Measure remaining length of line

[rhino7890]

I am using the package eforms as found in the AcroTex bundle. With it, I am trying to make an electronic form in which the user fills out text fields. With eforms, you can make interactive text boxes in LaTeX using the command \textField{<ID>}{<box width>}{<box height>}.

Where I run into trouble is the length of the text box. The way that I would like the form to look is as follows:

text1: _______________________________
text2: _______________________________
...
textN: _______________________________

where the underline section is where the interactive text field exists. As the command \textField requires an absolute length to specify the box width, I need some way of measuring the remaining length of the current line. Commands like \linewidth only return the current linewidth of the environment and not the remaining width of the current line. I also tried some variations of \hfill but without any luck. I even tried subtracting the length the leading text (by measuring it with the command \settowidth{\gnat}{text}) from the \linewidth value, but this was inconsistent from line to line.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I can get a text box to stretch the remaining length of the page?

[gmedina]

Hi,

in the code below I defined a command \MyField that solves your problem:

Code: Select all  •  Open in writeLaTeX

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage[pdftex]{eforms}

\newsavebox\mybox
\newlength\mylen
\newlength\fieldlen

% Syntax: \MyField{title-of-the-field}{text-before-the-field}
\newcommand\MyField[2]{%
  \sbox\mybox{#2}
  \settowidth\mylen{\usebox\mybox}
  \setlength\fieldlen{\linewidth}
  \addtolength\fieldlen{-\mylen}
  \addtolength\fieldlen{-1em}
  \par\noindent\usebox\mybox\hspace*{1em}\hfil\textField{#1}{\the\fieldlen}{20pt}\par\medskip
}

\begin{document}

\MyField{field1}{Text}

\MyField{field2}{Text two}

\MyField{field3}{Text three is longer}

\end{document}

Feel free to modify my example to suit your needs.

[rhino7890]

Awesome! That did the trick. Thanks so much!

[martin_gm]

Just to clarify the herein provided solution:

You don't actually measure the remaining of the current line, you measure the beginning of the line and subtract it from \linewidth.

At least that's what the example code does. I don't know if there is actually a way to get the remainder of the line. I feel like it should be possible b/c LaTeX needs to know. How else could it produce the wonderful "overful \hbox" greetings?