# Reporting - Work around TextShape's automatic resizing

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/reporting-work-around-textshapes-automatic-resizing/69429>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Tags:** ignition81\
**Created:** [February 3, 2023, 6:48pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/reporting-work-around-textshapes-automatic-resizing/69429 "2023-02-03T18:48:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![gdube](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/gdube/32/41701_2.png) [@gdube](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/gdube)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2023, 6:48pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/reporting-work-around-textshapes-automatic-resizing/69429/1 "2023-02-03T18:48:07Z")

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Hi there, I guess this one is geared towards the devs.  
The "Text" shape will resize itself upon resizing the header/details section of a table, even if the section is **not** in "Structured Columns" mode.

I've found no way to disable this behavior.

Could it possible to subclass the Text shape (in a custom module) to avoid it?  
I'm not sure if it's the Header or the shape itself that's handling the resizing.

![Animation](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/d/8/d80e1be2edb1216750a7f810d6b58c38dc761600.gif)

Thanks in advance.

EDIT:  
Very strange, I can get a text shape that won't resize itself if I do this:  
 ![Animation](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/original/3X/d/2/d26660e9f3f6a3b93d028cefa4c692a64d760578.gif)

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**Author:** ![paul-griffith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/paul-griffith/32/37249_2.png) [@paul-griffith](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/paul-griffith)\
**Post date:** [February 3, 2023, 8:41pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/reporting-work-around-textshapes-automatic-resizing/69429/2 "2023-02-03T20:41:09Z")

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Huh. Well, you're going to have a rough time doing anything about this as an end user. If it's _really_ bugging you, you could probably adapt the technique here:

> [@PDF report linking](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/pdf-report-linking/18860/2):
>
> You completely nerd-sniped me with this topic - I definitely shouldn’t have spent as much time on this as I did. But, this is actually possible with the existing reporting module. We’ll definitely have to see about adding this capability in a better way. Basically, the workaround I came up with relies on the fact that objects in reporting can be copied to the clipboard and show up as XML representations of the underlying Java object. So, to use this (extremely janky) workaround: 0. Paste the s…

A typical text shape in an unstructured row looks like this:

```xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<alist>
  <text x="219" y="144" width="196" height="34.776">
    <string>adsfadsfasdfasdfadfasdfasdfasdf</string>
  </text>
</alist>

```

A 'sticky' text shape after you set the row structured looks like this:

```auto
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<alist>
  <text x="150" y="105" width="79" height="19.958" asize="--~,--~">
    <stroke type="border" />
    <string>asdfasdfadsf</string>
    <format type="date" pattern="MMM d, y" null-string="&lt;N/A&gt;" />
    <format type="number" pattern="#0.##" null-string="&lt;N/A&gt;" />
  </text>
</alist>

```

Note that `asize="--~,--~"` block. That's the critical bit. The `autosizing` parameter is defined elsewhere as:

> Returns the autosizing settings as a string with hyphens for struts and tilde for springs (horiz,vert).

So, uhh, yeah. If you really want it fixed anytime soon, you could borrow the technique I used in that other post to duplicate the text shape XML, add the auto size key you want, and put it back on the clipboard to be pasted back in.

I won't say that this _isn't_ a bug, per se, but it's also just strange behavior, and I'll be honest, I doubt anyone else has ever noticed it to complain.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gdube](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/gdube/32/41701_2.png) [@gdube](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/gdube)\
**Post date:** [February 4, 2023, 8:47pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/reporting-work-around-textshapes-automatic-resizing/69429/3 "2023-02-04T20:47:17Z")

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Thank you Paul, I'll try your method.

The reason I want to do this is that including a SimpleTable in a Header will break exporting to Excel.