Automate continuation

[Bettina]

Forgive my beginner's lack of knowledge.

I am trying to automate my fields, so that after I have entered information in one record (ex: Newark) when I input the same info in another record, it recognizes it and fills it in for me.

Thanks.

B

[spb]

Do you mean that when you start to type "Newark" it will "know" this and finish the word for you? (what if you wanted to type "New York?") Or do you mean that if you type in "Newark," that other fields will fill with Newark data, like NJ in the state field? Or do you mean that if you typed "Newark" in the previous record, it will fill it in in your next record?

There are ways of doing all these things. Describe exactly what you are trying to do and what you'd like to see happen.

Steve Brown

[Bettina]

Dear Steve,

Thank you for responding, and so quickly at that!

Correct question: Do you mean that when you start to type "Newark" it will "know" this and finish the word for you? (what if you wanted to type "New York?)

I would like it to give me "Newark" when I type "New" if there is a precedent. If it gives me "Newark" when I want "New York", I would remove the "ark" and add a space, so it would recognize that it is "New York" I want if there is a precedent. If it gives me "New Caledonia" when I type "New" with a space, I would remove the "Caledonia" and start with the "Y" of "York" at which point I would like it to give me "York". I don't mind doing some erasing and retyping, however I do not want to use a value list.

Is this too convoluted and impractical?

I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Bettina

[spb]

There are ways of doing this, but they can get pretty convoluted. I'm wondering about the value of working this way, though. It seems to me that you aren't saving keystrokes by deleting "Caledonia" and replacing it with the rest of Newark. It only takes three keystrokes to finish Newark, but click-drag then three keystrokes to delete Caledonia, and type "ark."

If there is a relatively small number of cities involved (say, twenty or less), then you might consider making a value list of them. You could format your city field to be a pop-up list based on this value list. When you click City, the list pops up, you select "Newark" and you're on to the next field. You can define the value list to include "Other" and "Edit" which will appear at the bottom of the list. If you have a one-time city you know won't show up again, choose "other" when the list appears and type the city in. If you have a city that you forgot to include in the original value list, choose edit. When you type it in, it will fill your field and also be added to the list for next time.

Steve Brown

[Bettina]

Steve,

Thanks for your reply.

The problem is, I don't know what the cities will be, so I can't set up a value field in advance. However, I know that once I enter a specific city, it will be used over and over again. Which is why I wanted to automate the process.

I don't have an issue typing in "Newark" once or twice, but when I have to type it over and over again, it becomes a nuisance. I guess I could add to a "city" value field on a need basis, but I really would have preferred to have a set system in place, not one that requires constant updating.

I am new at this. Am I being too demanding?

Bettina

[Vaughan]

Base the value list in the cities field, then it will auto-update itself.

[Bettina]

Vaughan,

I tried that, thanks and it worked. However, I was hoping to avoid value lists alltogether by using some form of automated continuation (see above posts). Any suggestions?

[Ugo DI LUCA]

Hi Bettina,

Depending on how many fields you'd like to fill using this mechanism, you may be interrested by a Type-Ahead solution, also called Clairvoyance. Then, all matching possibilities would appear in a small portal, and you could just pick the one you wish with a single SetField[City,::Clairvoyance:City]

Check the Sample forum as there are a few of them demoed.

[Bettina]

Vaughan suggested:

"Base the value list in the cities field"

A question about this. I set up a value list called "Cities" with no cities specified whatsoever and selected "values from field" (cities, in this case). It seems that the only place with a record of the cities I enter from here on will be my drop down menu in Browse. Is this correct?

I am asking because I noted that I can't change the spelling of a city (say from incorrect Hambourg to correct Hamburg) short of creating a new city name (Hamburg), then going in and doing a find and replace of all instances of the misspelled city (Hambourg). Maybe I am doing it wrong, but it seems somewhat inflexible...

[Bettina]

Ugo,

I checked the demos and they are very cool. Thank you.

I can't help but wondering if you're saying there is no way to automate continuation or if it just wouldn't be useful in the situation I mentioned?

b

[Ugo DI LUCA]

From your other posts, I think you'd not be kind with your users if they were to delete some words while being in an "entry process".

Better is a one click in a list of possible matches IMO

[Bettina]

I am curious to know the following:

If you add a lot of value lists to a file, does it slow down data entry?

I created a value list in my secondary file using values from a field (as Vaughan has suggested I do for "cities"). This field ("ID tag") is from another file (Master file). I have 143 records so far, which isn't much considering what I plan to enter in the future.

As soon as I created the value list, I noticed that everything slowed down. Response time during data entry slowed greatly, etc... As soon as I removed the value list, it was back to normal.

Does this have to do with the length of the value list or the fact that the info is coming from another file? I would guess the first, but what do I know!

I should probably also mention that my ID Tag (which we've discussed at length in the relationship forum) brings in information with it (i.e. First, Middle and Last Name as well as a few other things).