Drop Down Menu triggers font color change

[mhburris]

I have a quick question.

 

We use a drop down menu to choose a certain color on a work order form.  We them manually fill in a circle on the form with a marker to match the color on the order.  Is there a way to either trigger a colored circle when a choice is made or to change the font color when the choice is made??

 

Any thoughts would be helpful...keep in mind that I am a bit of a newbie with Filemaker!

 

I have attached a screen shot for you to look at.  The field with the term "dark grey" is the drop down box.

 

mhburris

[doughemi]

If you want to keep the circle:

 

Create graphics of each colored circle you want.  Create a repeating container field named Circles with enough repetitions for each color.  Paste each of the colored graphics in one repetition of the Circles field.  (This is all done on a utility layout.)

 

Create a calculation field ColoredCircle, result container, with the following calculation:

 

Case(

DropdownField = "Red"; GetRepetition(YourTable::Circles; 1); //assuming the red circle is in repetition 1

DropdownField = "Orange"; GetRepetition(YourTable::Circles; 2);

// etc.

)

 

On the other hand, it would be easier to use conditional formatting to change the text color (or background color) of the field itself:

 

Create  conditions  Self="red", etc., with each condition changing the background or text color appropriately. You will need as many conditions as you have colors.

 

[mhburris]

Thanks for the help....

 

I am having a couple of issues getting this to work

 

I set up a "dummy" layout to insert the circle pictures in to the containers but the pictures dont stay.  It seems like after each record I have to insert the pictures again.

 

I think that I got all the calcuations done properly in the ColoredCircle field, because I did get it to work on a couple of records but not all of them??

 

 

Not sure why it's working on all records??

 

any other thoughts?

 

Thanks

 

Mark

[Lee Smith]

It almost sounds like the field being populated is a Global and not just container.

 

If this isn't the problem, why not attach your file?

[mhburris]

I cant attach the file. 

 

Let me ask this regarding the repeating container field.

 

I created the field (circles) and put in the number of repetitons

I took a blank layout and added (circle) to that layout

I then dragged the right color circle .gif to the correct repetition number.  Everything looks good up to that point

 

Then when I try to go back to the layout with the circles, they are not there.

 

Am I missing something?

[Lee Smith]

I don't know why you can't attach a file, but this isn't that hard to accomplish.

 

 

mhburris.fp7.zip

[mhburris]

Thanks a ton, Lee.  I think that I figured it out.  I didnt have the global storage box checked on my circles!!

 

 

You guys are the BEST

[Lee Smith]

Thanks a ton, Lee. I think that I figured it out. I didnt have the global storage box checked on my circles!!

I mentioned that in my first post.

We all have a tendency to keep seeing things in same light. Often a second pair of eyes will see what was obvious, that we keep overlooking.

I'm not sure why you couldn't attach your file, as you didn't say. If it was a matter of having trouble in attaching it, let me know as you will want to use this FEATURE in the future. If it was a concern for confidential information, then we have ways of getting around this, such as having you post a no record clone, because we don't want or need this kind of information anyway. If it was for another reason, please let me know and I can help you workaround that problem too.

Besides having a different set of eyes look at the file, as I stated above, there are some real good reasons for posting your file.

We can discuss your file using your naming conventions (fields, layouts, scripts, calculations, field types, etc.), which will help you see and follow the answers we provide (i.e. you don't have to convert our field names, layouts, etc. back to your file).

We can see your overall structure, (i.e. relationships, value lists, custom functions, external data sources, etc.) to see what else might be causing your problems.

Please let me know if I can help you with this further.

Lee

[doughemi]

I created the field (circles) and put in the number of repetitons

I took a blank layout and added (circle) to that layout

I then dragged the right color circle .gif to the correct repetition number.  Everything looks good up to that point

 

Then when I try to go back to the layout with the circles, they are not there.

 

Am I missing something?

You can't just drag the graphic.  You have to copy the graphic in layout mode, go to browse mode, and then paste the graphic into the repetition.

 

Yeah, it's stupid, but that's the way it works!

[Lee Smith]

Yeah, it's stupid, but that's the way it works!

Yes, and that was the way I did it.

 

However, you can open a New Window in Layout Mode, and create the graphics and then drag them into the window in browse mode thereby eliminating the going back and forth in the original window between browse and layout modes. At least it work for me in my test.

 

However, I prefer the ways I posted in my reply here Link

[mhburris]

I got this to work, but I am having one issue.  Whenever I close down Filemaker, the circle graphics are no longer in the layout.  I have to add them back each time.  IS there something that I am doing wrong?

 

thanks

 

Mhburris

[Lee Smith]

by chance, is this file being served?

 

What you describe is not normal for what we have been working with.

 

Why not attach a copy of your file?

[doughemi]

As Lee said, if the file is being served, global fields modified by a client are cleared when that client logs out.  To make global fields persistent, you must open the file locally, populate the fields, and then upload it back to the server.

[Vaughan]

Even better, create a "preferences" table to store the color data. A prefs table is a single-record table that does not use global fields. This table is then related to the other tables through the X-join relationship. The point of the single record is because the x-join will see only the first record, so you want to keep all the data in that first record only.

[mhburris]

Yes, That was the problem...I added the circles and then reuploaded the file to the server and it works fine now!!  thanks again everyone.