Best Method to Reuse Basic Fomat on All Layouts?

[Mark L]

Newbie-ish Question:

So I'm getting ready to start cleaning up my application. I've come up with a color scheme/left-hand navigation pane/"main area" coloration etc. What's the best way to make it uniform on all/most of my layouts?

I estimate that I have about a 12 -15 different layouts that the user will see - all of which I want to have same base "look amd feel".

Thanks in advance for your input.

-Mark

[spb]

Unless there is an FM 7 trick I don't know about, in my FM 6 world, I'd make a duplicate of the "master" layout, then alter it as needed to reflect the needs of the new layout.

That is, if your master is Layout A, and you want Layout B to be reshaped to look like A, duplicate A, then redo the fields and other structures that make B different from A. When you're done and it works, delete the original Layout B and move on to C.

It can be tedious, but if you only have a dozen layouts, not that tedious. I'm thinking of one of my databases with 150 layouts.

A tip you might already know, but that I recently discovered by accident. If you have an exactly sized and formatted field in place and you want to swap it out with a different field, just double-click on the field in layout mode. It will call up your field list, select the new field, and your field will have been changed to the new one without altering position or formatting.

Another tip is to use the Object Size palette in Layout Mode. Change the measurement units to pixels, and it will tell you exactly where on the screen any object is. Drag off an old object, highlight the new object, type in the same location measurements, and it will snap exactly into place.

Steve Brown

[Ender]

Copy and Paste the layout graphics, including place holders in the upper left and low right corners. You may also find the T-Square tool helpful for aligning existing graphics.

[Mark L]

Steve - Thanks for your input - it's kind of where my head was going.

-Mark

[Mark L]

Ender-

Pardon my ignorance - but when you say "place holders" - what do you mean?

Also - how do I activate the T-Square feature?

Thanks so much,

Mark

[Ender]

T-Squares is available under the View Menu, or type Command-T.

For place holders, I use a simple little rectange graphic that's the same color as my background, with no line color. You don't see it in Browse Mode, but it helps keep things aligned when moving things from one layout to another. The place holder in the lower right also keeps the width of the page from snuggling up too close to the fields when using the Adjust [ Resize to fit ] script step or resize button on the window bar.

[spb]

The T-square is in the View menu in Layout Mode, or apple-T (again, FM 6). Place holders I'm not sure about, but I can think of a way to make them. Create a one-pixel by one pixel graphic box the same color as your background. Put this in the upper left corner (using the object size palette to make sure it's there).

Is something like this what you were thinking of, Ender?

Steve Brown

[Mark L]

Thanks to both Steve and Ender for explaining. I think I'm getting the picture.

And that T-Square - Wow - how'd I miss that feature all this time?!?!?

Much Thanks,

Mark

[Ender]

Hi Steve,

1px X 1px is a little small to work with, in case you need to move them. I use placeholders that are about 10 X 10.

A few other tricks: I use Object Grids for general alignment of fields and graphics (occasionally I fall off the grid, but that's another story.) I almost always use Option-Drag (on the Mac) for adding fields and labels: Highlight the fields and labels that already are formatted correctly, and Option-Drag them to where the new field should go. Then redefine the field and label. To me, this is a little easier than reapplying the styles, behavior, and colors (I don't always remember these.) Finally there's the Format Painter tool, which allows you to highight a source style and then apply it to the next selected object.