How do I change the field fill(background)color to a predetermined color depending on the choice of a drop down selection?

For instance;

"Active" gets a green background

"Pending" gets a yellow background

"Inactive" gets a red background

I have a similar question. We use version 5 for our summer camp. We have several fields with drop down choices of the current year (for yes answers) or no (when the parent does not give permission for something). We want the no responses to either be in red text or have the box turn red. I could not find a way to change the text color in the values list.

You will need for the field with the value list to be transparent. Then you will need a container field to store the colors (lets call it gBackground). Use a repeating container field of 3.

Then the calculation field with container result would be Case ( field = "Active"; gBackground; field = "Pending"; gBackground [2]; field = "Inactive"; gBackground [3] )

Put this field behind the transparent field that has your value list on it.

We want the no responses to either be in red text or have the box turn red. I could not find a way to change the text color in the values list.

You can not change the text color with FM5, but you can in the newer versions.

Also you can not change the color within the value list at all regardless of which version. You can only change the text after selecting it.

Here was an older post that was similar to what you wanted, but had step by step instructions.

Instructions

check out his thread Link, as I just posted an answer to the same question.

Lee

Thanks Lee. That's a neat trick for changing the TEXT color. I was looking for a way to change the FILL or background color. Mr. Vodka provided me with a good solution to the fill color puzzle. Many thanks to all the Big Brains on this forum.

One quick question. I am able to change the background color per your example. However the changes will only occur in the first two records. Why is that? After the first two records I can not get the background color to show up.

Without seeing your file, I would guess that, either your Calcualtion for the fill is being stored, or the Global Containers is not really a Global Storage.

Both of these options are found as Options for the Fields.

HTH

Lee

Found the problem. You were right, the field was not set as a Global field.

Thanks again