"Pasting" conditional formatting?

[polarpro]

Hi,

Is there a way to "paste" conditional formatting from one object to another? When I use the brush tool the text and everything else gets formatted, too. But I want only the conditions and the results of the conditional formatting transferred, without having to write everything time and agin...

Thank you,

Mike

[bcooney]

I'm not aware of a way to quickly copy and paste. You could copy the formula, and paste it, rather than retype; but it's certainly not as fast as the format painter.

[hbrendel]

You can select all the objects that need the same conditional formatting and apply the desired formatting once.

[polarpro]

Thank you for your fast responses!

Happy New Year

: Mike

[yugenro]

I can't get the format painter to paste the conditional formatting of one field to another, at all. It only paste's the text formatting. Am I not doing it right?

Edited March 8, 2009 by Guest

[polarpro]

What you describe is exactly what is not working.

[kmtenor]

There are actually two ways to copy conditional formatting - though one of them, I cannot get to be consistent.

Method 1:

1. Apply conditional formatting to an object on the layout.

2. Control-click and drag the object - this creates a copy of the object on your layout.

3. Modify the copy as needed. All conditions will be present when you view the conditional formatting of the copy.

If you do the above with a field, Filemaker automatically asks you which field you want when you let go of the mouse button.

NOTE: this also works when an object is copied-and-pasted, as well.

Method 2:

I'm having trouble getting this one to be consistent. Any help anyone can provide would be great.

1. Select two objects on your layout: one with conditional formatting, one without.

2. Right-click on either object, and select "Conditional Formatting"

3. [color:red]IF (and ONLY if) all of your conditions come up in the dialog, click OK, and the conditions are applied to the object that originally had no conditional formatting.

[color:red]USE CAUTION with this approach - if the dialog appears with NO conditions and you click OK, that state of no conditions will be applied to both objects, and you could lose your formatting. Be sure you click CANCEL if your conditions don't appear in the dialog.

If anyone has any suggestions as to how to make Method 2 consistent, please post them. I have tried the following:

1. Both fields must be the same type (nope)

2. Both fields must start with the same formatting (nope)

3. The order of selecting the fields matters (not at all)

4. Shift-click to select versus click-drag-select (doesn't matter)

It's almost like Method 2 takes advantage of some kind of unintended side-effect (aka, "bug") in Filemaker, but I'll be darned if I can figure out how to make it work every time.

Thanks.

-Kevin

[comment]

Try bringing the conditionally formatted object to the front first.

[Fitch]

The stacking order is the determining factor:

1. First, bring the field with conditional formatting to the front. (See keyboard shortcuts below)

2. Select that field along with the other fields you want to format.

3. Bring up the CF dialog via right-click or menu and say OK.

Layout keyboard shortcuts for Mac

Layout keyboard shortcuts for Windows

Edited March 26, 2009 by Guest
comment beat me to it :)

[kmtenor]

Thanks, Comment and Fitch - that's quite the obscure rule!

So, the revised version of Method 2:

1. Select the conditionally formatted object from which you want to copy formatting.

2. Bring the object to the front (using the align tools)

3. Shift-select the object to which you would like to apply the first object's conditional formatting

4. Right-click on either object, and select "Conditional Formatting"

5. IF (and ONLY if) all of your conditions come up in the dialog, click OK, and the conditions are applied to the object that originally had no conditional formatting.

It's still good to be careful to make sure the conditional formatting dialog is fully populated, but this method is even faster than the first.

Thanks again!

-Kevin