Dynamic Text Not Reading emptyStr

[RyanCircello]

I am producing a map book utilizing data driven pages and am utilizing dynamic text to label adjoining pages in my map book (i.e. FOR CONTINUATION SEE EXHIBIT X". That all works well and fine except for when I get to maps that do not have an adjoing map. For those maps I want the entire string to disappear, both static and dynamic text.  I researched this, and found the emptyStr command but for unknown reasons I can not get it to actually remove the static text (the static text is placed using the preStr command).

My entire text string is as follows:
  <dyn type="page" property="PageNam_S" preStr="For Continuation See: " emptyStr=" " />

Any thoughts as to why this is not removing the entire text string for maps that do not have an adjoing map?

[DavidWatkins]

I�??m not sure why this is not working for you. I tried creating a brand new index layer and added the PageNam attribute and then used the Calculate Adjacent Fields tool to add the adjoining attributes for PageNam_N, PageNam_S, PageNam_E and PageNam_W. Then just copied the text string directly from your forum post here, and the emptyStr is working for me.  I tried this with version 10.0 SP3 and a 10.1 Beta 2.  Is the attribute �??PageNam_S�?� correct?  That is the only thing I can�??t check.

David

[RyanCircello]

Yes, "PageNam_S" is correct. The adjoing pages show up correctly. My issue is only concerning maps that do not have adjoing maps. My understanding is that the emptyStr commad is supposed to remove both the preStr text as well as the dynamic page name text when there is no page name. Right now, the dynamic page name is blank as it should be but the preStr text still shows up.

I have verified I am updated to service pak 3 and the issue still persists.

At this point all I can guess is that for some reason the emptyStr command is reading empty boxes from the index layer as having something in them when in reality they are blank.

Not sure what else to try.

Thanks.

[DavidWatkins]

If you remove the emptyStr = " " from your dynamic text string, does it display the default [empty] on the page?  Can you verify that the field is empty and doesn�??t have spaces in it or anything?

Thanks,
David

[RyanKelso]

I have the same exact problem and I can't figure it out, I've tried everything I can think of.  I'm running version 10.0 SP4.  Dynamic text doesn't honor an empty attribute as it is supposed to.  I calculated adjacent pages using the toolbox tool.  It is setup so that the text for adjacent pages that do exist works properly, it shows "See Page 2" in my case, for example.  But for adjacent pages that are blank/don't exist it shows "See Page".  If I define a value for emptyStr, it doesn't work.  If I remove any preStr or postStr, it still doesn't work, it is just blank in Layout view.  It doesn't even show [empty] in Layout view like the help describes.

I'm wondering if Ryan might have figured it out.

[RyanKelso]

I figured out the problem after taking a break from it while writing my 1st reply.  My index layer was a shapefile.  "Blank" string attributes in a shapefile are considered a single space or something like that so DDP doesn't think they are empty.  You can test it out by starting an edit session, calculating some string into the empty field, then completely delete it and refresh the DDP.  It will work briefly, at least until you finish the edit session.  So I imported my index into a geodatabase, re-calculated adjacent fields and this feature works properly now.