Not sure what topic this belongs in but here goes -

I have an application that displays questions that need to be answered (not user modifiable). Next to each question I have a radio button set so that a user can select the answer they want and it generates a numeric answer. Some of the questions in a record can be blank. Right now I am using conditional formatting to make the blank fields disappear and a gray text box that covers the radio button if the field is empty. This works, but is kludgy because filemaker leaves ghost lines around the field when any field is selected and when in the radio button set you can select the hidden radio button if you click in the empty space. The main problem is that the hidden fields leave large empty spaces between the questions that have content. I would like to do the equivalent of "sliding" as is done in reporting to move the fields close together and cover the empty space but can't figure out a scripted way to do that. Ideally, conditional formatting would allow one to move fields around, but it doesn't allow that. (I also use three identical layouts to display the fields, but in a different order and I randomize the displayed layout to randomize the question field order). Any ideas on this one?

Thanks in advance for any help.

--Peter Brooks

seems to me that the user must click on a button to get to the next question. in that case you could check if the next question is a real or an empty question and go to a different layout that displays the fields as you need them to.

As I mentioned, I already use three layouts that the next or previous buttons go to - but in a randomized order. This was to make sure that people using the application actually read the questions and don't continually click the same number button without understanding what they are reading. Also, I can't predict which question set will have blank fields so I can't use a pre-determined layout for this purpose. Any other ideas??

I don't understand your description:

I have an application that displays questions that need to be answered (not user modifiable). Next to each question I have a radio button set so that a user can select the answer they want

So far so good. Then comes:

Some of the questions in a record can be blank

Huh?

I think each question should be a record on its own (and so should each individual response) - search the forums for "survey" to learn more.