----- Original Message ----- 
  
  
  Sent: Friday, February 09, 2001 2:49 
  PM
  Subject: RE: carriage return in 
  @precinct
  
  
    
    GBS need to print precinct, ward and 
    district on the ballot.  These three items are currently defined in the 
    base precinct name, but can obviously only be formatted with spaces in the 
    label field.   
   
  Okay, so 
  its a formatting thing.
  
    I had already discussed with them the 
    possibility of an @district macro, however, the district reference 
    would be ambiguous and printing all districts which contain the base 
    precinct is not desirable, either. 
   
  It would 
  have to be @district-XXX (or something like that), where XXX was the parent 
  district number.  Would that, with the existing @precinct macro, satisfy 
  their formatting requirements?
  
    Are you implying that you (plural) are 
    intending on moving towards a Word-style full rich text edit?  If so, 
    when would this be implemented?
   
  No, we aren't 
  intending anything.  It is just one way to skin this cat.  
  This "variable ballot data" issue comes up a fair amount, hence the 
  second-pass stuff that Spectrum does on our postscript.  I will bounce it off Tab and Dean when they return and try to come up 
  with a solution that will address this in general.  
  Formatting and labels are 
  purposely divorced concepts, so hopefully the control character suggestion is 
  not the only solution here.
   
  Ken