Placing Smart Fields on a Form

Description

You create a Smart Field by editing the properties of an existing field on a form. In other words, you "transform" a type-in field to a Smart Field.

To create a Smart Field:

  1. In Form Design Mode, right-click on a type-in field and select Properties....

  2. Click the Setup tab.

  3. From the Field-Type drop-down list, select the Smart Field you want to use.

  4. Click OK and the Smart Field now appears on your form.

    images/Select_Smart_Field.gif
Some Smart Fields are only available for certain field types. For example, the calculator Smart Field is only available for a numeric field. Likewise, the calendar Smart Field is only available for a date field.

Types of Smart Fields

Throughout Alpha Anywhere, there are prompts in which you enter information like filenames, expressions, order criteria, and filter criteria. At these prompts, you can either type information in the box yourself, or you can use a Smart Button to assist you. You can also modify Placing Type-In Controls objects to show these buttons.

The contents of the smart field Field-Type list depends on the data type of the field that you are using.

To create a smart field:

  1. If you do not see the Toolbox, select View > Toolbox.

  2. To put a button on the form, select the Type-In tool on the Toolbox.

    images/Typein_Tool_button.gif
  3. While holding down the left mouse button, draw a rectangle on the form.

  4. Select the field or variable that will correspond to this new control.

  5. Right click on the control and select Properties... .

  6. On the Setup tab make a selection from the Field-Type list. The options are:

Options

Setting the Style of Calendar Popups

A popup calendar smart field can be formatted with a cascading style sheet (CSS). To select the style to use:

  1. Select View > Settings > Preferences > Calendar Popup > Style.

  2. Select the name of a cascading style sheet in the Value field.

See Also