Form Caption Length

[Janie]

working in A97 ... supposedly Form Caption length max is 2048 characters ---
mine is only allowing 110 characters .. any ideas why?

 

[Janie]

1) if HELP says the caption can be 2048 characters, than why the truncation
.... especially since the FORM is 8 inches wide -- there is ample room for a
120 character caption

2) why I need/want a longer caption is really immaterial .. but if you MUST
know, it is a positioning issue, I prefer this particular bit of caption info
(which is dynamic and changes as the user is working) to be centered on the
title bar -- better visual appeal. So, theoretical I should be able to
define my caption as Space(80) & strCaption with strCaption being a 35 to 40
character phrase. Sadly, the last 5 to 10 characters are evaporating.

So, tell me something I DON'T already know

 

[John W. Vinson]

I prefer this particular bit of caption info
(which is dynamic and changes as the user is working) to be centered on the
title bar -- better visual appeal.

Captions tend to be static parts of the form object itself; if this is dynamic
and changeable, perhaps it would be easier to use an unbound Textbox or Label
control instead, and dynamically set its value or caption as you prefer.
Either a textbox or label can be set centered of course.

 

[Janie]

well, then it isn't in the Title Bar, then is it?

Also, since the Form Caption supposedly can be up to 2048 characters, I have
yet to hear a reasonable explanation why an 8 inch wide form is dropping
everything after the 110th character .. which is the orignal question.

I can come up with workarounds galore that do not involve the Title Bar or
the Form Caption property ... but that is not satisfying the question nor the
intellectual curiosity to understand this behavior.

 

[John W. Vinson]

but that is not satisfying the question nor the
intellectual curiosity to understand this behavior.

Sorry, I haven't played around with the form Caption property at all and don't
have any idea why it's doing this.

 

[Janie]

Now that is something interseting ... I had already experimented with spaces
as
character strings (sans Space function) and had the same effect. Also, the
string never started with spaces -- there was always charatcers followed by
spaces followed by characters followed by spaces followed by characters ...
and always dropped after 110. The only time this did not happen was if the
string was continuous with no spaces either as in " My String" or in
string(8," ") or in space(8) ... only if the string was something like
string(255,"x").

The Help states:
"The Caption property is a string expression that can contain up to 2,048
characters. Captions for forms and reports that are too long to display in
the title bar are truncated."

But I have yet to find a definitive rule on what is considered "too long".

Snippy? No dear, withering. I am an old time professor out of the
Kingsfield mold.

In Access 2003 I can't find information in Access Specifications about the
length of the form caption. I see that labels are limited to 2048 characters,
but nothing about the form caption. However, some additional checking
suggests that any caption property, including the form caption, is limited to
2048 characters.

In my experiments I discovered that the form caption seems to be a bit quirky.
If there are a lot of leading spaces, the right side is truncated by what
seems to be a similar amount of space as on the left side, but not as much if
it is all text (i.e. without the Space function). From what I can tell,
spaces are the only way to center the caption. Here is a code way to
calculate spaces:
http://www.applecore99.com/api/api017.asp
I found it in a brief search, but have not tested it, and make no claims
about the method.

In responding I realize I run the risk of having you get snippy at me too,
but I was curious and did some investigating, the limited results of which I
decided to pass along. The bottom line is that I don't know why it behaves
as it does, but I would just point out that a form with a caption that
includes leading spaces may show up as blank in the windows task bar, which
may or may not be an inconvenience for users.

I was going to suggest that you set the Border Style to None, and use a text
box to simulate the title bar. You can probably even simulate the control
box buttons (Min, Max, Close), but you will need to write code for them.
However, it is probably among the "workarounds galore" you have already
considered.

well, then it isn't in the Title Bar, then is it?

Also, since the Form Caption supposedly can be up to 2048 characters, I have
yet to hear a reasonable explanation why an 8 inch wide form is dropping
everything after the 110th character .. which is the orignal question.

I can come up with workarounds galore that do not involve the Title Bar or
the Form Caption property ... but that is not satisfying the question nor the
intellectual curiosity to understand this behavior.

I prefer this particular bit of caption info
(which is dynamic and changes as the user is working) to be centered on the

[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]

control instead, and dynamically set its value or caption as you prefer.
Either a textbox or label can be set centered of course.

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