Forms Designer - Show

A form has 2 separate layers of content in the Form Designer; the Visible layer that is displayed when the form is created, and the Hidden layer where there may be different controls placed that are needed for certain formulations or references but are not wanted or needed to be shown on the printable form. The Show drop down is used to switch the view in the Form Designer to show the visible or hidden items on the form's canvas. It can also show both visible and hidden at the same time which is helpful when a visible control is referencing a hidden layer or vice-versa.

One example of a form that contains hidden items that are being referenced is the Aerial form. The PPEs on the product list in the Aerial form are hidden and being referenced by a Visible Text area block and displayed only when they contain a selection for the product that is selected in the form.

View¶

The Show selection in the Control Properties panel determines which items on the canvas are currently being viewed. BY default Show is set to Visible, which shows the all of the items that are set to visible. 


Let's start an example by sending a control that is part of a List that has been placed on the canvas to the hidden layer.

Highlight the object(s) that you want to send to the hidden layer and remove the checkmark for the Visible attribute in the Control Properties window.

MORE DETAILS: If a control is deleted from the canvas it may sometimes be moved into the hidden layer instead of being removed from the form altogether. This happens when the form template has been saved and an actual generated version of this form has been saved to the map OR it can happen when the item you are deleting is part of a group and the rest of the group has not been deleted. In the this second case, the form template may have to be saved before the deleted object will appear in the hidden layer.


Click on the visible button which is located in the Properties Panel,


The canvas will switch to the Hidden layer.


The hidden layer also shows any object that has been deleted that is part of a group or is being referenced by any other object. If the object is not doing either of those, then it will be cleared out of the hidden layer and deleted permanently.(On forms templates that do not contain saved records only) See: Group, Delete

In order to reverse the deletion of a group or referenced object. Click in the object and re-check the visible box.


Change your View back to the Visible Layer


You can now see the object that has been restored to the visible layer.


Related Pages:

Forms Designer Support
Control Properties Panel