New Form Defaults

New form defaults are set on the New Form Defaults tab. They set the default property settings that will be used when creating a new form. These defaults include form name, page size, font set, grid, margins, and compatibility settings. New form defaults are in effect for all new forms you create. Any changes you make will be applied to new forms only. They do not change any settings for existing forms.

Note:

You can also access and set object defaults through the New Form Defaults tab.

Setting the form name default

The default name for all forms is Untitled. Normally, it is not necessary to change it because you will be changing the name anyway regardless. However, if you use a prefix for your form names to identify your company or the form set, (e.g., VMP_URLA, VMP_VOE), you may want to assign the prefix as the default name, so you won’t have to type it in each time.

To change the form name default

1. Find the Name field in the Form group at the top of the New Form Defaults tab.

2. Enter the name you want for your default form name in the Name field.

Setting page size defaults

You may also change the default page size for your form to your preference. Then all the pages in your forms will initially be set to the size you use most often. You may use a standard page size for your default setting or you may create a custom page size. The page size properties are located in the Form group at the top of the New Form Defaults tab.

To set a standard page size default

1. Click on the in the Page Size field to display a list of standard page sizes.

2. Select the page size you want from the list. Its height and width will be dis­played in the Height and Width fields.

To set a custom page size default

1. Click on the in the Page Size field and select Custom from the drop-down list.

2. Enter the width you want for the page in the Width field.

3. Enter the height you want for the page in the Height field.

Setting the font set default

In addition to TrueType, your system may be equipped with special font sets spe­ci­fically designed to work with I-32 applications. If you usually use one of these font sets instead of TrueType, you may change the default font set so that all of the forms you create are initially assigned that font set. The Font Set field is found in the Form group on the New Form Defaults tab.

To set the font set default

1. Click on the in the Font Set field to display a list of the available font sets on your system:

2. Select the font set you want from the list.

Setting grid defaults

If the defaults provided are not to your liking, you can change the grid defaults to the number of rows and columns you generally prefer to use. You can also set the default style. This saves you the trouble of having to set your grids to your preference for each form. Any time you need a different grid configuration for a given form, you can easily override it with form-specific settings.

To change the grid defaults

1. Find the Grid group on the New Form Defaults tab.

2. Select the Grid 1 or Grid 2 radio button for the grid you want to set the de­faults for.

3. Change the defaults as follows:

  • Click on the in the Style fieldand select Lines or Dots from the drop-down list.

  • If you selected Lines, enter the display frequency for your lines in the Frequency field (1 displays all lines, 2 displays every second line, etc.)

  • Enter the number of columns you want to display in the Columns per[unit of measure]field.

  • Enter the number of rows you want to display in the Rows per [unit of measure] field.

Setting margin defaults

If you use standard margins for all of your forms, you may want to change the default margins to those settings.

To change margin defaults

1. Find the Margin group near the bottom of the New Form Defaults tab.

2. Enter the Left, Right, Top, and Bottom margins you want to set as your defaults.

Setting compatibility defaults

The compatibility options enable Forms Design 5.1 compatibility and long data IDs for your new forms:

Option What it does
Forms Design 5.1 compatibility mode Disables all features not supported by I-32 Forms Design 5.1 so you do not accidentally use options not avail­able in your end-user software.
Note: When selected (the default setting) I32 Forms Design automatically adjusts the Lines Per Inch property of the form text when you change the font size of a tex box.
Use long data IDs Allows you to use data IDs that contain long integers. Not available if 5.1 compatibility mode is checked.

You should set these options to the settings you use for most of your forms. You can always change them for individual forms if they require different settings.

To change compatibility defaults

1. Find the Compatibility fields at the bottom of the New Form Defaults tab.

2. Check the check boxes of the options you want to enable.

3. Remove the check from the check boxes of the options you want to disable.