Managing Controls and Widgets in Adaptive Layouts

Understand how controls and widgets behave within and between adaptive layouts.

Placement and Sizing of Controls and Widgets

When you create a new layout, the controls and widgets from the currently selected layout are copied to the new layout.

Controls and widgets are added and removed exclusively in existing layouts. When you add a new control or widget to a layout, it is not added to the form's other layouts. Similarly, when you remove a control or widget from one layout, it isn't removed from the others. The same behavior applies to size and position. You can resize or reposition a control or widget in one layout without affecting the size and position of the same control or widget in another layout.

You can copy and paste controls and widgets between layouts. A pasted control or widget is placed at the same position as in the original layout, so it may be placed outside of the layout boundaries.

Caution: The entire control or widget must be positioned within the layout boundaries to render. Controls or widgets that overlap layout boundaries do not display for users.

Embedded Form Controls

Embedded forms can leverage adaptive design if you have created adaptive layouts for the embedded form. For example, if multiple layouts have been created for the Task form, and then that form is embedded in an Incident form, the embedded Task form switches to the appropriate Task layout when the Incident form switches to a different Incident layout.

The layout for the embedded form is determined by the size of the embedded form control.

Tab Order

Tab order is unique to each form layout. If you set the tab order on one layout, it won't affect the tab order for the form's other layouts.

Z-Order

Z-order describes the relative positioning of form controls when they overlap. For example, if you add two controls in the Form Editor, control A can be on top of control B or B can be on top of A. The order of overlapping upon insertion depends on the relative Z order of the two controls; you can modify this order in the Form Editor using Bring to front or Send to Back options. See Form Editor Toolbar.

Z-order is unique to each layout. If you set the z-order in one layout, it won't affect the z-order for the form's or dashboard's other layouts.