Hack: Mass Change Form Fields (Select all DatacardValues and DataCardKeys in Form to mass change them)

[achi]

Hi all

Did you ever think, it would be handy to multi-select all DataCardValues & DataCardKeys in a Form at once?

I accidentally found an easy hack to make this happen:

1. Select the form

2. Change Layout from Horizontal to Vertical (or vice versa)

3. Hit once the Undo icon.

4. Done!

This makes all DataCardValues and DataCardKeys beeing selected. Now you can easily mass change the available propertys, e.g. link fontsize to first DataCard in your form or do whatever you need. It does not work for all type of controls (e.g. dropdowns) but at least for textinput & their label.

You can even deselect the ones you don't want to be selected using the CTRL-Key while clicking. (e.g. select only keys, only values)

btw: the undo trick might help you as well after having resized the App Screen size (which resizes all controls in the app proportionally) to make the controls having the sizing as before the screen resize...

Hope this can help you as well!

Regards

[Merley72]

Hi Achi,

Excellent!  Just the first few seconds were enough for me to figure out what I was not doing correctly. 

I was attempting to work on blank Canvas app's which I'd created with blank or scrollable forms not directly related to a SharePoint List.  As such where I had created a blank screen, added 'new' fields and then used an on-save event to create and then patch those back to fields in a list.  I therefore couldn't see the 'normal' options of layout orientation linked to a SharePoint List!  

Now I understand that aspect of things I can get this working as you have shown.

It is an excellent way of making a whole bunch of changes on fields in one go.

As a long-term InfoPath and other products user where I'm used to far greater levels of designer control and management capabilities, this will really make a difference to the app creation process.

Many, many thanks.   Alan C.

[pcasti2]

@achi  !! Thank you so much for sharing 😉 

[Aumeuncs]

Hi @achi , 

Cannot reproduce the hack from my side (chrome, edit form). Does it still work currently ? 

Thanks

[marpio]

It seems it does not work anymore with Chrome: checked on a canvas app ... on undo the app does nothing. But it still works in Edge - just in Edge the datacard multi selection does not work 😄 

[cazforshort]

Yeah this stopped working for me as of last week. Why break possibly the best feature?

[marpio]

I have to say that it is hectic: when there are many fields/cards, - in Chrome - sometimes sticks, sometimes doesn't. My impression is that it depends on the browser and its memory management/storage

[An-kun]

I use Edge Chromium, still works fine for me, although I cant believe this is still the only way I can find to do this, after so many years..

[Jaybird2564]

Achi, You just saved me HOURS...Thank You!!

[achi]

Glad to see it still helps some people! 👍

Note: Sometimes the Undo-Function in the App Designer breaks, and every Undo-Action is not possible anymore. Hence the hack does not work as well. Usually, closing and reopening the whole browser brings back the Undo-Function, then the hack still works.

[taisatk]

It's june 2021 and this hack still works! I can even unmark some items on the tree view if needed. Thank you very much, @achi !🙌🏾