border of empty text field

[frankie tomato]

Hi,

I'm working with FM Pro 5.5. I've designed a Text field with a thin black border around it. In Preview mode I would like to see the border also when the field is empty, and this indeed happens if I don't use the Sliding Option on the field. On the other hand I need the field to slide up, so I have used the Sliding Options on it. But in this case the border disappears when the field is empty!

I've found a trick to solve the problem but I'm not satisfied about it because I need to add a calculated DisplayTextField to my DB just for printing:

If ( IsEmpty(TextField), " ", TextField)

In this way the DisplayTextField is just a "space" when the TextField is empty and I can always see my black border.

Is there a solution preventing me from creating all these "display" text fields? (I don't like it, because I have many other text fields that I should treat in the same manner...)

Bye,

[Ugo DI LUCA]

Hi Frankie,

No need for a calc here. Use the toolbox instead. Draw your border with it and set its options for sliding up.

[frankie tomato]

I did it, but when the field is empty the field & border disappear. I would like instead to see the border and nothing inside.

[Ugo DI LUCA]

I meant the rectangle tool from the tool panel, not the border tool. Choose transparent color and display the rectangle right behind your field, then select the slide options fro that object (or associate both field and rectangle).

[frankie tomato]

Thanks Ugo,

but the rectangle won't shrink to adapt to the text length, as the border does. Unfortunately I've text lengths that range from 1 line to more than 1 page...

[Ugo DI LUCA]

Then your solution (validate by calc) is appropriate here I think.