Accessing the Form Layout Designer for the Current Order Form
Usually when you need to make a change to the form layout, you notice it while you are on the order form screen, so to easily open the form layout designer for the currently open order, simply hit the F5 key at the top of your keyboard. This will take you to the form layout designer utility for that order form. If you already know the name of the form layout you are wanting to use and make changes to, then you can also go to the Tools pull-down menu at the top, and choose the Form Layout Designer option, and then choose whichever form layout you are wanting to make changes to.
Changing the View of the Form (Zoom)
Similar to the order form screen, you can zoom in and out on the order form with the controls at the upper right. It is probably a good idea when modifying a form layout to go ahead and choose to view it at Actual Size so you can be more accurate when moving or resizing controls.
IMPORTANT: Whenever you are going to make changes to an existing form layout, you should always first do a Save As so that you are creating a copy of the form layout and not tampering with the original. There are some things you could do to a form that would make it unusable, so you want to be able to go back to the original if necessary during the design process. To save a copy of the form to work on, once in the form layout designer screen, from the Form pull-down menu at the top, choose Save As, then type in a new Name for the form and click OK. THE FORM NAME MUST BE UNIQUE (e.g. "MyForm01" would be a good name). Now you can feel safe to make changes to the form layout.
Form Components
There are basically two different types of components on a form layout: Regions and Fields. Fields are always inside of a Region, and their position will be relative to the position of the Region. Most form layouts that come with the program have a Region at the top left (basically a header region) that is for your company information, a region to the right of that for the order/invoice number, dates and scheduling information, a region for the client's bill to and site information, a region for the line items (services) on the order, and a bottom region for comments and order totals. You can access (select) the Region that a field is in by clicking on the field and then hitting the [Esc] key on your keyboard. Both Regions and Fields have properties that control how they are displayed on a form. See below for the description of these properties.
See the topic about Field Properties for detailed information on the field properties.
See the topic about Region Properties for detailed information on the region properties.
Moving/Resizing a Field
You can move a field simply by clicking on it and dragging it to a new place on the form layout. Keep in mind that once a field is inside of a certain region, it stays in that region, even when you click and drag it. Its position will be relative to the region it was originally inserted into. If you need to move the field to a different region, you can select the field, hit Ctrl+X on your keyboard (cut) and then click in the region you want to add it to and hit Ctrl+V (paste). This will move the field into the other region. You can copy fields this same way by hitting Ctrl+C on your keyboard instead of Ctrl+X.
You will also notice when you click on the field that a selection rectangle box is drawn around the field. In each corner and in the middle of each side of this box, you will see little white boxes. When you move the mouse over one of these little boxes, you will see the cursor change to arrows, indicating that when you click and drag you can resize the box in that direction.
Adding a Field to a Form Layout
To add a new field to a form layout, you must go to the Field pull-down menu at the top and choose Show Form Fields Selector. This will open the Object Selector window. At the top of this window there are two options, Text Box and Graphic. You can click the Text Box option there, and drag it wherever onto the form layout page to place a new Text Box at that location. The Text Boxes are for fixed text boxes that you want to put some text into that always appears on the form layout. Refer to the Field Properties for more information on TextValue components.
You can also click the Graphic option there and drag it wherever onto the form layout page to place a graphic or picture object at that location.
The folders in this window contain the fields from the database which are the controls where you will enter some sort of data onto the form. Most of the fields you will use are in the General folder there. You add them to a region on the form by clicking and dragging them from this object selector window to the region on the form. Once you move a field onto a form, you can double-click on it to set its field properties.
Moving/Resizing a Region
You can select a region and move it around or resize in the same way as a field. Simply click on the region, and use the little boxes in the corners and in the middle of each side of the box. Refer to the topic on Region Properties for more information.
Adding a Region to a Form Layout
Normally all of the regions you will ever need on a form will already be there, and since we recommend that you start with one of the forms we include with the software, you should never need to add a new region. If you do, usually it will be a General region. You can add a new General region to a form layout by going to the Region pull-down menu at the top, choosing New > General, then go to wherever you want the new region and click. A new region box will be added that you can then size appropriately, and set the properties for it by double-clicking on it. Again, refer to the topic for Region Properties for more information.
Also, see the help for the Form Properties to see how to set the paper size or the Tab Order of the form.
NOTE: You must have the Professional or Gold edition of the software to access the form layout designer. The Classic edition does not include this feature.
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