Using radio buttons

Radio buttons provide a way to present users with a number of mutually exclusive choices. Users can toggle the state of any radio button in a group between on and off. When the radio button is selected, its state is On and its value is registered. When the radio button is cleared, its state is Off and its value is not registered. Only one radio button object in a group can be in the On state.

You can make a radio button look like a check box by setting its appearance characteristics in the Field tab of the Object palette. Before doing so, however, consider the expectations of users with respect to the behavior of check boxes. Do they expect check boxes to provide multiple choices? If so, you should maintain the standard and not apply radio button functionality to check box images.

After you add a radio button to the form design, you can edit the caption text and manipulate the object’s properties in the Field, Value, and Binding tabs of the Object palette. You can define these properties:

Radio buttons support scripting and calculations. If a user is to supply data, you can define whether the input is recommended or required, and you can set up messages to prompt users appropriately. User input may be validated through scripting.

An exclusion group is a group of radio buttons. Only one radio button in the exclusion group can be selected at a time.

You can work with an exclusion group as one object. Some options on the Object palette apply to all of the radio buttons in the same exclusion group. You can move radio buttons between exclusion groups and create new exclusion groups. If you have several radio buttons that are part of the same exclusion group, you can easily break some of the objects out into another exclusion group.

When you add a new radio button to the form, if the last object you added to the same subform was also a radio button, the new button will be part of the same exclusion group. If the last object you added was not a radio button, the radio button will create a new exclusion group.

Exclusion groups automatically resize to fit all of the radio buttons within the group. If you drag a radio button to an empty area of the page, the exclusion group will expand to contain the radio button. If you manually resize the exclusion group, all of the contained radio buttons will be resized accordingly.

To set the size for a radio button

  1. In the Object palette, click the Field tab.

  2. In the Size box, type a different value (in points) and press Enter.

    Depending on the size you enter, you may have to resize the radio button.

To specify the radio button style

  1. In the Object palette, click the Field tab.

  2. Select an option in the Button Style list:

    • To set the check style to the default, which is a filled circle, select Default.

    • To set the button style to a check mark, select Check.

    • To set the button style to a circle, select Circle.

    • To set the button style to a cross, select Cross.

    • To set the button style to a diamond, select Diamond.

    • To set the button style to a square, select Square.

    • To set the button style to a start, select Star.

To assign On values to radio buttons

Each radio button in an exclusion group is associated with an On value that represents the selected radio button in the form data. You can change these values, for example, to match existing values in a data source.

When you specify On values, the default values are integer values starting with “1” for the first radio button in the exclusion group that was added to the form. If you deselect the Specify Item Values option, the On values will match the radio button caption text.

  1. Select the exclusion group or one of the radio buttons within the group.

  2. In the Object palette, click the Binding tab and select Specify Item Values.

  3. Double-click the first On value that you want to change.

  4. Type the new On value.

  5. Press Enter to change the next On value or double-click any other On value to change it.

To define custom data-binding properties for radio buttons

Binding options enable you to build a form that captures data for enterprise infrastructures and/or use an external data source to populate a form at run time. Set data-binding properties for radio buttons in the Binding tab of the Object palette.

  1. Select the group.

  2. Enable the form to connect to the data source when the form is opened.

  3. Bind the exclusion group to its corresponding data node. For information about how to bind objects to a data source, see Binding fields to a data source .

To create a new exclusion group

  1. Select the radio buttons that you want to make part of a separate exclusion group in the Layout Editor or the Hierarchy palette.

  2. Do one of the following actions:

    • Right-click one of the selected objects in the Layout Editor and select Wrap In New Radio Button Group.

    • Right-click one of the selected objects in the Hierarchy palette and select Wrap In New Radio Button Group.

    Note: After you add a group of radio buttons, add a different object to the page. (For example, add a text object.) Now, any new radio buttons you add to the form design start a new exclusion group.

To move a radio button to a different exclusion group

  1. Select the radio button that you want to move to a different exclusion group in the Layout Editor or the Hierarchy palette.

  2. Do one of the following actions:

    • To move the radio button on the form, drag the object in the Layout Editor to a position within the borders of another exclusion group.

    • To change exclusion groups without moving the button on the page, drag the radio button to another exclusion group in the Hierarchy palette.

To move an exclusion group

  1. Click the border of the exclusion group to select it.

  2. Drag the group to a new position on the page. All of the radio buttons in the group will move together.

To merge exclusion groups

  1. Click the border of the exclusion groups to select them.

  2. Select Layout > Merge Radio Button Groups.

To define the behavior of the exclusion group

  1. In the Object palette, click the Value tab and, in the Type list, select one of these options:

    • To allow users to choose whether to enter data, select User Entered - Optional.

    • To prompt users to enter data and make the field recommended, select User Entered - Recommended and type a custom message in the Empty Message box.

    • To prompt users to enter data and make the field required, select User Entered - Required and type a custom message in the Empty Message box.

    • To make the field read only and display a data value that is calculated and displayed through an attached script, select Calculated - Read Only. Users cannot edit the calculated value.

    • To make the field editable and display a data value that is calculated and displayed through an attached script, select Calculated - User Can Override. Users can edit the value if the calculation script has been written to accept the input. If a user does edit the calculated value, the custom message you specify in the Override Message box appears.

    • To make the field read only and display a data value that is merged or calculated and displayed at run time, select Read Only. Users cannot edit the value.

  2. If the value is recommended or required, type a prompt in the Empty Message box.

  3. If the value will be calculated, attach the calculation script to the object by using the Script Editor.

  4. (Optional) If a calculated value can be overridden, type a message in the Override Message box.

To specify the default selection for the exclusion group

  1. In the Object palette, click the Value tab.

  2. In the Default list, select the value that identifies the radio button that you want to set to the On state.

Note: The Default list is available only when the Type option is set to User Entered or Read Only. The value of a radio button’s On state can be changed in the Binding tab.

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