Protecting Integrity of First Record

[Steve T.]

Hi, folks! We have a terminal at our front desk that several people use on any given day. Some users leave the db on screen in FIND mode so it's ready for the next search when someone asks them a question, but they also update these records so do need to have EDIT ability. As a result, though, sometimes data gets messed up because someone starts typing before realizing they are not in FIND mode. I know the answer is to just tell folks to be more careful, but I'd like to hear if this is a problem with anyone else and if there are any tricks to minimize this. I also thought I'd share what I did in case it's helpful to anyone else...

Personally, I created an "adminstration record" which is the default first record when the db is opened. I noticed that the 1st record in particular was messed up most (and I could see when by the modification date since it was an old record that should not have been updated for years). So, I filled the record w/ *** DO NOT DELETE data in most of the fields and put a few notes, comments, and how-to's in some of the other fields. It actually kinda worked out well as a kind of START PAGE where I could leave notes/info for the users. Anyone else?

Thanxalot!

--ST

[Vaughan]

Make the find screen look very, very different from the browse screen.

[Fenton]

One way you can make the difference obvious is to create a calculation field, Unstored, result Text,

Case ( Status(CurrentMode) <>1, "Do NOT Enter Data in Browse Mode!", "")

It will not show in Find mode. Make it big and red, on the layout as a Merge field.

[Steve T.]

RE: Make the find screen look very, very different from the browse screen.

RE: Status(CurrentMode)

Actually, that sounds really great. Odd... I think about Status(CurrentMode) for web but I never thought about using a calc field to check regular client user mode. Ah, well.. gotta look at the bigger picture sometimes. Thanx!

--ST