Field with a pre-defined standard entry?

[J. Williams]

I'd like to have a contract number field that has "03-" already present so the data entry folks don't have to type it over and over again - we have about 90,000 records to enter all based on contract numbers that start with 03-

Is there a way to do this? Or an easier way I'm not thinking of being I'm a pretty novice user?

Please and thanks.

[ESpringer]

Sure, for most kinds of fields you can define an auto-enter value. In the define fields dialogue box, the Options button allows you to specify options including auto-enter values. You want to specify that "03-" (without the quotes) should get entered into each new record. When the data-entry person arrives in that field, the cursor will automatically be positioned just past that part, so they can naturally just type whatever comes after the 03-

If you never want more than one record for the same contract number, then you should also look at the "Validation" tab and select "unique" for the value. If the contract numbers are all a certain length, you can use validation to make sure that someone doesn't type too many or too few digits, using a calculation (ask if you're interested). Even if you have shorter and longer contract-numbers, you might want to validate that the number of total characters does not exceed ... [whatever the longest one might be].

[J. Williams]

Thank you. The contract numbers range wildly, they are contracts relating to State Highway construction - old contract numbers from the 1930s read 35-3TC139-13F1 (with no "03-" State District reference because it was "understood"), while current contracts are limited to 6 alpha/numeric characters (preceded by the very necessary State District reference given there are now 12 different districts in the State).

Once I do this, can I then define/create a search field based on the contract number alone by deducting the "03-" so that someone searching for the contract number does not have to enter "03-" in order to search?

[Lee Smith]

You can *NOT* use the "Auto Enter" option to enter your contract number, but you could use a Value List and a Pull Down Menu.

You can also use the Keyboard combination of Cmd ' (on a Mac) to copy the data from the previous record that had an entry into the current field. This can be a big time savor, but the data entry person had better pay attention to what is being copied from the previous entry.

Lee

[dbruggmann]

J. Williams said:

Once I do this, can I then define/create a search field based on the contract number alone by deducting the "03-" so that someone searching for the contract number does not have to enter "03-" in order to search?

a) If finally all your contract-numbers will have a leading

[J. Williams]

I CAN'T use the "Auto Enter" for the contract number itself, but I can for the "03-" right?

Lee Smith said:

You can *NOT* use the "Auto Enter" option to enter your contract number..."

Lee

[Lee Smith]

Sure you can.

You know how to set it up, right.

Just use the Option features for the Field and the Auto Enter - Data, and type your 03- in the box. This will put 03- in the field every time you create a new record.

Lee