The Visible property specifies whether or not the field should be displayed. This is used for fields that you only want to reference in boilerplate text. Hidden fields are most often used for form letter reports, where fields are referenced in boilerplate text. To reference a hidden field, type &fieldname within the boilerplate text object.
Applies to |
Fields |
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Values |
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Default |
Yes |
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Required/Optional |
optional |
The following properties and attributes of a hidden field are applied to references to the hidden field:
Format menu selections (Font, Size, Weight, Style, Justification)
Horizontal Sizing
Format Mask
Page Numbering attributes (in Page Numbering dialog box).
Format Trigger
Suppose that you are building a form letter report and you want to insert the name, address, and phone number of the addressee in the letter. You create a field called NAME1 for the name of the addressee, ADDRESS for the address, and PHONE for the phone number. These fields are only to appear within boilerplate text, so you select No. Within the boilerplate text where you want these values to appear, you insert references as follows:
Dear &NAME1,
Our records show that your address and phone are:
&ADDRESS
&PHONE
In the output, the letter would look something like this:
Dear J. Smith,
Our records show that your address and phone are:
234 Summer Lane
San Francisco, CA 11104
555-363-1234
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