Hi Everyone, just wondering if it's possible. Here's a screen grab of two radio buttons, and I'd like to have it so that if a button is not checked (ie the button on the right), then its colour is changed to grey, rather than the blue that you can see. I don't think this is possible though?

This is Filemaker Pro 19.6

Thanks for any advice

Any formats you apply to a field, whether by conditional formatting or by formatting the field itself in Layout mode, are going to be applied uniformly to the entire field, not to individual buttons separately. The most you can do is select different colors for the buttons border and fill (note that only the fill can be modified by conditional formatting).

However, you could achieve the desired effect by simulating a radio button set using buttons or circles or even characters such as ○, ◉ or ◎.

That said, I am puzzled by your formula IsEmpty ( Self ). That will be true only if none of the buttons is selected. Do you have only one item in your value list? If so, you could also use two instances of the same field and hide one of them.

 

Edited April 30, 2025Apr 30 by comment

Sorry Comment, those are two different fields, I just wanted to show one that is "yes" and another that is "".

I would want to change the colour of the radio button(s) when they are not "yes", which is therefore "".

When "Yes" the have the dot within the line-circle, and I want to change the colour of the line-circle to grey when that particular field is empty.

Apologies for the lack of clarity

You say "note that only the fill can be modified by conditional formatting", and it's the border that I wanted to conditionally format! Oh well 🥹

Thanks

Edited April 30, 2025Apr 30 by Slater

I still don't understand what exactly is this about.

Maybe something like the attached could work for you?

 

EDIT:

Added another option:

CustomRadioButton.fmp12

Edited April 30, 2025Apr 30 by comment

Yes, that's exactly what I want! I've been trying to figure out what it's doing, but I've not been able to. Is it all to do with:
Choose ( Objects::Status ; 1 )

But I don't get how Status makes one layer hide or not (or go on top), can you give me a hint please?!

7 minutes ago, Slater said:

how Status makes one layer hide or not

The top object (the group of 2 blue circles) is set to hide conditionally:

 

Note also the added option using Boolean formatting with the ◉ / ◎ characters, which takes up much less resources.

 

Ahh, that makes sense now! Thank you so much Comment 🙌

To color the inside of a selected button in a radio button, use conditional formatting with the following: Value is - not equal to - [leave the text field blank], tick Icon Color and set the color you want.

When you click on the button it will display as black initially, but as soon as you click elsewhere your nominated color will apply.

On 3/31/2026 at 5:34 AM, BigBilby said:

To color the inside of a selected button in a radio button, use conditional formatting with the following: Value is - not equal to - [leave the text field blank], tick Icon Color and set the color you want.

Perfect, that works brilliantly, thank you :)

On 3/31/2026 at 7:34 AM, BigBilby said:

To color the inside of a selected button in a radio button, use conditional formatting with the following: Value is - not equal to - [leave the text field blank], tick Icon Color and set the color you want.

A much simpler method to achieve the same effect (actually, even better since the color remains applied while the field is active) is to format the field's appearance:

@Slater
I thought you wanted more than that?

On 4/2/2026 at 5:05 PM, comment said:

A much simpler method to achieve the same effect (actually, even better since the color remains applied while the field is active) is to format the field's appearance

Thanks Comment. The reason why this doesn't work for me is that I want the button to be unobtrusive (ie similar to the background colour) when not clicked to "yes", but then the circular button changing colour when it is. The conditional formatting does that while just changing the appearance doesn't. For some reason the conditional formatting needs the precise phrasing that BigBilly suggested. Many thanks 🙌

3 hours ago, Slater said:

The conditional formatting does that while just changing the appearance doesn't.

I am trying to see where the difference could be but I am not succeeding in that.

Attached is a file that implements both methods on two instances of the same field. Please show me a combination of value list and selection where the appearance of one instance differs from the other.

radio.fmp12

I've been having a play with your file Comment, and I think the problem is that my radio button (that I've copied over) doesn't seem to have Radio Button Set: Icon. I don't know why, perhaps because I've been evolving this db for so many years, it's just something old and when creating new buttons, copy paste has kept that as a limitation.
See attached your Radio Button Set, and mine, plus the db with my radio button copied and pasted into it.

radio.fmp12

That's really strange. I see the same thing (with your fields). Do you get the same result (in your file) when you place a new instance of the field onto the layout?

Added:
I selected one of your fields and clicked 'Revert Changes to Style'. This caused the other elements to appear.

Edited April 7Apr 7 by comment

Hi Comment, yes, that Revert Changes to Style does that for me too, but only in your file, not mine.

And so to your question:

if I create a new instance using your file, then I can select the Radio Buttons Set: Icon

If I create a new instance using my file, then I can not. If I go to an old radio button on my layout and then click 'Revert Changes to Style,' the ability to select Radio Button Set: Icon still doesn't exist for me.

I would guess that I started my db over 25 years ago, and so this might perhaps have something to do with it!

Are you using the Classic theme in any of your layouts? If so, you should get rid of it and make sure all your layout objects are "re-styled" using the new theme. I realize this can be a lot of work but the Classic theme has been linked to several issues, more serious than what we are dealing with here.

Edited April 8Apr 8 by comment

Yeah I am using a Classic theme :(