Text Box Tool
The text box tool will allow you to place a box that can have text entered into it once the form is generated.
Variables,
Formulas, as well as pre-entered text can be placed into the text boxes to allow you to display what you want on the final form.
The text box functions similar to the
Label Tool in that both are able to be edited in similar ways. The main difference is whatever text you enter for the label will not be able to be edited after a report/form has been generated whereas with a textbox it can be set as an option.
Place a text box on the Form by clicking on Text Box in the left hand tools panel
Left click in the design panel to drop the text box
Edit the text box to function and look how you want it by changing values in the properties panel.
View - Will cycle between the visible and the Hidden layer. This is useful for undeleting items or modifying referenced items.
Group - Group numbers are assigned to lists and grids. If a list or grid is placed on the canvas,the group number assigned to it can be selected to automatically select every object with that group number.
Reference - Reference indicates that the selected object is saved as a list or a group. If it is yes, then the number of the original object will be displayed.
ID - Shows specific information and reference numbers for the specific object such as group number.
Name - name a text box if you plan on referencing it in another spot on the form in a formula.
Left / Top - Change these values to move the text box in the design view. Place the number 1 in the Left blank to move the text box to the left side of the page, increase the number to move the text box to the right. Place the number 1 in the Top properties box the text box moves to the top edge of the page, increase the number to move the text box increasingly lower on the page.
Width/Height - Increase these numbers to increase the size of the textbox.
Font Size - Increase the size on the text contained in the text box by increasing the number or make the letters smaller by decreasing the number
Font Color - Change color of the letters. When your text box is selected, click on the lack box next to Font color to display a color palate to choose your desired color from.
Border Color: Change the text box outline color. Similar to the Font Color.
Background Color: Change the fill color of the text box. Similar to the Border Color and the Font Color.
Text Align Orientation - This determines what is allowed to be entered when the user it filling out this particular text box.
Type - contains options on how to restrict the way data is entered.
- String - Everything is allowed and nothing is restricted. Do not use if the value of your control is always going to be a number. Instead use Number or Decimal. The reason being the ability to sort these value columns correctly in the Forms Manager.
- Date - Creates a Date Selection that the user can click on.
- Latitude/Longitude - will format to display the Lat/Long format set in Surety Options Page
- Number - Only should be used for pure numbers that do not need to be rounded. The main purpose for selecting this instead of the string format is to tell the Forms Manager how to sort the values. See: Forms Designer - Type
- Decimal - Allows you to format a number to be a certain decimal place or length
- Once decimal is selected, another entry field appears called Format.
you can use 0's (zeros), #'s, (.)'s, and (,)'s in the Format field. 0's tell the program that there has to be a number there. If a number was formatted to ###.0 and the value came out to exactly 100, then
Here is an example of how to format your number.
If you wanted to require the text box to contain a number that rounds to the 2nd number behind the decimal and has at least 2 numbers in front of the decimal, then you would want to format the text like this
00.00
That way is some one enters something like this when filling out the form,
1.119
it will appear this way
01.12
If you want larger numbers to show up with commas in them then you would have to define where they go.
So if we just enter
12311 into a text box it will not apply a comma between the 2 and the 3.
In order to format it this way you need to use number (#) signs in the format box.
The number sign is going to be a place holder for a potential number.
Enter the following into the format text box
##,##0
Now when
12311 is entered into the field, it will be formatted like so
12,311
Remember! When using 0's in front of the decimal it will place a zero in that spot if the number doesn't reach that number place, when using #'s it acts as just a placeholder for a potential number and wont force a zero to be there if the number is not that big.
Bold: makes the entered text bold when selected
Underline: Makes the entered text underlined when selected
Visible - you have the ability to hide field that need to be referenced somewhere else in the form but not seen. When unchecked the the item appears in the hidden layer.
Access the hidden layer by clicking on the View Button on the top of the properties panel labeled Visible.
It will change the view to the Hidden layer where you can see the item that was made hidden
To make the item visible again first re-select it.
Check the visible box again. As you can see it has disappeared from the canvas again meaning it has been placed in the visible layer.
Now click the View button again to get back to the Visible layer.
Required - Place a check here to force the user filling out the form to enter data in this text box before saving or printing.
Read Only - Check this box to prevent the user filling out the form from entering any data in this text box.
Text - You can do one of three things with this field.
- Leave it blank
- Enter text to prepopulate the field.
- Enter a Formula or Variable
See Also: