While designing a document, you can drag the lower boundary of a section to make it larger or smaller. However, by default, when you view a document as a PDF, its sections expand to fit the controls that they contain. They do not shrink when the controls are smaller than the section size. You can change this behavior by setting the Can Shrink property to True. Then the sections should be only as big as necessary to display all the information in the section.
You can define a section as a set size that does not vary, or as a variable size that grows or shrinks within set limits. Steps to do this are below.
Open the document in Design or Editable Mode.
Select the section to resize.
From the Format menu, select Properties and Formatting. The Properties and Formatting dialog box opens.
From the left, select Layout.
Set the Height of the section in inches.
Sets the following options. For suggestions, several sample settings are provided below to achieve specific design goals.
Can grow: Determines whether the section height can expand to fit its contents. Affects all view modes and PDF export. Clear this check box to decrease the time it takes to execute the document.
Can shrink: Determines whether the section height can shrink to fit its contents. Affects all view modes and PDF export. Clear this check box to decrease the time it takes to execute the document.
Maximum height: Maximum size of the section. The height of the section adjusts automatically to its contents but it will not exceed the set maximum. Zero (0) indicates there is no height limit.
Hide if Empty: Determine whether the section is displayed if it has no content, regardless of how the Can Shrink property is set. By default, this check box is selected.
You can use these settings in combination to create the following size designs:
Fit to size: Use the following settings to have the size of the section adjust automatically to the contents, without any waste of space:
Can grow: True
Can shrink: True
Maximum height: 0 (zero)
Fixed height: Use the following settings to have the height of the section remain the same, regardless of its contents:
Height: desired size of the section
Can grow: False
Can shrink: False
Grow to a maximum height: Use the following settings to have the height of the section adjust automatically to its contents but not exceed the set maximum:
Can grow: True
Can shrink: True
Maximum height: maximum size of the section
Shrink up to a minimum height: Use the following settings to have the height of the section adjust automatically to its contents but not shrink below the set minimum:
Height: minimum size of the section
Can grow: True
Can shrink: False
Maximum height: 0 (zero)
Vary within a set range: Use the following settings to have the height of the section adjust automatically to its contents but not exceed the set maximum nor shrink below the set minimum:
Height: minimum size of the section
Can grow: True
Can shrink: False
Maximum height: maximum size of the section
Notes:
If Maximum Height is less than Height, the section is displayed with a fixed height equal to the Height setting.
The Hide If Empty setting can also be used with any of these size designs. If this setting is set to True, the section does not display if it contains no data. If it is set to False, the section displays according to the size settings, even if the section does not contain any data.
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