User's Manual

Changing Data
Field Types
7
7-21
Dates are entered using a Month/Day/Year numerical input (such as
12/31/95, or 12.31.95, or 12-31-95, etc.) regardless of the date’s display
format, which might be totally different than the field’s editing format. (This
default editing format may be changed via the DPCTRACK.INI file, see
Appendix A, “The DPCTRACK.INI File.”) The date as of seven days from
today may be entered by simply typing +7 in the field box. Today’s date may
be entered by pressing the + key on the keyboard.
Pick
Pick fields most often appear as a field box with an attached Down Arrow
button. The drop-down list of available choices that is displayed upon
selecting the Down Arrow button is determined by that field’s definition.
You may also specify a value from the list by typing the first character of the
desired value into the field box. You may also select an item from the list
using the mouse, the up and down arrows on the keyboard, or by typing the
first character(s) of the entry you wish to select. The Page Up and Page
Down keys move the cursor to the top and bottom of the list, respectively.
Pick fields may also appear as a stacked group of radio buttons. Selecting a
radio button is equivalent to selecting a choice from a drop-down list since
only one radio button in a given group may be selected at a time.
Note that certain Pick fields may cause additional fields to appear, or certain
fields to be hidden depending upon your choice of data. For example,
consider the Instrument Type Pick field. If “RTD Transmitter” is the
chosen value, then the RTD Type field appears on the form. If the Pick
field’s value changes to “TC Transmitter”, then RTD Type information is no
longer relevant, and the TC Type field appears. Fields whose visibility
depends upon the current value of a Pick field are actually part of a separate
form, called a subform. Subforms may contain further subforms, etc. (See
Example 2.7.)
YesNo
A YesNo field is similar to a Pick field but contains only two choices, “Yes”
and “No”. Because there are only two choices available, a YesNo field
sometimes appears on a form as a single checkbox. A selected checkbox
corresponds to a “Yes” value. Otherwise, a YesNo field will appear just like
a Pick field with only the “Yes” and “No” (or True and False, On and Off,
etc.) choices. A YesNo field appearing as a checkbox usually has the field’s
name to the immediate right of the checkbox. The setting for a checkbox is
changed by clicking upon it, or by using the Tab key to access the field and
then pressing the Spacebar. (Note that an array of checkboxes may actually
be an arrayed Pick field, instead of a collection of independent YesNo
checkboxes.)