About hidden components

Components can be used on a form and at the same time be set so that they are not visible to users (are "hidden") in Runtime Mode. You can also set them to be either visible or hidden, depending on certain conditions that you define.

Normally, these components are still visible in the designer (Web Designer in the web client, Design Mode in the Windows client). However, you can control whether you see hidden components in the designer with a setting in the User Preferences window. In the web client, the option that controls this is Show Hidden Components, which is located on the Web Designer User Preferences > Designer tab. In the Windows client, this option is on the Design Time tab.

Even when a component is hidden in the designer, you can locate and select the component using either the Object Viewer or the drop-down list of components at the top of the Component properties sheet.