Alignment change between Connected Text Frames

[Drew H]

I have text flowing from Frame A into connected Frame B.

I want the text in Frame A to be right aligned, but the text in frame B to be left aligned.

The Variable Text Editor will only allow me to set it statically, but I have variables that could be empty lines - leaving an unsure number of lines flowing into Frame B.

How can I have Frame B force left aligned text?

[Douglas Cogan]

Hi Drew,

The expectation is that the text would flow from one frame to the next and keep its formatting, kind of like wrapping around a picture. In order to accomplish what you need, you'll need to measure the text, adding content until it no longer fits in a frame, and then put that in as 2 paragraphs, one left aligned and one right aligned.

If you're willing to send the job to FusionProSupport@marcom.com we can take a look at it.

[Drew H]

Sure thing Douglas, I'll send it in.

I know I can accommodate 5 lines in Frame A - the problem is that it won't always be the same 5 lines. This is a business card, and it has Direct, Cell, and Main phone number entries. Users may include all 3 or none - which results in 3 additional variables being pushed into Frame B (where they need to dynamically align left) or staying in Frame A (where they need to align right).

 

[Drew H]

Unfortunately, FusionPro support was very unhelpful. The support person seemed very uninterested in reading my explanation, this forum thread, or understanding what I was trying to do - but I was able to solve the problem using chatGPT to write javascript alone (instead of using FusionPro connected frames).

I used two javascript rules. One to create a text block using the first 5 non-blank fields, and another to create a textblock using any non-blank fields that did not fit into the first texblock.

I'm sure it's not elegant, but it allowed me to create the illusion of text flow, but separately - so I could format the text as needed per frame.

 

First Text Block rule

//create a text block containing the first 5 non-blank variables (including some necessary added text before specific fields).
var textBlock1 = "";
var fields = [
    Field("Street Address"),
    Field("City State ZIP"),
    Rule("Direct Format RULE"),
    Rule("Cell Format RULE"),
    Rule("Main Format RULE"),
    Field("Email"),
    Field("Website"),
    Field("NMLS")
];

var maxFields = 5;
var includedFields = 0;

for (var i = 0; i < fields.length; i++) {
    if (fields[i] !== "") {
        if (i === 2 && fields[i] !== "") {
            textBlock1 += "Direct: " + fields[i] + "\r\n";
        } else if (i === 3 && fields[i] !== "") {
            textBlock1 += "Cell: " + fields[i] + "\r\n";
        } else if (i === 4 && fields[i] !== "") {
            textBlock1 += "Main: " + fields[i] + "\r\n";
        } else if (i === 7 && fields[i] !== "") {
            textBlock1 += "NMLS # " + fields[i] + "\r\n";
        } else {
            textBlock1 += fields[i] + "\r\n";
        }
        includedFields++;
        if (includedFields >= maxFields) {
            break;
        }
    }
}

return textBlock1;

 

Second Text Block Rule

//create a text block containing any variables that did not fit into the first text block (including some necessary added text before specific fields).
var textBlock1 = "";
var textBlock2 = "";
var fields = [
    Field("Street Address"),
    Field("City State ZIP"),
    Rule("Direct Format RULE"),
    Rule("Cell Format RULE"),
    Rule("Main Format RULE"),
    Field("Email"),
    Field("Website"),
    Field("NMLS")
];

var maxFields = 5;
var includedFields = 0;

for (var i = 0; i < fields.length; i++) {
    if (fields[i] !== "") {
        if (includedFields < maxFields) {
            if (i === 2) {
                textBlock1 += "Direct: " + fields[i] + "\r\n";
            } else if (i === 3) {
                textBlock1 += "Cell: " + fields[i] + "\r\n";
            } else if (i === 4) {
                textBlock1 += "Main: " + fields[i] + "\r\n";
            } else if (i === 7) {
                textBlock1 += "NMLS #: " + fields[i] + "\r\n";
            } else {
                textBlock1 += fields[i] + "\r\n";
            }
        } else {
            if (i === 2) {
                textBlock2 += "Direct: " + fields[i] + "\r\n";
            } else if (i === 3) {
                textBlock2 += "Cell: " + fields[i] + "\r\n";
            } else if (i === 4) {
                textBlock2 += "Main: " + fields[i] + "\r\n";
            } else if (i === 7) {
                textBlock2 += "NMLS #: " + fields[i] + "\r\n";
            } else {
                textBlock2 += fields[i] + "\r\n";
            }
        }
        includedFields++;
    }
}

return textBlock2;

 

[Jon Ricoh]

Drew,

Sorry, that you didn't get a good experience with FusionPro Support. This would be something they would have to task to one of their programmers.

You could use a text rule like this with 2 text frames and it should what I think you want. Put this rule in Frame A and then link it to Frame B.

//Rule_info
var myinfo = "";

//Creating an array to see how many fields are being used.
//You can swop out any of these with the rules with the prefix text ("Direct: ", "Cell: ", "Main: ", or "NMLS #")
var allinfo = [Field("Street Address"),Field("City State ZIP"),Field("Direct"),Field("Cell"),Field("Main"),Field("Email"),Field("Website"),Field("NMLS")];

//This is the tagged markup for the right justified text with a leading of 9pt
var rightjust = '<p style="(no style)" override="true" quad="R" leading="90" findent="0" lindent="0" rindent="0" leadbefore="0" leadafter="0" keeplines="true" widows="1" kerning="true" hyphenate="false" skipifempty="true" skipifemptyvar="false" noparabreakoncopyfit="false"><tracking newsize="0"><f name="ITC Avant Garde Std Bk"><z newsize="7.0"><color name="C=0 M=100 Y=0 K=0">';

//This is the tagged markup for the left justified text with a leading of 9pt
var leftjust = '<p style="(no style)" override="true" quad="L" leading="90" findent="0" lindent="0" rindent="0" leadbefore="0" leadafter="0" keeplines="true" widows="1" kerning="true" hyphenate="false" skipifempty="true" skipifemptyvar="false" noparabreakoncopyfit="false"><tracking newsize="0"><f name="ITC Avant Garde Std Bk"><z newsize="7.0"><color name="C=0 M=100 Y=0 K=0">';

//This is the loop to pull everything in
for (i=0; i<allinfo.length; i++)
{
    if (i<5)
        var mysep = rightjust+'<p>';    //This sets the right justification for the first 5 fields
    else
        var mysep = leftjust+'<p>';    //This sets the left justification for the rest
        
    if (i < 1)
        myinfo = AppendText(myinfo, "", rightjust + allinfo[i]);    //set the right justification for the first field
    else
        myinfo = AppendText(myinfo, mysep, allinfo[i]);
}
return myinfo;

//You can put this in the Javascript Globals so you can use it in all rules.
function AppendText(FullText, Delimiter, NewText)
{
    if (NewText != "")
    {
        if (FullText != "")
            FullText += Delimiter;
        FullText += NewText;
    }
    return FullText;
}