questons/concerns about a5v5

[gkeramidas]

been away from deloping a while, but just got a5v5 and have some problems: (unless i am missing something)

1. why can't i select multiple fieds and modify their properties all at once? for example, a numeric field where i want 2 decimal places, a format that is blank if zero with commas for the thousands. i have to edit properites for each individual cell. why doesn't copy appearance copy properties, too?

2. on a tabbed form, why when i drag the mouse around fields i want to select, does it select fields on pages that are not visible? how do i select 20 fields on a tabbed form without individually selecting each one and not getting fields on other pages?

3 in form design, there is no bubble help on the toolbar items. i can't always tell by those little icons what tool i am selecting, dropdown, embedded browse, ete.

4. how can i permanently delete a single record? there are multiple records marked for deletion. if i pack the db, i will lose all of them. i only want to get rid of the last one because of an auto increment problem. the field fills in with a number after the deleted record instead of after the last normal record.

maybe i am missing something, but any help would be appreciated.

gary

[Selwyn Rabins]

RE: questons/concerns about a5v5

1. why can't i select multiple fieds and modify their properties all at once? for example, a numeric field where i want 2 decimal places, a format that is blank if zero with commas for the thousands. i have to edit properites for each individual cell. why doesn't copy appearance copy properties, too?

you can set certain properties for groups of objects, but not all properties. copy appearance is designed to just copy certain appearance properties, like font and color.



2. on a tabbed form, why when i drag the mouse around fields i want to select, does it select fields on pages that are not visible? how do i select 20 fields on a tabbed form without individually selecting each one and not getting fields on other pages?

you need to hold down the MINUS key on the numeric keypad. you also need to start the Lasoo off the tabbed object.
i.e. hold down the numeric minus. click somewhere outside the tab. hold down the mouse and draw to select the fields that you want.





3 in form design, there is no bubble help on the toolbar items. i can't always tell by those little icons what tool i am selecting, dropdown, embedded browse, ete.

the help is on the status line. make sure that status bar is visible (view/statusbar)


4. how can i permanently delete a single record? there are multiple records marked for deletion. if i pack the db, i will lose all of them. i only want to get rid of the last one because of an auto increment problem. the field fills in with a number after the deleted record instead of after the last normal record.

you can't. but i can't imagine why you would care though.
when you delete a record in a5v5 it is immediately "gone" in that a5 does not see it anymore. it's not like alpha four, or a5 v1 where the "deleted" records are still visible and still get processed until you pack the tables.

packing is solely needed to recover the space taken up by the deleted records -- but it make no difference if you pack or never pack.

[gkeramidas]

RE: questons/concerns about a5v5

ok, selwyn, thanks:

2. i knew about starting off of the form, but did not know about the minus key. i think this behavior should be reversed to make it more logical.

4. i delete the last record that has an order number of RF010095. the record before the deleted one, which is the current last record, has a number of rf009572. when i enter i new record, the auto increment sets the number to rf010096 instead of rf009673. if i pack the database, it works correctly. it must still be seeing the deleted record for the auto increment function.

[Selwyn Rabins]

RE: questons/concerns about a5v5

auto increment in v5 is based on the highest existing value in the field, which a5 determines by looking at an index on the field.

so if the auto increment does not give the correct answer, it suggests that the index is corrupt or out of data. rebuilding indexes should fix the problem.

packing may have fixed the problem in your case because packing forces an index rebuild.