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Page Numbers and Dates

Description

You may use the Drag-and-Drop List to place objects on a layout of any type:

  • Form

  • Browse

  • Report

  • Label

  • Letter

The objects that you may place include:

  • Fields from the current table or set

  • Calculated fields

  • Page numbers

  • The current date

  • The current record number

  • and other system fields

    images/Drag_and_Drop_List.gif

Inserting Page Numbers

To insert page numbers on a layout, either drag the PageNumber field from the System section of the Drag-and-Drop List onto the layout, or create a new calculated field using the expression: 

PAGENO( 
)

You can also drag and drop the PageXofY field onto the layout. This field prints the current page number and the total number of pages in the layout. For example, page 3 of 25.

Inserting Page Numbers in Reports

With reports, the page number is usually placed in the report page footer (see Headers and Footers for more details). If your report has grouping levels, the PAGENO( <a>) function can be used to count pages of a particular group. For example, you have a report which groups customers by state, and the records of customers from a particular state may span several pages. You can make the Report easier to read by inserting both the physical page number and the page number of the group. The page number for a group resets when the group breaks. The expression for counting pages in a group is: 

PAGENO(GROUPNAME 
)

Where GROUPNAME is the name of the group whose pages you want to count. For example: 

PAGENO(grp->Invoice_number)

Inserting the Current Date

To insert the current date on a layout, either drag the Date variable from the System section of the Drag-and-Drop List onto the layout, or create a new calculated value using the expression: 

DATE()

When the calculated value is created, its default format separates the day, month, and year with slashes (E.g., 11/23/1995), however you can choose from a variety of other formatting options. For example, you can display 11/23/95 as "November 23, 1995." To set the date format, either right click on the control or select the control and choose Object > Properties. When the Field Properties dialog box appears, display the Format tab. You can choose the date format from the Format style drop-down list box. If you choose a longer date format, set the field width using the Width spin box, otherwise the date will be truncated. For example, if you choose the format style "December 31st, 1988", set the width to at least 20, or the last part of the date will be cut off. You may also have to increase the size of the field on the layout. As an alternative, you can define a custom date format by creating a calculated value using the expression: 

DATE_FORMAT(DATE(), FORMAT)

See Also