Start of Content Area

BOTTOM Area  Locate the document in its SAP Library structure

The BOTTOM area appears at the and of the main window. Unlike the TOP area, you can define the BOTTOM area for the current page after the output to the BODY area is complete, provided there is enough space left on the page. Otherwise, the BOTTOM area text is output on the subsequent page.

If the print program outputs text to the BOTTOM area of the main window, it memorizes these lines for subsequent pages (just like TOP lines). At the same time, the composer processes these lines to determine the space the BOTTOM area requires and the space left for the BODY area. At this moment, it replaces the variables set in the BOTTOM area for the current page.

If, during form output, the BOTTOM area is modified, the system reformats the BOTTOM text and adjusts the size of the BOTTOM area. If the remaining space in the page window is not enough, the BOTTOM text is output on the subsequent page of the form. On these subsequent pages, the system always formats the BOTTOM area at the beginning of the main window. This means, that variables appearing in the BOTTOM text always have the value that was valid at the beginning of the main window.

The following table summarizes the points in time, at which the variables in the different windows are replaced with the current values.

Window type

Area

Point of time of variable replacement

MAIN

BODY

immediately

MAIN

TOP

at the beginning of the main window

MAIN

BOTTOM

immediately or at the beginning of the main window of the subsequent page

VAR

  

after processing the main window

CONST

  

after processing the main window

 

Due to these conditions, you cannot use only one variable with changing contents for TOP and BOTTOM areas, since the variable is not always replaced immediately, even if it occurs several times.

Caution

The output of the TOP and BOTTOM area is triggered by the text in the BODY area. Therefore, text elements written to the TOP or BOTTOM areas must not necessarily appear in the output. If the BODY area does not contain any text, output of TOP and BOTTOM elements is suppressed.