Here's my minor dilema. I have many fields with long names. Like "Expression Cassette", "Gene of Intrest" and "Transformation Method". When I view the data in a table, these field names take up a lot of screen space. I would like to reformat the column titles to EC, GOI and TM so that more columns fit on the screen. But I would like to avoid changing the actual name of the field, because I want to avoid the "cryptic-ness" that that would create. I thought about creating an elaborate Header for the layout and hiding column titles, but that is static. If I needed to insert, move or resize columns, it would no longer fit. What do you guys think? Thanks!

Why not define a second field with a short name equal to the field with the long name and display the second field. This will work as long as you don't need to enter data into the table.

EC (calculation) = Expression Casette

-bd

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Originally posted by GMOcreator:

Here's my minor dilema. I have many fields with long names. Like "Expression Cassette", "Gene of Intrest" and "Transformation Method". When I view the data in a table, these field names take up a lot of screen space. I would like to reformat the column titles to EC, GOI and TM so that more columns fit on the screen. But I would like to avoid changing the actual name of the field, because I want to avoid the "cryptic-ness" that that would create. I thought about creating an elaborate Header for the layout and hiding column titles, but that is static. If I needed to insert, move or resize columns, it would no longer fit. What do you guys think? Thanks!

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GMOcreator: When you change to that layout (the table layout) and you go to layout mode. Why not just click on the text button and edit the field labels to read GOI and so on? That doesn't change the field names, just the labels. What do you think?

Yes, we need to enter data into the table. It just seems easier to enter scientific data when you can see lots of records at once in a table. Unless I am missing something, what proton suggests can't be done. The header for the column is the name of the field, not the label its given in layout format. And I can't seem to change the text in the "field box". Or am I missing something? I think us researchers are just being too picky. Unless there are any other suggestions, we'll just rename the actual field names. Thanks!

quote:

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Originally posted by GMOcreator:

Yes, we need to enter data into the table. It just seems easier to enter scientific data when you can see lots of records at once in a table. Unless I am missing something, what proton suggests can't be done. The header for the column is the name of the field, not the label its given in layout format. And I can't seem to change the text in the "field box". Or am I missing something? I think us researchers are just being too picky. Unless there are any other suggestions, we'll just rename the actual field names. Thanks!

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GMOcreater, maybe I am a bit confused. When you say you want to change the column header, what do you mean? I thought you meant the headers as in the field labels that identify the fields.

Why not create another string field, containing all the fields' names, and use this as section header ?

You can easily accomplish this building a script who takes care to cycle through fields (dynamically, using Status (CurrentFieldName)) and pasting these names in that string field ?

I think this can be a reasonnable solution to your problem; you can buttonize this script or launch it when you want (i.e. at the program start).

Greetings from the Holy Lands.

[ May 23, 2001: Message edited by: JPaul ]