Why are these table borders displayed?

[LeviP]

Does anyone know why these table borders are displayed?

I have a table in doc, I have set the borders that I do not need to 0 in size and color white, but I see that in the generated pdf some are shown

 

[WillowMobileSys]

I have created many templates but I don't think I have ever had a case where a portion of a table hide borders and another didn't.  Because AppSheet uses a 3rd party PDF generation tool, it may be that the tool doesn't support this use case.

I would first try turning off borders for the entire table to test that works.  If so, then it's a good indication the use case of mixed borders is not supported.

Next, make a copy of your template first, and then I would try an embedded table!!!   You can insert tables inside of a table cell.  Merge the cells of your grayed table area to create one big table cell.  Insert a new table inside with the same column/row configuration, assign the labels and values and apply the shading.  Select the entire MAIN table and turn of borders.set to white.   Then select the new table and turn ON borders.

I hope this helps!

[LeviP]

Thank you, I solved it by doing it in Microsoft Word and then adjusting it in Google Docs

[Denzil_Snyman]

@LeviP Hi, most of the time in my templates where this occurred It was because I had merged cells before turning off the borders, so I had to unmerge all merged cells and then I found borders still in place on the  merged cells that I could not see in template but they were rendering in pdf. It is strange behavior as I would assume they would be ignored but they are not. 

[LeviP]

Thanks, I solved it by doing it in Microsoft Word and then adjusting it in Google Docs

[LeviP]

I wonder how I can keep the detail fixed, since depending on the number of items in the detail, the footer overflows.

 

 

[Denzil_Snyman]

Hi @LeviP,

This is a work around, but also eventually pushes over if too many items,

You can make two single row, single column tables on a Seperate page, then set the top table minimum height to the required space and the second one to minimum height for footer to fit in.

Then past the entire top section you designed inside the first block, and then the entire footer in the second block. 

The top section will grow in side the  first block and eventually hit the bottom and then push it off but for now it will cater for quite a few rows before that happens.

To get mutiple pages I would attempt an IF condition to count rows that fit and display those row s on page 1, if more than that amount then another IF condition to show page 2 with the overflow foes and same footer at bottom. Honestly this is a nightmare when wanting pagination to happen, you must manually make it happen.

Would be better if appsheet just found a way to allow page numbers and doc footers to render into PDF, this is 2024 and we have AI, so it should be a priority by now. @lizlynch 

[LeviP]

Thank you, but I don't know if it works for me, I can't have two pages on a sales invoice, at least in standard bond paper format.

I have another idea, I'll leave it here if it works for me.

[Denzil_Snyman]

@LeviP  you don't need two, only if you have many many rows causing it to overflow 1 page, once you copied your top section in the top block and then the footer in the other block you can remove the original 1st page and replace with the modified one to test..

 

 set the minimim row height of 1st block to 22cm and bottom block to 6cm for example, the paste your existing footer section into bottom block and other section into top block. Once it works you can hide the main block borders.

The rows can increase up until the white space in first block is full before the footer starts pushing downwards.

The above is still one page and footer doesn't move. However if I go over 12 rows of entries it then kicks it over to next page. 

[LeviP]

Thanks for showing me, I see that it works well for you, well I think I'll add a condition that doesn't allow adding more than 10 rows per order

For what you're telling me, is it just page configuration, or do I depend on code in the bot?

For me it's a bit confusing, this hasn't happened to me before, I usually use tickets

[Denzil_Snyman]

@LeviP That's correct, nothing done on the bot except setting page size and leave custom margins off on bot and setting all page margins to zero in doc itself to maximize space usage, all the rest done in the page itself. The footer block must be set to bottom align and top block to top align. 

Setting a condition in the app to limit 10 rows is a great idea to stop overflow.

Good luck as templates can get messy as I am sure you can see... 🙂

[LeviP]

Thanks friend, I couldn't solve it as you indicated, but I solved it in another way.

There are 12 rows per invoice, I have put a condition in valid if of the productid field, so that it doesn't allow adding more than 12 per invoice

[Denzil_Snyman]

I'm glad you have found a way.... 😎