Objects on tabbed object vanished

[CharlesK]

Hello.

I've searched the board for this but didn't find the exact problem I'm having.

I have a 3 tab tabbed object. I've place 27 fields on each tab (by dragging them off the drag-drop list) onto the tabbed object, well away from the edges. All of the objects are visible on tabs 1 & 2, but something strange is happening on tab 3:

1) Only 4 fields are visible.
2) Using the xBasic explorer, it shows that there 20 of these fields still exist somewhere on the form! This 20 includes the 4 visible ones.
3) Using the xBasic explorer, it shows that 7 of the fields are not on the form.

Short of deleting the tab or the form and starting again, does anyone have any ideas?

Wish List:
In Visual Basic, their object explorer allows you to *view and change* an objects property directly. A5's object explorer only allows you to see what the properties and methods are. To change a property, A5 uses a property sheet which can only be called up if you can click on the object. It would sure be nice if A5's xBasic explorer worked Visual Basic's way.

Charles

[JerryBrightbill]

RE: Objects on tabbed object vanished

Charles,

Tabbed forms sometimes give some odd problems. I have seen the problem you are having on a tabbed object. In one case, I found the "missing" objects hidden under other fields. In that case, I got 2 copies of the field object when I thought I dragged only one off the list. Deleting the visible object displayed the missing object. In another case, the fields "disappeared" when they overlapped the tabbed object boundary. The only solution was to delete the tabbed object, clean up what was left, and start over. Another method that once worked was to expand the form to a much larger size, click "select all" under edit and move all of the objects to blank space. The "missing" objects suddenly were visible. You could also create a new form and cut and paste all of the visible objects to that and see what is left. Sometimes, the only good solution is to delete all of the objects and start over.

One thing I do to try to cut down on problems is first create the tabbed object and save the form. Fill one tab, being careful that no object touches or overlaps the boundary, save the form, and compact the database. Do the same for the next tab. Compacting the database often cleans up discarded changes and reduces the risk of something going wrong.

Jerry

[Geoffrey Hollander]

RE: Objects on tabbed object vanished

Hi,

Because objects are layered on forms, and because tabbed forms are a little squirrely, objects that you drag onto or paste in them can sometimes end up "in back of" the tabbed form's page. Sometimes some will and some won't when pasted or dragged together.

You might try doing this; sometimes it's all you need. Open your form in design mode and go to the tabbed page in question. Be sure that only the page itself -- none of the objects on it or on which it sits -- are selected (showing "handles").

Now go up to the menu and select "Arrange" and then click on "Backward One" until the objects show up on your page.

Hopefully this will solve your problem...

Regards,

Geoff Hollander

[CharlesK]

RE: Objects on tabbed object vanished

Geoffrey:

I wished it worked! I ended up deleting the tabbed object, but the missing fields were still showing up in the xBasic explorer. At this point, the form was totally blank. So, I deleted the form and redesigned it and it's now fine.

I think (but cannot verify) that the missing fields were to the extreme left (like OBJECT.LEFT=-10000), thus making them invisible but also unreachable. This is what one of the tabbed objects in Visual Basic does when you click a tab: All of the objects not on the tab get moved way to the left.

Thanks for the reply.

Charles