Object Effects

July 17, 201312 yr

Hello, simple question...

I have filemaker pro 12 and I am trying to change the object effects but for some reason I do not have an object effects option in the inspector or the formatting toolbar. Is there a way to add this option? Might be very easy but I can't find how to do this.

Thanks a lot for your help

July 17, 201312 yr

I'm not sure what you mean by "object effects."

Conditional formatting lets you apply formatting to an object based on the result of a calculation or (for a field) the value in the field. You can access conditional formatting by right-clicking on the object in layout mode and selecting "Conditional Formatting" from the contextual menu, or you can select the object and select from the "Format" menu > "Conditional..."

If you're referring to object state formatting, you access that by selecting the object in layout mode, then look in the "Appearance" tab of the inspector palette. You can select which object state you want to set the formatting for by selecting an option from the pop-up menu towards the top, just above the "Graphic" formatting section. As far as I know, formatting for states other than "normal" only works if the object has a defined button action.

If you're talking about running a script when a user interacts with an object, but not as a button, that's called a script trigger. You can set-up script triggers for a field by right-clicking on it in layout mode and selecting "Set Script Triggers...", or selecting the object mode and selecting from the "Format" menu "Set Script Triggers..."

July 17, 201312 yr

Author

I'm not sure what you mean by "object effects."

Conditional formatting lets you apply formatting to an object based on the result of a calculation or (for a field) the value in the field. You can access conditional formatting by right-clicking on the object in layout mode and selecting "Conditional Formatting" from the contextual menu, or you can select the object and select from the "Format" menu > "Conditional..."

If you're referring to object state formatting, you access that by selecting the object in layout mode, then look in the "Appearance" tab of the inspector palette. You can select which object state you want to set the formatting for by selecting an option from the pop-up menu towards the top, just above the "Graphic" formatting section. As far as I know, formatting for states other than "normal" only works if the object has a defined button action.

If you're talking about running a script when a user interacts with an object, but not as a button, that's called a script trigger. You can set-up script triggers for a field by right-clicking on it in layout mode and selecting "Set Script Triggers...", or selecting the object mode and selecting from the "Format" menu "Set Script Triggers..."

I was looking online and supposably there is an option where you can make objects have a shadow, embossed, engraved, etc. However, I do not have the option called "object effects" Here's a link

http://www.filemaker.com/help/html/non_toc.46.29.html#1028903

July 17, 201312 yr

You haven't to see at FMP 10 features!

12 has no more those effects.

July 17, 201312 yr

Author

You haven't to see at FMP 10 features!

12 has no more those effects.

aww really? Thats terrible. I noticed some of these effects are automatically implemented with some of the themes. I want to get rid of them. How do I do that? Also is there a way to create my own theme effects or add theme effects from other themes to certain objects? thanks

July 17, 201312 yr

Shadow? Embossed? Engraved? Good riddance! However, objects in files converted from the fp7 format will retain these formatting options in fmp12.

The analogous effects in FileMaker 12 are accomplished with gradients. To remove a gradient, select an object in layout mode, then go to the Inspector palette > "Appearance" tab > "Graphic" section > "Fill" option and selection something other than "Gradient" from the pop-up menu. With a little tinkering, I suppose you could achieve the old effects by taking a screenshot of a button with no text and using that as an image fill with the slicing set up, if you really want your interface to look like it was built in the '90s. :laugh2:

Some of the formatting elements set by a theme can be configured by a developer (colors, gradients, font and size, etc.), and others can't (inner border margins, for example). You can copy an object from a layout with one theme and paste it into a layout with another theme; then the pasted object will retain the theme formatting from the first layout. I'm not entirely sure, but I think you might also be able to use the Format Painter to copy theme styling from one object to another, overriding the layout theme.