation of 22 inches for the height of a control or section. You will receive an overflow error if you try to set the Y2 argument to a value greater than 22 inches. If your detail section grows in excess of 22 inches, Microsoft Access will not be able to draw the line for the remainder of the section.

The following steps demonstrate how to use the Line method to programmatically draw a line in the detail section of a report and make it the same height as the section.

1. Open the sample database Northwind.mdb and create a blank new report based on the Employees table.
2. Set the Width property of the report to 5 in.
3. On the View menu, click Sorting and Grouping. Enter the following in the Sorting and Grouping dialog box, and then close it:
   Field/Expression: EmployeeID
   Sort Order: Ascending
   Group Header: Yes
4. If the field list is not displayed, click the Field List on the View menu to display it, and then drag the Notes field from the field list to the detail section of the report.
5. Delete the label of the Notes text box by selecting the label, and then pressing the DELETE key.
6. Set the properties of Notes text box as follows:
   Name: Notes
   ControlSource: Notes
   CanGrow: Yes
   CanShrink: Yes
   Left: 0.2 in
   Top: 0.166
   Width: 4.6042 in
   Height: 0.166 in
7. Select the horizontal detail bar to select the detail section of the report. Set the following properties for the detail section:
   CanGrow: Yes
   CanShrink: Yes
   Height: 0.5 in.
8. Set the OnPrint property of the detail section to the following event procedure:

   Private Sub Detail_Print(Cancel As Integer, PrintCount As Integer)
      Dim X1 As Single, Y1 As Single
      Dim X2 As Single, Y2 As Single
      Dim Color As Long
   
      ' Specify unit of measurement for coordinates on a page...
      Me.ScaleMode = 5 ' Specify that measurement occur in inches.
   
      ' Set line to print 5 inches from the left margin.
      X1 = 5
      X2 = 5
   
      ' Set line to print from the top of the detail section
      ' to a maximum height of 22 inches.
      Y1 = 0
      Y2 = 22
      Me.DrawWidth = 25 ' Width of the line (in pixels).
      Color = RGB(0, 0, 0)  ' Use black line color.
   
      ' Draw the line with the Line method.
      Me.Line (X1, Y1)-(X2, Y2), Color
   End Sub
   					

9. Preview the report. Note that the height of the vertical line to the right of the Notes field is the same as the height of the detail section.

For more information about the Line method, click Microsoft Access Help on the Help menu, type Line method in the Office Assistant or the Answer Wizard, and then click Search to view the topic.

For more information about using the Line method to draw rectangles, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: