Cell Spillover
Description
In the examples that we have looked at so far, Alpha Anywhere does not make any attempt to use space in adjoining cells, if those cells are unoccupied. In certain circumstances it might be advantageous to make Alpha Anywhere do this. For example, consider the following script, which has been decomposed into cells. In this example, cell spillover is turned off (the default mode for all Xdialog dialog boxes). Because the text description in the first row is so long, the first column must be widened to make room for the whole string. The cell to the right of the text string, however, is empty, and could be used as overflow space for the text string.
result=ui_dlg_box("Title",<<%dlg%Enter your firstname, last name and occupation:
- First Name:
.20firstname;
- Last Name:
.20lastname;
- Occupation:
.30occupation;
- <&OK> ;
%dlg% )
In this example, cellspillover is turned on, and Alpha Anywhere automatically overflows text into the adjoining cell.
result=ui_dlg_box("Title",<<%dlg%
{cellspillover=on}Enter your firstname, last name and occupation:
- First Name:
.20firstname;
- Last Name:
.20lastname;
- Occupation:
.30occupation;
- <&OK> <&Cancel>;
%dlg% )
You do not have to turn cellspillover on in order to make the first example look more pleasing (i.e. with a narrower first column). You can use regions to separate the dialog into logical blocks. For example, the first script could be written as:
result=ui_dlg_box("Title",<<%dlg%
{region}
Enter your firstname, last name and occupation: ;
{endregion};
{region}
First Name: .20firstname;
Last Name: .20lastname;
Occupation: .30occupation;
{endregion};
{region}
<&OK> <&Cancel>;
{endregion};
%dlg% )The syntax for tuning cellspillover on and off is: {Cellspillover=On} and {Cellspillover=Off}.
Limitations
Desktop applications only.
See Also