Mouse

• To move to a specific location in a field, point to the position and click once.
  Tip:  This is useful to change only a single letter or number.

• To select an entire word within a field, point to the word and double-click.

[TAB]

To move from one field to the next, press the [TAB] key.  The active field's title is highlighted in bright green.

Tip:  You can change the highlight color, by changing the Style in the System Parameters.

Arrow Keys

To move to a different position within a field, press the left or right arrow key.

Shortcut Menu

You can use the shortcut menus to cut, copy, and delete the field contents.  You can also display help for a field or window.

• To display the field-level shortcut menu, left-click in any field box and then right-click.

• To display the form-level shortcut menu, left-click in any empty space in a window.

Alphanumeric Data

To insure predictable sorting of data, the software automatically converts all alphanumeric entries to UPPERCASE letters when entering data into alphanumeric fields (also called STRING fields).

[BACKSPACE]

To delete a single character that appears before the pointer, press [BACKSPACE].

Note:  If you highlight the whole field value, [BACKSPACE] erases the entire contents of the field.

[DELETE]

To delete a single character that appears after the pointer, press [DELETE].

Note:  If you highlight the whole field value, [DELETE] erases the entire contents of the field.

[ENTER]

You usually press [ENTER] when ready to perform a function, such as saving a record.

Tip:  If a button appears focused, highlighted in green like the first Save button below, you can automatically click the button simply by pressing [ENTER].

 Focused

 Not focused

Save

Always save your work!

Date Validation

In many places, the programs automatically confirm whether date entries are valid.  Invalid dates trigger a message on the Status Bar, which displays the proper date format.

Example:  If you enter 02/31/2002, the following message appears because February has only 28 or 29 days:

Tips:

• Slashes:  You can optionally leave out the slashes or the first two digits of the year, and the date field automatically formats correctly.

Example:

 Valid entry

 Result

• Calculating Dates:  You can enter a value to automatically be added to today's date.  Enter the amount you want to add (x) and the code for the date element as follows:

• xD:  Adds x days to today's date.

• xW:  Adds x weeks to today's date.

• xM:  Adds x months to today's date.

• xY:  Adds x years to today's date.
  
  Example:  If today is 01/01/2001, type 5Y to enter 01/01/2006.  The value of the calculated date appears in the field.
  
  Tip:  To simply enter today's date, type only D, W, M, Y, or TODAY.  Capital or lower-case letters are valid.

Numeric Entry

Improperly formatted data for a numeric field triggers a message on the Status Bar, which displays the proper numeric format.

Format Rules:

• Type the decimal point in the proper location to avoid unpredictable results, such as padded zeros after the decimal.

• Zeros appear as place-holders in empty fields, with the appropriate number of zeros to the right of the decimal.

• Dollar signs ($) appear with the placeholder zeros, when applicable.
  
  Examples:
  
   Dollars and cents
  
   Whole dollars

• Error messages display the numeric format as |X.Y|, where X = the number of digits to the left of the decimal point and Y = the number of digits to the right of the decimal.  For example, |7.2| indicates you can enter up to seven digits to the left of the decimal, and two digits to the right.
  
  Example:  If you mistakenly enter 9.999 in a |7.2| field, the following message appears.

Required Field

Any mandatory field that is left blank appears with a red checkmark next to it and triggers the following error message on the Status Bar:

Example:  

Note:  You must enter valid data in a required field before saving the record.

Rejected Entry

Invalid field data triggers a message on the Status Bar, which displays the proper format for the field.

Example:  If you incorrectly enter a zip code as 04084a, the following message appears:

Note:  You must correct the data before saving.

Tip:  If you experience trouble formatting the data, you can view the field properties by clicking the right mouse button to see the shortcut menu.