Example 3: highlighting rows of data
The following DataWindow object is an employee phone list for a company
in Massachusetts. Out-of-state (not in Massachusetts) employees
are shown in bold and preceded by two asterisks (**):
This DataWindow object uses newspaper columns. To
understand how to create this DataWindow object without highlighting data,
see “Printing with newspaper-style
columns”.
In the Design view, the detail band includes four controls:
the employee last name, a comma, the employee first name, and the
phone number:
To make these controls display in bold with two asterisks
if the employee is not from Massachusetts:
-
Select one of the controls, then use Ctrl + click
to select the other three controls.The Properties view changes to show the properties that are
common to all selected controls. -
On the Font page in the Properties view, click the
button next to the Bold property. -
Enter the following expression in the Modify Expression
dialog box and click OK:1If(state = 'MA', 400, 700)The expression states that if the value of the state column
is MA, use 400 as the font weight. This means employees from Massachusetts
display in the normal font. For any state except MA, use 700 as
the font weight. This means all other employees display in bold
font.
Logic that relies on the state column
To use logic that relies on the state column,
you need to include the column in the data source. You can add the
column after creating the DataWindow object by modifying the data source.
Notice that the state column does not actually
appear anywhere in the DataWindow object. Values must be available but
do not need to be included in the DataWindow object. -
To insert two asterisks (**) in
front of the employee name if the employee is not from Massachusetts,
add a text control to the left of the employee name with the two
asterisks in bold. -
With the text control selected, click the button
next to its Visible property on the General page in the Properties
view. -
In the Modify Expression dialog box that displays,
enter the following expression and click OK:1If(state = 'MA', 0, 1)This expression says that if the state of the employee is
MA (the true condition), the Visible property of the ** control
is off (indicated by 0). If the state of the employee is not MA
(the false condition), the Visible property of the ** control
is on (indicated by 1). The asterisks are visible next to that employee’s
name. Tip
You can use underlines, italics, strikethrough, borders, and
colors to highlight information.