Rationale

• Both fields and sections can:

  • Be shown or hidden depending on the value of other fields, by setting their visibility property.

  • Become read-only, as opposed to read-write, depending on the value of other fields, by setting their read-only property.

• In addition, fields can also:

  • Have a dynamic value set when the form is first loaded by users, by setting their initial value property.

  • Have a value that is updated "live" as users set or change the value of other fields in the form, by setting their calculated value property.

By using a combination of the aforementioned visibility, read-only, initial value, and calculated value properties for sections and fields, you can create forms that are very dynamic, which can behave like a spreadsheet, or like a small application.

The visibility, read-only, initial value, and calculated value are set using formulas in the Control Settings or Section Settings dialogs.

Examples

Hide a field based on the user's answer to an earlier questions

Say you want to show a textarea when users check a checkbox to indicate they want to provide more details:

1. Add a Single Checkbox control, open its Control Settings, name it provide-additional-details.

2. Add a Plain Text Area control, open its Control Settings, open the Formulas tab, set the Visibility to Formula, an enter $provide-additional-details/string() = 'true'.