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Finance | Project Operations, Human Resources, ...
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Increasing the Item Description - The Impossible Dream?

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Posted on by 3,484

Hi:

A GP 2016 client uses the Word Template to generate Sales Order Processing sales invoices.  Historically, her Item Descriptions have run as long as 69 characters.

Over the past couple of months when she has reported the last few characters of the Item Description as being cut off, I have been pretty successful at conducting such tasks as increasing the length of the Item Description in Report Writer as well as ever so slightly moving the separator lines between "Description" and "Unit Price" over as far as possible without cutting off important data.

For the third time now, she is today reporting an instance where the last two characters of the Item Description of the latest invoice is not showing all characters of the Item Description.  I think that the number of characters in the Item Description in this invoice is now 71, as the term "PAIL" is displaying as "PA".  This is the final term in the description.

I won't have remote access, until tomorrow, so I cannot take a look at this until then.

But, it would not surprise me if I cannot "stretch things out" any further. 

If it is the case that a character limitation or something along those lines is going to prevent me from fulfilling this client's need, how do I solve this or how do I at least politely advise the client to maybe buy into a third-party addon such as Accountable Software's Forms Printer?

I'm not sure what else to tell her.

Thanks!

John

Categories:
  • Richard Wheeler Profile Picture
    Richard Wheeler 75,788 Moderator on at
    RE: Increasing the Item Description - The Impossible Dream?

    I would check the default Window's fonts. Perhaps the font size has increased. If not, look into GP Reports Viewer from Flexible Solutions.

  • David Musgrave MVP GPUG All Star Legend Moderator Profile Picture
    David Musgrave MVP ... 13,965 Most Valuable Professional on at
    RE: Increasing the Item Description - The Impossible Dream?

    You can use the RW_ParseString() RW Function to parse string into lines with a maximum of 80 characters per line.

    https://winthropdc.wordpress.com/2008/09/01/using-the-built-in-report-writer-functions/

    Also if you want to extend the Description longer than the field size of 100 characters, we could use Modifier to replace the field with a longer field up to 255 characters. Then using GP Power Tools, Dexterity, Visual Studio Tools or VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) to make the field work.

    https://winthropdc.wordpress.com/2019/08/12/gppt-replacing-vba-with-gp-power-tools-developer-tools/

    Regards

    David

  • Almas Mahfooz Profile Picture
    Almas Mahfooz 11,006 User Group Leader on at
    RE: Increasing the Item Description - The Impossible Dream?

    As far as I know length of Item Description is 100 Characters and this is keyable length, storage length of this field is 102. 

    so if still your client's item description is 71 characters then I don't see any issue why it wouldn't shown up on report.

  • Suggested answer
    Don Wisch Profile Picture
    Don Wisch 660 on at
    RE: Increasing the Item Description - The Impossible Dream?

    Hi John,

    If you stick with GP Reporter Writer then there is a limit to how many characters are returned in each field, regardless whether you are using Word Templates or RW.  If you move to Forms Printer and using SSRS as the source for the report then you don't have to worry about the cap on the # of characters returned.  If you decide to stick with RW/Word Template then look at this article from Dave Musgrave.

    winthropdc.wordpress.com/.../

    Best of luck!!!

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