Display long lists as multiple columns.

Author: Tripp W Black

Created: 10/17/2000 at 04:21 PM

 

Category:
Notes Developer Tips
Forms/Subforms, Formulas

From:
Advisor Tips mailed out via Search Domino.
By Jeffrey Konikowski
Forest Hills, NY, United States

Nobody likes to scroll down a screen when it can be avoided. For
multiple-value fields that contain many items such as a list of names,
try splitting one field into many computed-for-display fields for a
multiple column display that fits onto one screen (or at least reduces
the amount of scrolling).

You will need to hide the field with the list values and decide on the
number of columns to be displayed. For this example, I use three display
columns. Create four more hidden, computed-for-display, number fields:
Elements, Cols, ElementsPerCol, and LeftOver. Use the following formulas:
Elements field:
@Elements(List);
Cols field:
3
ElementsPerCol field:
@Round((Elements/Cols) - .5;1);
LeftOver field:
@Modulo(Elements;Cols);

Since we are going to display 3 columns of data, add three
computed-for-display fields in a 1 row - 3 column table: Col1, Col2, Col3
(one field per column). The formulas for these fields are:
Col1:
sTemp:=@If(LeftOver = -1 | LeftOver = 0;@Subset(theList;ElementsPerCol);
@Subset(theList;ElementsPerCol + LeftOver));
@If(@IsError(sTemp);"";sTemp)
Col2:
sTemp:=@Subset(@Subset(theList;-(2 * ElementsPerCol));ElementsPerCol);
@If(@IsError(sTemp);"";sTemp)
Col3:
sTemp:=@Subset(theList;-ElementsPerCol);
@If(@IsError(sTemp);"";sTemp)
Also, make sure that the Allow Mutliple Values option is True and Display
Separate Values With option is set to New Line for these three fields.

You now have a multiple column display for any list!


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