Question

Fields Not Hiding Correctly

Forms Version 9

Updated February 11, 2014

asked on February 7, 2014

I have a form that asks what grade a teacher is teaching. Based on the grade level I only want certain fields to display. Since there are more fields to show than hide, I have decided to set fields to hide. I have 18 fields set to hide based on if K is select as the grade. When I preview the form, the fields are not hiding correctly. The same thing happens when I select the other grade levels. Should I be defaulting the fields to show and do the opposite I'm currently doing? What's the best practice?

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Answer

SELECTED ANSWER

replied on February 10, 2014 • Show version history

I looked at your form. I have two comments:

When you're configuring field rules, you don't need to specify Show or Hide for every single field on the form. If you say "Show A and B when value is X" and "Show C and D when value is Y", Forms will automatically hide C and D when the value is X even if you did not explicitly state it in the rules. This should allow you to create shorter rules.
You really, really should take advantage of the Section element, which allows you to group relevant fields together. Not only will it make it an order of magnitude easier to create field rules (since you can just say "show section X when value is X"), it will also make your form look neater. For example, you have five fields about flash cards that can probably be grouped together under a Flash Cards section.

I hope this helps.

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Replies

replied on February 7, 2014

After looking into more closely, I was assuming that there was a default of show for fields. It would be great if there was a setting to default the form to show or hide all fields so if I need to hide less than fields than I would need to show, I could set the fields to hide. Right now it seems as though I have to specify each and every field to show or hide. Is that correct?

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replied on February 7, 2014

You might have a few too many rules acting upon the fields and they are overlapping/contradicting each other.

You might want to consider using Javascript to handle these rules as it may become easier to maintain.

I've been tempted many time to ask for Field Rules to be set like you set the lookup rules, you say a value you expect and then it enforces show and hide on the specified fields. It would great reduce the amount of times I have to set the same thing in the field rules whenever i need 2 fields to hide based on 1 thing.

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replied on February 7, 2014

In my experience you are correct, Blake, there is a default of "show" for fields. You would need to have a rule causing it to hide somewhere.

You could experiment by making a "copy" of the form and then just scrap all your rules and start over. Sometimes when I start from scratch, I find ways to simplify the rules I built the previous time around.

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replied on February 10, 2014

I have been doing some testing with Field Rules. I have a radio button with values K, 1, 2, 3. I have specifically set "Show" or "Hide for all of the fields on the form dependent on whether one of those values has been selected. If K, 1, or 2 are selected, it shows the same fields even the rules say it should show different fields. If 3 is selected it shows correctly. Any ideas?

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replied on February 10, 2014

Here is a link to download our BP for this: http://sdrv.ms/1bPaZ6d. Any help is greatly appreciated.

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SELECTED ANSWER

replied on February 10, 2014 • Show version history

I looked at your form. I have two comments:

When you're configuring field rules, you don't need to specify Show or Hide for every single field on the form. If you say "Show A and B when value is X" and "Show C and D when value is Y", Forms will automatically hide C and D when the value is X even if you did not explicitly state it in the rules. This should allow you to create shorter rules.
You really, really should take advantage of the Section element, which allows you to group relevant fields together. Not only will it make it an order of magnitude easier to create field rules (since you can just say "show section X when value is X"), it will also make your form look neater. For example, you have five fields about flash cards that can probably be grouped together under a Flash Cards section.

I hope this helps.

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replied on February 11, 2014

Ege, I had gone through and specified Show or Hide for every field as a test to see if I was misunderstanding how the fields work. After your explanation I think I understand the logic now. I will run through it and post my results.

Also, thank you for the advice about the Section element. I will be giving that a test as well.

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Fields Not Hiding Correctly

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