I have created a document using FormA. FormA contains multiple, editable rich text fields that are hidden based on the values in other various fields. I have created an administrative view that uses a Form Formula to display the document using FormB. FormB has the same rich text editable fields with the Hide-When formulas removed.
I would expect that when I put the document into edit mode from the Administrative view, all the rich text fields would be available for editing (since the hide-whens are gone on FormB), however, the hide-whens still seem to be working. When I push a value programmatically into one of the fields that affects the hide-when, the rich text field then shows on FormB. If I programmatically delete the rich text field from the document, then when I open it using FormB it is editable.
I also have several date fields on both forms that have the same hide-whens on FormA, and I am not experiencing the issue when displaying using FormB. It is only the rich text type fields that have the problem.
(I had another developer in the office look at it to make sure I wasn’t doing something wrong/going crazy, and his response after looking at it was “Whoa! Never seen that before!”)
Has anyone else had this problem and, if so, did you find a solution so the rich text fields adhere to the Form Formula form?
Subject: Rich Text Fields and Form Formula issue - Is Hide-When saved with field on original doc?
The contents of rich text fields carry hide-whens with them. If you need to hide or display RTFs programmatically, don’t use hide-whens. Use collapsable sections or computed subforms instead.
Subject: RE: Rich Text Fields and Form Formula issue - Is Hide-When saved with field on original doc?
Good to know about the hide-whens on Rich Text. I knew they could be flaky, but didn’t know it got stored with the doc at the whole field level; thought it was just at the content level.
Subject: RE: Rich Text Fields and Form Formula issue - Is Hide-When saved with field on original doc?
I wouldn’t say they’re flaky. They’re quite predictable, in fact, but annoyingly uncooperative. It’s just that hide-when formulas are attributes of a paragraph just as much as margins, font, size, and so on. When you start typing into an RTF, the content you’re putting in inherits initial hide-whens just as it does other text attributes, and will save those initial hide-whens when the user saves the document, just as it saves the font and so on. So when you open the document using a different form and an RTF control with different attributes, the hide-whens won’t change to match those attributes any more than the font will.