Among the many problems that I have trying to edit forms that have come over from Panorama 6, I have some Text Editor Objects that switch the text color from black to white. I had one that just insisted on staying white, so I replaced it with one of the well-behaved ones, and that worked. But sometimes when I am working with that form and another, all of them will turn white. It seems to revert after Panorama crashes, which it does fairly often as I am doing these edits in graphic mode.
If you are using the “pop-up editing” option, which works like a Panorama 6 data cell, then it is normal for the cell currently selected in data mode to appear with white text. The cell appears with a red background and white text, that’s how you know which cell is selected. (In Panorama 6, it was a black background with white text). Could this be what you are describing. If not, then I have no idea.
Well, it is pop-up editing, not something I chose but what was converted. But sometimes the text remains white even when I have gone to a different object. I tried unchecking the pop-up editing on one of the objects, and I could see the difference, and thought it might not be a good idea, and when I went to change it back, the Text Editor properties pane was blank. Closing and reopening the file seems to bring it back.
I do not understand all the problems I have with Graphic Editor mode.
Edit: Closing and opening the file only sometimes brings it back. I am also finding that I cannot copy text from one of these Text Editor Objects.
On a related topic, the text color in a highlighted row in a Text List can be puzzling, at least it was for me. If a Text List has Rich Text enabled, which would allow you to have selected date in a different font or color, say italics or red, when you select that row, the text will NOT change to white. This can make the text difficult to read depending on your highlight color for the selected row. The highlight color is set in your Mac’s system preferences. I found my favorite highlight color, blue, worked very poorly with black type. To solve that problem, and still be able to use rich text in a Text List, I experimented with the various highlight colors. Most of them also work poorly. I have found that green is the easiest to read when the text remains black. Here is the problem illustrated:
I recall from earlier discussions that this behavior is under Apple’s control so it is not going to change.
I am not aware of any way to change the System Highlight Color in a Panorama procedure, which might allow you to change just when you use a form with the rich text enabled. Hey Gary! What do you think about that?
Things can be simplified by using color names instead of the RGB formula but only for a few recognized color names. The colors red, orange, green, blue, purple or graphite can be used directly in the AppleScript and conform to those in the System Preferences General panel:
The script can thus be written:
applescript |||
tell application "System Events"
tell appearance preferences
set properties to {highlight color:blue}
end tell
end tell
|||
You actually did choose it by originally using Data Cell objects in Panorama 6. When Panorama X brings in a Panorama 6 form, any Data Cell objects become Text Editor objects, but with the “pop-up editing” option enabled. Any Text Editor SuperObjects in a Panorama 6 form also become Text Editor objects in Panorama X, but with the “pop-up editing” option turned off. Panorama X doesn’t have separate types of objects for Data Cells vs. Text Editor objects – there’s just one type of object that can take on either behavior style depending on whether the pop-up editing option is enabled.
Personally I stopped using Data Cells in Panorama 6 years ago, and I never use the pop-up editing option in Panorama X. This is an archaic interface style from the 1980’s that was used in OverVUE and early versions of Panorama. It was never removed because some people like to use it even though it was archaic, and for that reason I included this feature in Panorama X as well.
Panorama 6! These forms were originally in Panorama II, I think. Before I began modifying them, they would still fit the screen of my original PowerBook 140!
I think that I need to rebuild just about every form from scratch. I might be able to bring over a few elements, but that will take time.
I wonder if the reason I get crashes editing these old forms is because there are some artifacts left over that the graphic editor cannot handle.
In any case, I sort of do not mind rebuilding these forms. I can take advantage of the extended screen real estate to bring things up to date. But the problem is that I did things so long ago that I have forgotten how I did a lot of it.
Once I get those things done, I hope it will last as long as the earlier versions did. By then, I probably will be in no shape to do the things I am doing now.
Of course, that assumed that I could rebuild the form. I started with a blank form, and used the Construct menu to put in the Text Editor Objects, and after Panorama crashed, I found that the form was there on reopening. The only problem is that they are uneditable. If I open one of the objects, the cursor stays at the end of text that is there, no matter what I do. If I move the cursor elsewhere, it hops back to the end of the text. If I type something in, nothing happens.
This is really, really frustrating! What is wrong with this?
