• A Conditional Object Example
• About Forms and Browses
• Accented Characters
• Adding Users from the Desktop
• Changing Custom Menus and Toolbars at Runtime
• Circular Tabbing on a Form
• Creating a Maximized Application with a Menu
• Creating Alpha Anywhere Help Text
• Creating Alpha Anywhere Help Text - AlphaSports
• Creating and Assigning a Startup Form
• Creating and Using a Conditional Object
• Creating Custom Menus
• Creating Menu Forms
• Creating the InvoiceItemsPie Form
• Creating Wallpaper for Your Application
• Design a Custom Menu
• Designing an Application for Alpha Five Runtime
• Displaying a Form as a Dialog Box
• Displaying the Main Menu
• Dynamic Internationalization for Desktop Application Forms and Reports
• Editing Objects
• Editing System Menus
• Editing System Toolbars
• Filter Builder
• Find by Form
• Find by Key
• Find Text
• Follow Changes and Enters
• Form Editor Control Library
• Form Events
• Form Headers and Footers
• Form Layout - Mouse Cursor Property
• Genies
• Linking to a External Help File Topic
• Managing Style Properties
• Methods for Opening Forms and Browses
• Modal and Modeless Data Entry
• Navigation
• Object Explorer
• OnKey Events on Forms
• Placing a Conditional Object
• Placing a Control on a Form
• Placing Bitmaps on a Form
• Placing Hotspots
• Placing Hyperlinks, Mail-to Links, and FTP Links on a Form
• Placing Lines and Frames
• Placing Subforms
• Prompting for User Input
• Put a Button on a Form to Open Another Form Showing Selected Records
• Put a Button on a Form to Send a Customized Email
• Query
• Querying and Sorting Child Tables on a Form
• Quick Import for a Form or Browse
• Reading From and Writing To the Data Dictionary
• Relative Addresses
• Running a Script with a Function Key
• Sales People Form
• Selecting and Opening a Form
• Selecting the Appropriate View of Your Data
• Setting Form Properties
• Setting Form Restrictions
• Setting the Tab Order
• Specifying a Window
• Startup Form Design Examples
• Synchronizing Form and Embedded Browse Record Navigation
• The Customer Information Form
• The CustQueryReport Form
• The Edit_Customer_Info Form
• The Inventory Form
• The Invoice Form
• The InvoiceItemsPie Form
• The InvoiceReportMenu Form
• The Items Form
• The Main Menu Form
• The Vendors Form
• The Window Bar
• Understanding Levels in a Form
• Using a Dialogasa Search Form
• Using a Form
• Using the Form Editor
• Using the Navigator
• Using the New Form Genie

Modal and Modeless Data Entry

Description

Alpha Anywhere gives you three choices for data entry on Forms and Browses: modal, modeless, and parent-modal.

• Modal

  Prevents users from making edits, unless specific actions are taken.

• Modeless

  Users can edit any fields or records without taking prior actions.

• Parent-modal

  Similar to modal; useful when you are editing a Form that is based on a Set with one-to-many links.

To set the system data entry mode:

1. Select View > Settings.

2. The Settings dialog box displays the data entry style dialog.

3. Expand the System menu, and select Data Entry. The default system data entry style is modeless.

4. Change the data entry style by selecting Modal.

Modal Data Entry Mode

In Modal data entry mode:

• To edit a record, you must first select the Change Record button on the toolbar, press F3, or press ALT+C.

• To start a new record, you must first select the Enter New Record button on the toolbar, or press CTRL+E.

• Pressing Enter or Tab in the last data field does not open a new record.

• After saving the record, edits are disallowed.

• After making changes to a child record in a set, edits are disallowed.

Parent-Modal

• User presses F3 to allow editing in the top level table of a set.

• Form now remains editable regardless of what table in the set the user is editing.

• Form will only revert to Modal when the user navigates to a different parent record.

Modeless Data Entry Mode

In Modeless data entry mode:

• You can edit any fields or records without first selecting Change Record or Enter New Record mode. While modeless data entry is convenient, it allows accidental field editing.

Changing the Setting of a Layout

1. To change the data entry setting for a browse or form in Design Mode, press F12.

2. The Properties dialog box appears.

3. Select the Data entry tab, and select Modeless. Your selection specifies the data entry mode for a specific form or browse.

4. Selecting System Default applies the View > Settings > System > Data Entry settings.