Multiline text fields don't expand in browser or when printing to PDF

Hi,

I’ve been using the multiline attribute for several forms and it appears that the corner of the field box in the webform should allow me to drag and enlarge the box. This is not working in either Firefox (37.0.1) or Chrome (48.0.2564.97). I’ve also tried the print feature and printed to PDF - if the amount of text entered in the text field fills more space than the default text box size the box is not expanded in size, instead some of the text just isn’t visible.

Is there a fix for this?

Thank you,
Che

Hi Che,

Manually enlarging (down) still works for me on Firefox and Chrome on both screen and print. Could you let us know what Operating System you are experiencing this on?

There is no automatic enlarging. It’s part of a larger missing feature to have a special printout view for records. The current print view is really meant to print empty forms for manual collection. I’ve created an issue to see if we can add this feature for printouts in the future: edit view broken · Issue #46 · kobotoolbox/enketo-express · GitHub.

Cheers,
Martijn

···

On Thursday, March 24, 2016 at 10:48:36 AM UTC-6, Che Geiser wrote:

Hi,

I’ve been using the multiline attribute for several forms and it appears that the corner of the field box in the webform should allow me to drag and enlarge the box. This is not working in either Firefox (37.0.1) or Chrome (48.0.2564.97). I’ve also tried the print feature and printed to PDF - if the amount of text entered in the text field fills more space than the default text box size the box is not expanded in size, instead some of the text just isn’t visible.

Is there a fix for this?

Thank you,
Che

1 Like

Sorry, wrong link. This is the correct one: Expand multiline text fields to fit text in print view · Issue #461 · kobotoolbox/enketo-express · GitHub

···

On Friday, March 25, 2016 at 3:32:45 PM UTC-6, Martijn van de Rijdt wrote:

Hi Che,

Manually enlarging (down) still works for me on Firefox and Chrome on both screen and print. Could you let us know what Operating System you are experiencing this on?

There is no automatic enlarging. It’s part of a larger missing feature to have a special printout view for records. The current print view is really meant to print empty forms for manual collection. I’ve created an issue to see if we can add this feature for printouts in the future: https://github.com/kobotoolbox/enketo-express/issues/46.

Cheers,
Martijn

On Thursday, March 24, 2016 at 10:48:36 AM UTC-6, Che Geiser wrote:

Hi,

I’ve been using the multiline attribute for several forms and it appears that the corner of the field box in the webform should allow me to drag and enlarge the box. This is not working in either Firefox (37.0.1) or Chrome (48.0.2564.97). I’ve also tried the print feature and printed to PDF - if the amount of text entered in the text field fills more space than the default text box size the box is not expanded in size, instead some of the text just isn’t visible.

Is there a fix for this?

Thank you,
Che

Hi Martijn,

I’m running Windows 7 Professional with Service Pack 1 installed. I’ve tried Chrome and Firefox again and they still won’t let me expand the text box for a multiline text box. Perhaps it is because I am not running the latest version of Firefox and Chrome (limitations placed by my IT department)?

I’ve got Firefox 37.0.1 and Chrome 48.0.2564.97 m

Thank you for any help! Kobo and Enketo have been a fantastic tool!

1 Like

I would be happy to send you a link to the form or the xls file if that would help. Is there a way to post the file privately?

Hi Che,
You can send us the file to sup...@kobotoolbox.org. Please try this form on a different computer and see if expanding the text box is possible there on a different browser version.

Thanks,

Tino

···

On Thu, Apr 7, 2016 at 1:29 PM, Che Geiser cheg...@gmail.com wrote:

I would be happy to send you a link to the form or the xls file if that would help. Is there a way to post the file privately?

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Hi all. Noticing this thread, and we actually have the same issue on our side. It’s been a few years, but has anyone found any way to address this? The Github issue seems to have been closed as unresolved, but this would be a very useful feature for us to have.

Hi @kevinholl,

Multiline is used with Appearance attribute for text ‘Question type’. Best if used with web clients (Enketo), makes the text box multiple lines long.

I just tried it at my end and could expand the text box by dragging it (from the right bottom as shown in the image below).

Image 1:

Image 2:

Thanks Kal. I should have been a bit more specific in my update. Some additional details:

1.) we use the grid theme for all of our forms, due to it’s expanded layout control
2.) upon saving and then re-opening a submission, all of the multiline text boxes revert to a default height, rather than dynamically sizing themselves to the size of the content (e.g. if there’s 10 lines of content in a given text box, all but the first few lines will be hidden
3.) we also use the print function to take completed submissions offline for review and markup, in this case, most of our multiline text box entries are obscured partially due to this same condition described in point 2 above.

As an end-user, I’d like to be able to print a completed submission via the enketo print button, and have all of the multi-line text boxes automatically sized appropriately so that they display all of the content in them without scroll bars

Hi @kevinholl,

Kindly please note that Enketo and KoBoToolbox are two different service providers providing service to users who wish to collect data using mobile platform. Using KoBoToolbox, you are able to build a survey form, deploy it, store the collected data, view the results that have been submitted to it. In addition to this you will need a medium to collect data which is fulfilled by KoBoCollect (an android based mobile app). There are few limitations in collecting data using KoBoCollect i.e. viewing survey questions with grid-theme display, collecting data in IOS devices (iphones)/computers etc. Such limitations are overcome by Enketo.

Now coming to your concern, Yes, if you try to view the data that you have submitted to the KoBoToolbox, you will not be able to see the full data as you could while entering your data in the multiline appearance under the text question type (reason stated above, as they are different service provider).

However, if you wish to print the collected data (in Enketo) and then make review, i would suggest you to fill up the form in Enketo and then press the Print Icon before submitting the form to the server (save the filled up form in PDF format by choosing the destination as Save as PDF). You could then submit the filled up survey to the server once you have a back-up of your filled up form.