tabbing data entry portal rows

[Simon Leibowitz]

I won't my useres to add related records through a portal. The number of related records can vary a lot. On the input screen I have 5 portal lines visible. Is there a way of tabbing through the fields of one portal record and then tabbing onto the next portal row. At present, if I entre my data in the last field of the portal row and then press enter the portal jumps to the first row again, leaving me to scroll right through the portal again to get to the next new record.

If this makes sense ? Help much appreciated. Thanks.

[Chuck]

It sounds like you have your portal sorted by one of the fields, perhaps by the creation date or something, so that new records show up at the top of the portal list. If you can avoid this, take out the sort order for the relationship, and the newest records will appear at the bottom.

If this isn't an option, then you might want to take out the ability to have the relationship allow the creation of related records and place a new button near the portal that the user clicks. This runs a script that creates the new related record and then takes the user to the first portal row and to the correct field for entry.

Chuck

[Simon Leibowitz]

Chuck,

Thanks very much for your response but that's not quite the issue. There is no sort order on the relationship and indeed the records remain in the order that they were entered, which is fine.

The problem is how do I get my users to navigate the layout as a whole. Within the portal there are three data entry fields, if I set the tab order across these fields 1,2,3 but do not allow tabs to any other parent fields across the layout, then data entry within the portal is fine. In turn each field in the portal is accessed then on tab 4 you are taken to field 1 of the next portal row. All fine BUT.

What about the rest of the layout ? I need the user to tab across several fields in the layout, then into the portal, across the above three fields for however many related records they require, then out of the portal and on through several other fields on the layout.

If the three fields in the portal simply become tabs, 6,7,8 say out of 12. Then this is when life gets complicated for the user! As soon as one portal row is complete and they tab again they are off somewhere else on the layout. If, however, they press enter at the end of the portal row, the portal jumps to row one and the user has to scoll down again (can be very boring) and then use their mouse to place the cursor in the first field of the last row (the new record which is always available at the bottom of the portal).

I could have a button/script for each new related record required, (taking the user to 'last portal row') but I was just rather hopeing there were a whole load of tabbing or other data entry tricks out there that I know nothing about.

Sorry this is very long winded. Much appreciate any comments. Many thanks. Simon.

[Chuck]

Is the portal connected to a relationship that allows the creation of related records? If so, then tabbing out of a record in the portal should take the user to the first record in the next portal, and if the next portal row is the blank on that they can add a record from, that's where they should find themselves.

If the relationship is set to allow the creation of related records and tabbing out of the last row of the portal doesn't take you to the blank one, then I'm afraid I'm not sure what is happening. Perhaps someone else here has other ideas?

Chuck

[Simon Leibowitz]

Chuck,

I've just been playing around with this again at it seems that it has actually been acceptable all along! Yes, the portal is set up with a realtionship allowing creation of related records and yes it does tab on down to create the next record. What I hadn't realized was that if I tab through all the fields on the blank (not yet created record) without entering any data, then following that I am tabbed off through to the rest of the layout.

I'd appreciate if you could confirm this is normal and an acceptable way forward.

I'm new to this list and it's been a great help already. Many many thanks again.

Simon.