When I try to enter text into a layout (whether the default or a custom layout) I get inconsistent results. Mostly the text won’t enter. Instead I have to use the spreadsheet view. The exceptions are two. One, I can enter text into a Notes field using the default layout, provided I click to open the field. Two, (and this is the oddity) sometimes I can enter text directly onto a custom layout. But after leaving and returning to that same layout, I can’t enter text into it again. Is there a rationale behind that behavior? Have I missed some setting? I was expecting to be able to enter text into a layout all the time, consistently.
By any chance are you trying to add text to a field while in Layout Edit mode? If the Layout button is highlighted in the window’s tool bar, and you see the Layout Inspector on the right-hand side of the window, then you’re in Layout Edit mode. Click the Layout button to switch back to the normal view/edit mode.
— Mike
The other potential issue is you have the Show Edit/Save button option checked on the Preferences window. Turn that off and see what happens.
Thanks for the idea. I should have added that I was in normal view/edit mode. Sometimes in that view I can edit text and sometimes I cannot. The inconsistency is puzzling, and I can’t correlate it with anything else. Sometimes if I switch from a custom layout to the default, then back to the custom, I can edit the custom. But it’s not sure-fire.
Brendan, that preference seems to have been my problem. Turning off the Show Edit/Save button made it possible to edit a custom layout. I still can’t edit text directly in the default layout, but maybe that is a feature whose function I don’t understand. Thanks to both Brendan and Mike.
Hi Tom,
You should be able to edit all the text in the Default Layout.
Try quitting Tap Forms now and re-launching it now that you’ve disabled the Show Edit/Save button function.
Hi Brendan,
Re-launching the app did, as you suggested, enable editing in fields of the default layout, too. The exception is in Notes fields, where in a default layout I have to click on the Notes icon to open it for editing. But as long as I can edit directly in other types of fields and in a custom layout, I am happy. Many thanks for working through this with me. —Tom
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