Changing Form Layout Dynamically

For form components, you can override the layout as defined in the Define Frames worksheet using the $paintedfieldproperties ProcScript function. At runtime, the form displays the fields using the position and size coordinates and optional Z-order specified with this function.

It is possible to move and resize fields in a form, with the following exceptions:

  • Labels—moving the field does not move the label.
  • GUI only—it is not possible to alter the layout of fields in character-based forms.
  • Grid widgets—fields in grid widgets cannot be moved or resized.
  • Split bars—$paintedfieldproperties has no effect on forms with split bars

$paintedfieldproperties returns or sets the dynamic widget properties for the specified widget, independent of the retrieved occurrence. $paintedfieldproperties accepts the following properties related to position and size, expressed in characters:

  • xpos—sets the horizontal position
  • ypos—sets the vertical position
  • xsize—sets the horizontal size
  • ysize—sets the vertical size in characters
  • zorder—places the painted field to top or bottom of a stack of fields, along a virtual Z-axis (Z-order). This is useful when fields stack or overlap.

You can define absolute values for theses properties, or you precede them by a + or - to set relative values, as shown in the following examples.

The following ProcScript moves the second repetition of field MYFIELD to position 20 horizontally and 15 vertically: 

$paintedfieldproperties("MYFIELD","2","xpos;ypos") = "xpos=20;ypos=15"

The following ProcScript moves the second repetition of field MYFIELD 5 characters to the left and 6 characters down: 

$paintedfieldproperties("MYFIELD","2","xpos;ypos") = "xpos–=5;ypos+=6"

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