Hi,
Interesting question as it's not a common thing ;-)
Usually when you put two lines of text in a textfield where one line is longer than the other, everything scales when using the autosqueeze-function which is not always what you want.
However, in this case I see what you mean and I understand why you want to do it.
In order to make this happen, we actually can't use the autosqueeze function in XPression and we need to build our own autosqueeze function, so make sure you disable the autosqueeze.
In the attached image you will see the visual logic for it.
Just some explanation on the principle of what we need to do:
First we need to specify the maximum width that the text is allowed to be.
Then we need to put in the text in the two textfields and see if one (or both) of the texts are exceeding the maximum width. Now you can do that by checking if the size is larger than the maximum width and then add logic to specify which one is longer etc...
However you can take a shortcut by just dividing the maximum width by the actual width of the text.
This will give you a value which is actually the scale that you would need to match the maximum width. When the scale is smaller then 1, the text is longer than the maximum textwidth and should be squeezed. When the scale is bigger than 1, then the text is shorter and should remain as it is.
By calculating the scale for both texts, you can then determine which is the longest text (to which the other text-field should adapt). This text will have the smallest scale.
So by applying the smallest scale to both of the textfields, both texts will be equal in height.
However there is a problem, because when both texts are smaller than the maximum textwidth, the scales will be larger than 1, which would mean that the texts are made bigger to match the maximum text width. So to avoid that we need to implement a condition that says that the scale can only be applied when the scale is smaller than 1. When it's bigger than 1, the scale should remain 1.
So with that information you can now have a look at the Visual Logic below.
Description:
"¢ BoundingBox.Width: this block gets the actual size of the text which we need to compare against the maximum textwidth allowed
"¢ Value: this is where I specify the maximum width which is allowed for the text
"¢ Divide: I use this block to calculate the scale for both textfields (MAX TEXT WIDTH / ACTUAL TEXT WIDTH) When the value is smaller than 1, the ACTUAL TEXT WIDTH is larger than the allowed text width.
"¢ Smaller Than-block: Since we need to adjust to the longest text, I need to find the smallest scale of the two texts. In this case, by using the Smaller Than-block, I can check if the second text-scale is smaller then the first text-scale. If this is the case the output of the Smaller Than-block will be 1. If it's not the case, the output will be 0.
"¢ Input Selector: Using the output of the Smaller Than block I can determine which scale should be used. So if the ouput of the Smaller Than block is 0 (meaning the first textfield is the longest), the scale of the first textfield will be sent to the output of the Input Selector. If the output of the Smaller Than block is 1, the scale of the second textfield will be sent to the output of the Input Selector.
This output could be sent directly to the X&Y-scale of both text-fields but when both texts are smaller than the maximum textwidth, it would increase the size of the text.
This is why there is another part in the Visual Logic that controls when the textfields should be scaled.
"¢ Value: this block holds the default value of the text-scale for when the text is smaller than the maximum width. This should be 1.
"¢ Smaller Than-block: By using this block, I can check if the scale coming out of the Input Selector is smaller than the default value (1). If this is the case, then the output of the Smaller Than-block will be 1. If not, the output will be 0.
"¢ Input Selector: Using the output of the Smaller Than block I can determine which scale should be used. So if the ouput of the Smaller Than block is 0 (meaning the scale is bigger than 1), the default scale will be sent to the output of the Input Selector. If the output of the Smaller Than block is 1, then the calculated scale of the Input Selector on the top will be sent to the output of the Input Selector.
The output of the Input Selector is then sent to the X&Y-scales of both text-fields.
Good luck!
Kenneth
#XPression