Making an Empty Field display its own name

[Rapt Productions]

I'm not sure that this can be done with conditional formatting, but I couldn't think of what a better approach would be.

Basically, I just want to get my fields to show their own names when they're empty, i.e. the First Name field will contain the words "First Name" until you enter something into it.

This seems like something pretty basic, I apologize for the newb question if it's answered in the help - as I say, I'm just not sure what to look under. Thanks in advance!

[comment]

It cannot be done with conditional formatting of the fields themselves, because conditional formatting only formats - it cannot change the contents of what's being formatted.

However, you could simply put the field labels "under" the fields, and format them conditionally, so that they only show when the corresponding field is empty.

[gmmac]

How about simply auto-entering the field names' names when records are created, and setting field behavior to "select entire contents of field when entered"?

[Søren Dyhr]

How about simply auto-entering the field names' names when records are created, and setting field behavior to "select entire contents of field when entered"?

I could easily envision, an data integrity problem with NULL values, and all searches should then circumvent records where left empty, only containing the "label"....

--sd

[comment]

It's not just searching: it would also skew sorting and counting. And it would show up in ALL layouts and reports - whether you want it or not.

[gmmac]

Fair enough--you could get around the validation and searching with some pain in the neck extra work. But Comment's last points tip the point--the idea to have conditional field names is probably the best solution. They could under-lay your actual fields so they looked like they were actually the field itself.

[Lee Smith]

The attach demostrates how you can use the Conditional Formatting to color the field fills, when data is in the field.

Rapt_Productions.fp7.zip

[Rapt Productions]

Thanks for the example Lee - that was exactly the solution I needed! And thank you all for your suggestions.