Problem: One layout on a FM6 system served by FM server on Win2000 to Win and Mac clients is misbehaving on OSX (latest Panther). Everything in the header and random bits of the body (text and fields) are invisible in browse mode (yet they ARE visible in layout and preview modes!). The invisible fields will appear (along with their data) if you click into them, and remain visible. This problem is not present on OS9 or win clients. I haven't seen any other layouts acting like this (out of hundreds, though I haven't tested them all).

So If I duplicate the layout, I get the same problems.

If I create a new layout and drop in elements from the problem layout (fields, text, images) same problem.

If I create something anew, no problem.

Any other tricks to try? This is a complex layout and recreating every element will a few hours.

Thanks.

Howdy, c! Hmm... if you have several OSX comptuers and they all have the same problem, I'm not sure why that would be. Have you tried changing the font used in the layout? Maybe it's a font issue. This happens with objects, too, and not just fields, eh? Weird.

Huh. Just found FM has a "format painter" I never knew about. Try bringing in a new field that shows on the layout and then set it to how most of your fields are formatted, then click on it, select FORMAT PAINTER, and then click a single field or click drag a rectangle surrounding the desired fields and see if they suddenly appear. At least that way you know it's applying the same formatting. You may want to work from a copy, of course, just in case.

--ST

Chris:

If the fields appear when you click on them, then they are actually there, so it must be a formatting issue. The fact that you can copy them into another layout and the behavior continues is consistent with this. If Steve's suggestions don't work, you can try all the other formatting settings - text color, borders, fill pattern transparency, etc. Something will work.

Thanks guys.

Yeah, that format painter is an easter egg I never noticed.

Anyway, while looking for more formatting options, I stumbled upon some very interesting behavior. If I go into the borders property of any field on that layout while in OS X and then back to browse mode, everything is fixed for all the fields on the layout. (properties such as font and size, no) As soon as I go into layout mode on the pc (running xp) and so much as click on a field and return to browse mode, blammo--the OS X screen loses half its fields to the invisibility demon. I can then reverse this problem once again by picking a random field, going into borders, click OK without changing anything, and back to browse mode.

This particular database has been converted up and modified over the years from something before even version 4, so there may be some sort of arcane problem with just this file. I don't see this behavior anywhere else in the system. Ah well...