This information is for Version 2.0 of Cardbox for Windows.
We recommend that you upgrade to Cardbox 3.

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Declared record width exceeds available space  

(Technical support)

This error message indicates that you have designed a format that is too wide to be printed, and you have to correct the situation before Cardbox can print.

In some cases, people have trouble working out what went wrong, so here is a list of information for you to gather.  The act of gathering the information may show you what the trouble is; but if it doesn't, telling us everything that you have found out will make it easier for us to help you.

Printable area

Printer Settings screen

Use the command File, Printer Settings and note the paper size (and the label size, if applicable).  You can work in inches or millimetres (see the Unit control at the bottom right-hand corner).

Text Margins screen

Switch to the Text Margins page and note any margins that have been set.  Be aware that most printers cannot print up to the edge of the paper, so even if you have specified a margin of zero, the real margin will be considerably larger.  The exact amount is decided by the printer driver and is outside Cardbox's control: typically, it is about ¼" or 6mm.

Problems with fonts: Some Microsoft fonts (for example, those installed with Internet Explorer 5.0) contain misleading information about character width, which can confuse Cardbox into thinking that a format is twice as wide as it really is.  Releases of Cardbox 2.0 after 16-Feb-01 are immune to this problem, but if you have an older release, and especially if the problem has appeared suddenly, try downloading the latest version before you do any more investigation.

 

Fonts

Printer Appearance screen

Switch to the Appearance page and note the name and size of all four fonts that are listed there.

Now close the Printer Settings dialog box.

"Same as screen": If this option is set, then Cardbox is using the same fonts for printing and for display, which means that whenever you change the appearance on the screen, using the View, Appearance command, you are also changing the printed appearance.  If "Same as screen" is not set, then Cardbox is using different fonts for printing and for display, and the View, Appearance command will have no effect on the printed layout.

We mention this because it can be very puzzling when you try View, Appearance and it seems to have no effect on printed margins.

Format width

Use the command Edit, Format, Edit to view the layout of the format that you are trying to use.

Corner of formatLook at the top right-hand corner and note the position of the red triangle that indicates the edge of the format.  As an additional guide, the colour of the blue background changes at this point (you may need to scroll sideways to see all this).  In the example, the triangle is in column 128, so the format has 127 columns (from 1 to 127). 

Printable AreaNext, make sure that the option View, Printable Area is turned on.  You will now see a bold black box showing the area in which it is possible to print.  Note the column in which you see the right-hand edge of the box.  In the example, the line is in column 122, so there is room to print 121 columns with the paper size, font size, and margins that you have selected.

 

If you can't read the labels clearly enough to see what column you are in, move the mouse into that column and look at the status display at the bottom of the screen.

What to do next

Now that you have all the pieces of the puzzle, it should be possible for you to work out what is going on.  Here are some possible cures:

Make the format narrower
There may be some unused blank space between the rightmost field and the edge of the format.  You can try dragging the red triangle to the left to get rid of this space, but don't drag it so that you leave a field partly outside the format, because as soon as you save the format, Cardbox will expand it again, to accommodate all the fields.
Redesign the format
You can use the black box as a guide, and redesign the fields so that they all fit within it; then move the red triangle to make the format narrower.
Change printer, paper, or margins
Remember that you can't reduce margins below a certain amount (the amount varies from one printer to another) because most printers are simply not capable of printing very close to the edge of the paper.  If you do reduce the margin too far, Cardbox will have to use the margin that is built in to the printer driver for your printer.
Change font
If "Same as screen" was set in the Appearance page of Printer Settings, then you have a choice: you can use View, Appearance to change the screen display and the printed appearance simultaneously, or you can use Edit, Printer Settings to change the printed appearance only. 
In the latter case (or if "Same as screen" was not set), you should be aware that the format layout you see on the screen reflects the fonts and sizes that you chose for the screen display, not for the printed layout.  The black box that indicates the printable area will always be calculated using the printed appearance, so that as you change the printed font, the size of the black box will change on the screen.
Change grid spacing
Cardbox calculates format layout using a character grid, because this makes it easy for you to change font sizes without wrecking the layout.  You can use the Grid Spacing control (part of the Appearance pages) to adjust the width of a column in this grid without changing the actual font size.  This can sometimes be a good way of quickly making a layout printable if it was only slightly too wide to start with.
 

 

 


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