No Quit without Revert Changes

In one PanX database, I am unable to Save and quit PanX normally. I click Quit but it won’t quit unless I click Revert Changes. So I can only Save changes if I Save first which causes the text to disappear. I have to double click it back, then Quit with Revert changes. What is going on? Something is wrong with quitting and also with the text disappearing when I click Save until I double-click to get it back. This is a database converted from Pan6. Has extension .pandb. I have 2 other PanX databases that don’t do this. Using Mojave. Help?

Never heard of that. If you want to send the database to support [at] provue.com (please compress it to a .zip file first), I can investigate further.

I received Janet’s file. I wasn’t able to find any problem with saving, closing or quitting files.

However, I believe I do see what you mean by “disappearing” text. The text isn’t gone, it’s in the database and shows up in the data sheet. But in your form, the text in the currently selected field is invisible (white text on white), at least in some fields.

The problem is that you are using Text Editing objects with the Pop Up Editing option stacked on top of the white rectangles, which you are using to display borders. The Pop Up Editing option works like the old “Data Cell” objects – you double click to edit in a pop-up window, and when you are not editing the current cell is highlighted in color with white text. When you convert a Panorama 6 form to Panorama X that contains Data Cell objects, this option is turned on automatically, so that the form will work the same way that it did in Panorama 6. The problem is that in Panorama X, the highlight color doesn’t work when the Text Editor object is stacked on top of another colored object (even if the color is white, as it is in this case). So the text winds up displayed white-on-white, which of course is invisible. There’s a long technical reason why it is not possible for the highlight color to work like this on a modern Mac app, unfortunately you’ll have to take my word for it.

I found a couple of solutions for your form. I think the best solution is to turn off the Pop Up Editing option. This is really an obsolete option anyway – it operates in a very non-standard way for a Mac app. With this option turned off, the Text Editor works like text editing is supposed to work. If you don’t know how to turn this option off, see Pop Up Editing on this help page:

Another solution would be to get rid of the rectangles that you are using to display the border. Since you want a border, you can simply turn on the Bezel option in the Text Editor object. The border options are on the same help page linked above, in the next section below (Text Editor Display Options). With the border drawn this way, you can still use the Pop Up Editing option if you prefer it. Or, even better, you could both get rid of the rectangles and turn off the popup editing option.

I also found that if you change the rectangle fill from Solid to Hollow that fixes the problem. But I think getting rid of these rectangle completely, as described in the previous paragraph, is the better option.

So to recap, I think the best approach would be to:

  • Delete all the rectangles used to display editor borders
  • For each Text Editor object, enable the Bezel border and turn off the Pop Up Editing object.

I think you’ll find that your form works much smoother once these changes are made.