hiding fields

[fennas]

is there a way to show or hide fields? i basically want to put ship to and bill to customer infomation on top of each other and if the user clicks ship then it hides bill and shows ship and vice versa.

Thanks,

Anthony

[transpower]

I think a better way is to show both bill-to and ship-to addresses, with a copy button in-between. That's what I use in A3R: Accounts Receivable for Rubbish Removal.

[fennas]

thats how i had it but i have ran out of screen realestate on the date entry screen. i also have a number of other areas on the screen that i have grouped that i want to be able to show and hide for the same reason.

[Lee Smith]

Maybe something like this will do what you want.

Lee

ChooseAddress.fp5.zip

[LaRetta]

Hi Anthony, Lee!

Lee, I couldn't open your fp5 here at work so don't know what you provided. However, with vs. 7, it is simple to stack fields and allow a user to choose between them.

Set the field you want accessed on top (Arrange > Bring to Front) and in Field Behavior, set it to allow entry into field in Browse. Also set it's fill pattern to solid (to hide the underlying field). Set your other field to NOT allow entry in Browse and put in under the first. If you turn off allowing entry to field in Field Behavior, it won't even outline the field (so it isn't necessary to also turn off Show Field Frames in Layouts).

A button with script of Go To Field [ the bottom field ] will do the trick.

If you have whole areas you want to display or hide, you can also place rectangles (without effects or lines same color as layout) on top of those fields. Turn of (in Layouts, Show Field Frames). They simply won't show until tabbed to or, if you disallow entry (through Field Behavior), they won't show until a script takes them to that specific location. Gotta love 7 for these enhancements.

LaRetta

[fennas]

hey lee and laretta,

thanks for the answers. the field im using is actually a data entry screen so i dont think lees idea will work here(but it will save me a headache tomorrow since you already solved my next problem). laretta, my problem is kind of a combination of both solutions you suggested. i have whole areas of fields that i want to cover with whole other areas of fields. so if i use a script to goto the bottom field it will only show one of them instead of all of them. any idea how to do that?

thanks for all the help,

Anthony

[LaRetta]

Absolutely!!! Change layouts. Your Users won't even know you've done it. Or open alternate windows.

Attempting to stack too much within a space usually indicates a need to rethink what can be group and split to another layout. It sounds like you're hitting this wall now.

If you provide more specific example, we can suggest ways that it would flow nicely for your Users. Example: If they don't want the Billing Address, provide a button which (when clicked, brings up a small Bill Address window.

LaRetta

[fennas]

well i have one data entry screen. within the screen there are 3 areas.

customer info. i want to switch this between ship to and bill to.

product info. i want this to switch between product info and maintenance info.

additional requirements this will switch between about 5 different areas.

I had considered using different layouts but wanted to avoid this if possible. there are going to be alot of people using this database and i would like to minimize layout changing for the sake of increased performance.

[Sxeptomaniac]

I've found that stacking a lot of fields on one layout will generally reduce performance due to FM7's slower redraw rate.

[Oldfogey]

I'm not a fan of stacked fields. They can be very useful if used in a small way but ... They can really mess up your tab order which gives users a lot of grief.

Think about using calculation fields on your layout for the data you have already DisplayedField = case( BillTo, Billing address, Shipping Address)

and global fields for data the user is entering, which you then put in the correct database fields via a script.

[bikergeek]

See attached sample [FM7]:P

newtest.zip