Hi All,

I've been away from FileMaker for a while and just recently came back for a personal project. This means I'm using FM 11, which is pretty old now...

Anyway! I have a layout with a picture as a background and I'd like to have a graphic slide up based on the text merge field above it, but it doesn't want to slide because of the graphic it's sitting on.

Is there a way to have an object ignore a background object for sliding?

Hi Dave

 

I don't have FM11 any more, but in FM14/15 you can set the body to have a 'fill' of an 'image' (as opposed to a solid colour, gradient etc). That image is not considered to be on the layout, it it just a background.

Was that around in FM11?

Great tip, thanks!

I was able to try it with someone else's copy of 14 and the two text merge fields I expected to slide still aren't, so I guess the background object wasn't the problem.

I could be misunderstanding how sliding works. I've attached a simple file with three fields, as an example. On the merge layout I was thinking serialnumber would always print right below address, but it doesn't seem to be doing that.

Do I have the concept wrong somehow?

Untitled.fmp12

Edited June 22, 20169 yr by davegoff

Sliding refers to fields reducing in size according to their contents.  It does not do anything to text objects . If you want the Serial merge field to be directly below the Address merge field, put them both in the same text object, and make sure that the text object is large enough to display the longest text. See modified example

 

Untitled Copy.fmp12

Huh... that's just merge field behavior though. If that's all there is to sliding, then I really am misunderstanding.

Why do graphic items have sliding options?

Or a better question might be, if I had a graphic object I want to be up next to the text, can that be done?

(File re-added with graphic object below your merge.)

Untitled Copy.fmp12

20 minutes ago, davegoff said:

if I had a graphic object I want to be up next to the text, can that be done?

Does this work for you?

 

slide.fp7

It does! That's exactly what I'm looking for. So I  must be missing a setting somewhere?
I'm not sure why it doesn't work in my example file...

OK, I think I got it. The fields have to be in contact, border-to-border, for it to work.

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate the input!

OK, I must be more dense than usual, but I'm not seeing any slide behavior in comment's example. That's the reason for my incorrect advice earlier; my test didn't show it either. 

What have I missed?

oh! It will only show in preview mode.

29 minutes ago, davegoff said:

The fields have to be in contact, border-to-border, for it to work.

Do they?

slide2.fp7

44 minutes ago, davegoff said:

oh! It will only show in preview mode.

D-OH!

1 hour ago, comment said:

Do they?

slide2.fp7

 

Huh... OK, I guess not... Not sure what I changed to make it all work then.

I think the point you may be missing is that an object will slide up based on objects above it. An overlapping object is not above the selected object.