Hidden Labels based on a Variable

Thank you for the further information, but I still do not understand what you are trying to accomplish. I think you already have found out that

htstatus = 0 

Is invalid syntax, but what are you trying to accomplish here, and where is that string placed? Or what is the string you are actually trying, and where is that placed?

In a normal label, under the second tab "label states" you can change the label based on a variable. In my case htstatus is a variable I created to track of the Home Theater is on or off.

The issue is that in the Active/Inactive section on the second tab, if you enter a lookup, it doesn't work. If I enter ON or OFF it works as designed.

The Lookup string works fine in the normal label (first tab) field, it returns the volume of the device.

In the Active/Inactive Label box, it returns whatever is typed in that field.

bitzerjd wrote:

In the Active/Inactive Label box, it returns whatever is typed in that field.
 

That's by design. The active and inactive labels can't be variables. They're literally text strings that can change depending on the state of the label. Think of a button that is a power toggle that can change the text on the button to say "On" or "Off" depending on the state of the reference variable.

This is why I said to use a couple labels stacked one on top of another. Use your volume variables as the regular labels in Label Styling. Use whatever reference variable you like to monitor state, and use the same one for both buttons. Don't put any text in the active/inactive fields.

On one label in the active and inactive state sections set the opacity of one at 100 and the other as 0. Do the opposite for the other label. If you stack the buttons on top of each other only one will ever be visible...the volume of the current active device. If you want this to act as a button you can put another button on top of those labels and make it invisible by setting the opacity to zero. 

I do this with images for audio formats. I have a whole bunch of them stacked one on top of another, and as the audio format changes on my receiver it displays a graphic of that audio format on the remote and all the others flip to being invisible.

 

Perfect! I thought the active/inactive labels would work the same as a normal label field and I was just messing up some syntax. It would be soooo much easier if you could add a formula to those fields. It's easy enough to do the stacked method, thanks for that!!