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Form Assistant

The Form Assistant task pane is available to help you design Axiom forms. The Form Assistant displays automatically when an Axiom file is form-enabled (meaning the file has a Form Control Sheet).

NOTE: The Form Assistant is only available to administrators and to users with Sheet Assistant permission for the file.

Axiom form canvas

The top portion of the Form Assistant displays a "thumbnail" version of the canvas, and provides access to several form settings.

Unlike the Form Designer (which displays the canvas in actual size), in the Form Assistant the canvas is zoomed out so that more of the form contents can fit within the thumbnail dimensions. You can adjust the thumbnail width by changing the task pane width, and you can adjust the thumbnail height by moving the "splitter" between the thumbnail and the component properties up or down. The size of the canvas for purposes of this zoom is determined by the fixed-position contents of the form (with the defined canvas size serving as the minimum size). This zoom is limited to 40%; if all of the contents of the form will not fit into this zoom level, then the thumbnail will have scroll bars.

The following options are available in this section:

Item	Description
Refresh	Refresh the form canvas.
Edit Form Properties	Open the Form Properties dialog to define general form properties such as the skin and the canvas size.
Layers	Specify the layers to show on the canvas. You can click the link to show the list of layers, and then select or clear the check box for each layer as appropriate. This is provided as a convenience so that you do not have to open the Form Designer in order to change which layers display in the Form Assistant. Any changes made here are also reflected in the Form Designer. Remember that this setting does not determine which layers display when the Axiom form is viewed; it only determines which layers show on the canvas for editing.
Copy Link	Generate a URL that can be used to view the Axiom form in a browser. The URL is copied to your clipboard; you can then paste it into an email, document, web page, etc.
Preview	Preview the Axiom form. When using the Windows Client, the form opens within Axiom Software in a web tab. When using the Excel Client, the form opens in your browser. Additional preview options are available on the Forms menu, in the File Options group of the Axiom tab.
Edit Layout	Open the Form Designer to add, remove, or edit components on the form canvas.

Component properties

The bottom of the task pane displays editable properties for the currently selected component in the form canvas. The available properties depend on the component type. For more information on each individual component, see Axiom form components.

TIP: If components are stacked in the canvas, a special click action is available to select components that are underneath the current component. Click on the top component to select it, then click again to select the component underneath it, and so on. You can also use the Search button next to the Component Name property to search for any component on the canvas.

When you edit a component property in the task pane, the corresponding setting on the Form Control Sheet is automatically updated (and vice versa). In most cases, it is easiest to edit properties within the task pane (or in the Form Designer), but if desired you can edit the settings directly on the control sheet. Editing the Form Control Sheet directly is required if you want to use a formula for a particular property; it is not possible to enter a formula into the Form Assistant or Form Designer.

To go to the section on the Form Control Sheet for a particular component, select the component in the canvas thumbnail, and then double-click any property name to be taken to that property. If nothing happens when you double-click a property, this means the property has not yet been added to the Form Control Sheet. To automatically add it to the control sheet, make an edit to the property using the Form Assistant. You can now navigate to the property and edit it as desired.