Fill in fields
When you fill out a form, you enter information in fields. When you tab to or click a field, a blinking cursor appears to indicate the field is active. You can then enter information by typing or by selecting values from choice lists. You can move from field to field by pressing the Tab key on your keyboard or by clicking a field with the mouse. You can move to the previous field by pressing Shift + Tab.>
When you enter information in a field, the value must be appropriate for the
type of information that the field holds. For example, you can't type a name
into a field that stores numbers. If you enter an incorrect value, an error
message appears when you attempt to click or tab to a different field.
Each field type has formatting options that can make it easier for you to enter
information. For example, when you type a value such as "1500," the
information could be converted to "$1,500.00."
Fields can be designed to look up data from another source and fill it in on the form.
NOTES
- If you tab out of a Recommended or Required field without entering data in these fields, an error message displays. If you want to leave the field without entering data, click OK in the message dialog box; then press tab or click another field. If you don't enter a value, the field may display in color to indicate that there is data missing. If you've taken the form offline, the recommended or required attribute is ignored so you can save your data.
- If you are using Netscape Navigator 7.1 and you want to leave a Recommended or Required field without entering data, you cannot press tab to leave the field. Instead, click OK in the message dialog box; then click another field.
- For calculations and data lookups that take a long time to process, if an error is detected and you continue to type information in the other cells on the form, the information will be erased or rolled back to the previous value. The cursor is automatically returned to the cell with the error. You must correct the error before you can continue to enter data in other cells. This ensures that the error is corrected if you're typing fast and do not notice the error. For example, if a cell formatting error occurs, you cannot tab out of the cell until the information is corrected.
- Lookups can't be done if the form is offline. When you put the form back online, you must enter or change the value in the lookup cell and tab out of the cell. This allows the lookup to get the necessary data and enter it in the appropriate cells on the form.
For more information about filling in fields, see the following topics:
- Enter character values
- Enter checkbox values
- Enter dates and times
- Enter numbers
- Enter one value of a pair
- Enter text
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