I am trying to use the Image Display Object to create a dynamic background for data entry. I want to put an image behind a field that varies depending on the intended value of the field, which changes from item to item. Unfortunately, the Image Display Object will not let me put anything in front of it… it seems to want to be the topmost object on the page. Pan 6 didn’t mind. I could do that, but not in Pan X. Is this a “bug” or a “feature” of Pan X… if it’s a feature, is there some other way to get what I want… a graphic behind a field that varies depending on the varying intended input for the field?
It is a bug. I am too tired right now to look it up, but it is listed in Bitbucket. The Image Display object uses Apple code to display the image, and for some reason that Apple code refuses to allow anything to be displayed on top of it. So far I haven’t been able to figure out why. At the moment, I don’t think there is anyway to do that. However, I kind of suspect that even once this bug is fixed you still probably won’t be able to get editing to work correctly on top of an image. That is a pretty non-standard UI you are proposing.
I’m attempting to use Pan X to assemble single page PDF files into mult-page PDF documents via the Image Display Object and other Text Display Objects… on a form - similar to the OP in this thread.
The IDO still doesn’t allow any other object to be placed in front of it. I would like to add page numbers, headers/footer text and additional comment text above the image before exporting (saving as) as a multi-page PDF document.
The single page PDF images fill the page so there is no empty space around the PDF image for additional tiles, etc. It needs to print edge to edge on letter size paper. Any Text Display Objects must appear on top of the PDF image in the IDO.
Has there been any development or corrections on this bug?
Or - is there another way to display a single page PDF image, dynamically, in a data tile based on a formula from a data cell and add Text Display Objects and/or rectangles above them? The “background” image would be different for each page of the printed document - based on that data record’s image name field.
I got distracted and never really reported here on my experiences at WWDC last month. My top priority that week was to spend time in the labs with Apple engineers seeing if they could assist with problems I had not been able to resolve. The good news is that this was completely successful, and every problem I brought was solved, including this one. It also turned out that all of the problems I brought wound up being caused by bugs in the macOS, but one very helpful AppKit engineer managed to diagnose these problems and come up with workarounds. In the case of this Image Display issue, it took him 90 minutes, and he was consulting with the AppKit source code the whole time (which he had on a laptop). So this is a problem that I never, ever would have been able to solve on my own.
Bottom line, this problem is fixed, and the fix will be included in Panorama X 10.1. I’ve dropped a few hints about this update, I believe that all of the code is written, and now I am just finishing up documentation and movies. There are enough significant new features in this release that there are at least a couple hundred new pages of documentation.