Inspector panel: advanced object properties

Expert

Use the Inspector's Appearance, Data, and Position tabs to set anchoring, visibility conditions, tooltip text, and placeholder behavior.

What you'll learn

How to use anchoring to create responsive layouts that adapt to window size
How to conditionally hide objects with a Hide Object When expression
How to set tooltips and placeholder text for better usability

The FileMaker Inspector panel (View > Inspector) exposes every configurable property of a selected layout object. Beyond basic styling, expert use of the Inspector includes setting anchoring for responsive layouts, conditional hide/show expressions, tooltip calculations, and placeholder text for form usability.

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Anchoring for responsive layouts

The Position tab has four anchor toggles: Top, Bottom, Left, Right. Anchoring to Bottom means the object maintains its distance from the bottom edge as the window resizes. Anchoring to both Left and Right causes the object to resize horizontally.

FileMaker Script

// Responsive button bar at bottom of window:
// Anchor: Bottom + Left + Right
// → Button bar stays at the bottom and stretches to window width

// Flexible scrollable list body:
// Anchor: Top + Bottom + Left + Right
// → Object expands as the window grows

Layout object triggers: OnObjectEnter, Exit, and Modify Themes and object styles: design consistency at scale