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Terminology and Architecture
Currently Selected Record
The most obvious example of this concept appears when you first enter the application. The "View - Find/List" screen consists of a scrollable display table of the item file. The first record displayed is the default currently selected item. To select a different record, click on the arrow to the left of the item that you would like to work with in the display table. The currently selected item is always highlighted in blue.
Display Tables
Display tables share a common architecture. The left side of the table has an arrow, which, when clicked, makes the record or field corresponding to that row become the currently selected record or field. At the top of each table is a row of column headings naming the contents of the column. Clicking these column headers causes the display table rows to be sorted and displayed in the sort sequence of that field. To the right of each display table is a scroll bar that can be used to move up and down the table displaying entries that cannot fit in the space available.
Edit Tables
An edit table is a pull-down menu with a list of values that are the possible contents for the associated data field. Rather than keying the value for a table-edited field, the field contents are established by selecting a value from the pull-down menu. To access the pull-down menu, click on the gray arrow button to the right of the field. Select the proper value from the list by clicking on it.The purpose of edit tables is to preserve the consistency of values for certain fields. This will help to keep your collection information more organized and make it easier for you to search for specific items.
Certain of the edit tables are context sensitive edit tables. What this means is that the edit table or list of values allowable for one field depends on the context or value of the selection for another field. The purpose of this context sensitive feature is to keep the length of the edit tables shorter and ensure the values are meaningful within the context. For example, the Type field edit table values depend on the value of the Category field. More on this notion of context sensitive tables is also described in the Database Guide portion of this Help Section.
You can customize any of your edit tables to include any values you want and delete any values you don't need. To customize an edit table, first select the first line (marked "-----Add/Delete-----") on the pull-down menu. This will bring up a pop-up window.
To create a new entry, type the value of the entry in the space above the buttons. If there is already a value in the edit table close to what you want, click it on the pop-up window to initialize the new field value and then just modify it as you wish. Finally, click on the Okay button.
Deleting an entry from the edit tables is as simple as adding a new entry. After bringing up the pop-up window, select the entry you want to remove by clicking on it. Then click on the Delete button.
Note: You will not be able to delete any entry with a value that is contained in any record, so be sure to change all records using the field entry you want to delete. (Do a "Select Records" based on the value you want to delete to find the records you need to change prior to the deletion of the entry.)