You should be familiar with the various properties that define how a selector looks and what a selector controls, such as target and source. See Defining a selector for descriptions. In particular, you should know that:
Targets are the controls that the selector affects, such as Grid/Graphs, panel stacks, and other selectors.
An attribute selector displays attribute elements.
A metric selector displays metrics.
A panel selector allows the user to display the different panels of a panel stack.
Steps below show how to specify whether targets are automatically maintained.
If targets are automatically maintained in the layout:
All attribute, metric, and metric condition selectors automatically target all Grid/Graphs and panel stacks that are in the same panel or document section as the selector.
You cannot change the target of an attribute, metric, or metric condition selector, except by moving controls to different document sections or by using the panel stack technique described below.
You cannot choose a selector as the target of another selector. You can, however, place the target selector on a panel in the same document as the source selector. If automatic target maintenance is enabled, the source selector will automatically target the panel stack, along with the target selector.
Any new Grid/Graph or panel stack is added as the target of all attribute and metric selectors in the same panel or document section.
Note: Targets are not automatically maintained for panel selectors; you always manually define the targets for panel selectors.
If an object is moved between panels or document sections, selector targets are updated to automatically maintain the targets. For example, Selector 1 targets Panel Stack 1, located in the Document Header section. The Detail Header section contains Selector 2, which targets Panel Stack 2 and Grid/Graph 1 which are also in the Detail Header section. If you move Panel Stack 2 from the Detail Header to the Document Header:
Selector 1 now targets Panel Stack 2, as well as Panel Stack 1.
Selector 2 now targets only Grid/Graph 1.
An attribute on a Grid/Graph can be used as a selector that targets a panel stack or another Grid/Graph. If a user clicks an attribute on the first Grid/Graph, the target changes to display information for only that attribute. Automatic selector maintenance applies to these types of selectors, as well. All the Grid/Graphs and panel stacks in the same document section or panel as the selected Grid/Graph are chosen as targets. For more information, see Enabling Grid/Graphs as selectors to control other Grid/Graphs.
When targets are automatically maintained, you can still control what target is chosen for a selector, by placing controls in different document sections. For example, a document should have a selector that targets Grid/Graph 1 but not Grid/Graph 2. Simply place Selector 1 and Grid/Graph 1 in one document section, which allows them to be linked. Place Grid/Graph 2 in another document section, and the Grid/Graph is not targeted by Selector 1.
If you cannot move controls, you can place them in different panel stacks in the same document section. Make the panel stack invisible by using a transparent background and no borders, and hiding the title bar. Using the example above, you can then place Selector 1 and Grid/Graph 1 into Panel Stack 1. Grid/Graph 2 can be placed in the same document section as Panel Stack 1, but Grid/Graph 2 is not targeted by Selector 1.
You may want to manually select the targets for attribute and metric selectors. Using manual target selection, you can:
Create a selector that targets a Grid/Graph or panel stack that is not in the same document section or panel as the selector
Create a selector that targets another selector
To do this, disable automatic target maintenance. Targets that were automatically maintained are saved; no targets are deleted or changed. You can now define new targets for existing attribute and metric selectors. If you create any new selectors, you must manually select the targets for them.
Steps to disable automatic target maintenance are below.
When you enable automatic target maintenance on a layout, the targets of all existing attribute, metric, and metric condition selectors are replaced with all the Grid/Graphs and panel stacks that are in the same panel or document section as the selector.
Note: You can also disable automatic target maintenance when you are editing the properties of a selector. On the Selector tab of the Properties dialog box, click Manual Targets. Like the following procedure, this disables automatic target maintenance for the entire layout.
Open the document in the Document Editor.
From the Format menu, select Document Properties. The Document Properties dialog box opens.
Click Layout in the list on the left.
Do one of the following:
To enable automatic target maintenance, select the Automatically maintain targets for all selectors in this layout check box.
To disable automatic target maintenance, clear the Automatically maintain targets for all selectors in this layout check box.
Click OK to return to the document.
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