Adjusting GUI in FormLayout

[Slot Head]

I wonder how many out there who use FormLayout carefully design their GUI in absolute layout before changing to Form Layout?

Once I've set Form Layout and then try to adjust anything, I wish the experience did not feel like one in which the GUI designer was acting like it knew what I wanted better than I did.

Yes, there's good reason for how it behaves and it does do some pretty smart things, but you sure have to fight it sometimes to overcome some very stubborn notions of how things should be interrelated once it's little mind snaps shut like a bear trap.

I wonder if it might be possible to make a key, Control perhaps, function as the "just do what I'm telling you to do and don't do anything cute" key? E.g., if you click on one widget and move it, nothing else moves.

[Eric Clayberg]

I wonder if it might be possible to make a key, Control perhaps, function as the "just do what I'm telling you to do and don't do anything cute" key? E.g., if you click on one widget and move it, nothing else moves.

By default, The Ctrl key suppresses any snapping behavior when you move a widget. You can also configure it to only use snapping when the Ctrl key is pressed.



If you suppress the snapping behavior, widget layout should behave like null layout. You can then use the Ctrl key selectively to create widget attachments (or just use the popup attachment menus on each widget side).

If you have a widget (A) that is already attached to another widget (B), widget (A) will move, if you move (B). Once you attach one widget to another, that relationship stays in effect until you unattach them.

BTW, you can reset the attachments for one or more widgets by selecting them and using the Layout Assistant to have then attach themselves to the upper left corner.