Operating on Stacked Controls |
DEVELOPER |
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The only way to operate on a set of fields that are stacked is to marquee select them and then execute the operation. Once a set of fields is selected, the group may be moved to the target location using drag and drop. The entire group may be copied or deleted using the Easel Context Menu; a group level property change may also be completed by clicking on property entry on the same menu.
When the ‘top’, visible field of a stack is deleted, the field immediately under it is automatically displayed on the form surface.
Cycling through Stacked Fields
Any field in the stack can be brought to the form’s display surface by cycling through the fields using the ‘Send To Back’ toolbar . This pushes the currently selected field to the bottom of the display surface and automatically displays the next top field in the stack but leaves focus on the initial field. To cycle the newly displayed field to the back, it must be selected and then sent to the back via the ‘Send To Back’ toolbar . This sequence cycles through all fields stacked in a specific location so that they may be viewed.
Cycling Through Stacked Fields that Span Subforms
Many PROIV Native functions have stacked controls that cross subform (LS) boundaries, for example, subform1 stacks two controls and subform2 stacks a third control on the identical form area.
This situation occurs when a developer wants to change which control is really active on the user interface by switching subforms (LS’s). Since this manipulation is all in the design, the Forms Designer can not piece together a virtual sequence of stacked fields within a form because all the fields occupy the same space. If there are two sets of stacked fields residing on different subforms that occupy the same visual space, the Forms Designer handles each stack separately and knows nothing about them blending together at runtime.
Adds, Deletes, Moves within the Stack
You can insert an individual control into a stacked set of controls by dragging the new control into the stack in the Subform Browser and assuring that the new control is of the same type and matches the coordinates of the stack.
You can easily delete any individual stack element by right clicking it in the Subform Browser list and pressing Delete.
When selecting a stacked control on the graphic surface, you select the top control in the stack and operate on this element; for example, setting properties, moving it to a new location, deleting it, copying it. However, if the intent is to move the entire stack to a new location, marquee select the stack. This adjusts all coordinates of the underlying controls to match the new coordinates of the top element. If the stack spans LS boundaries, each portion of the stack must be moved separately since the Forms Designer doesn't know about them.
Topic ID: 530029