Help

Creating and managing layouts and reports
F
ILEMAKER PRO HELP 275
If you want to remove sliding from a group of objects, remember to select the left-most (or top-
most) field along with the other objects that are sliding.
2. Click Inspector in the layout bar, then click Position.
3. In the Sliding & Visibility area, deselect options you don't want.
Notes
• In many cases, you can achieve the same sliding effects by using merge fields. The
following table summarizes when to use sliding objects and when to use merge fields.
• In Layout mode, choose View menu > Show > Sliding Objects to see which objects slide
and in which directions.
• When you slide objects or parts, FileMaker Pro prints the objects relative to each other, not
precisely as you placed them on your layout.
• Be careful when setting sliding options for repeating fields. If some repeating fields are
empty and the space is removed by sliding, then adjoining data in different repeating fields
may no longer be in proper alignment.
• If your database includes one or more fields that display Japanese text, you can trim extra
spaces between characters with the
TrimAll function. For each field that contains
Japanese data that you want to trim, create a calculation field that uses the
TrimAll
function to trim that field, and then place that field on your layout. For more information, see
TrimAll function.
Related topics
Troubleshooting layouts
Preventing objects from printing
You can keep objects on a layout from printing. For example:
• Create a button on a report layout that doesn't print when you print the report.
• Place instructions on a layout to be read during data entry, but not printed when that layout
is printed.
To keep objects from printing:
1. In Layout mode, select the object or objects that you don't want to print.
For more information, see Selecting objects.
2. Click Inspector in the layout bar, then click Position.
Use sliding objects when you want to: Use merge fields when you want to:
• slide non-text objects, like graphics
• shrink a layout part to fit more on a page
• align formatted fields, like value lists and
repeating fields
• use a layout for data entry (you can't enter
data into a field formatted as a merge field)
• slide fields together in one continuous block
of text, such as for mailing labels
• slide fields and text together in one
continuous block of text, such as for form
letters.
For more information, see Placing merge fields
on a layout.