Searching the Help
To search for information in the Help, type a word or phrase in the Search box. When you enter a group of words, OR is inferred. You can use Boolean operators to refine your search.
Results returned are case insensitive. However, results ranking takes case into account and assigns higher scores to case matches. Therefore, a search for "cats" followed by a search for "Cats" would return the same number of Help topics, but the order in which the topics are listed would be different.
Search for | Example | Results |
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A single word | cat
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Topics that contain the word "cat". You will also find its grammatical variations, such as "cats". |
A phrase. You can specify that the search results contain a specific phrase. |
"cat food" (quotation marks) |
Topics that contain the literal phrase "cat food" and all its grammatical variations. Without the quotation marks, the query is equivalent to specifying an OR operator, which finds topics with one of the individual words instead of the phrase. |
Search for | Operator | Example |
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Two or more words in the same topic |
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Either word in a topic |
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Topics that do not contain a specific word or phrase |
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Topics that contain one string and do not contain another | ^ (caret) |
cat ^ mouse
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A combination of search types | ( ) parentheses |
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- Form tailoring
- What is a form?
- Form tailoring use cases
- Selecting values from options in a control
- Selecting values from options on a form
- Changing the options available based on prior user input
- Displaying related data
- Grouping related controls
- Typing text into a control
- Managing global lists
- Reducing upgrade conflicts
Typing text into a control
Forms Designer offers three controls that allow users to type text into a control.
- Text
- Text Area
- HTML Editor
You can determine which of these controls to use by the amount and formatting of the text you want users to type.
If you want users to type a single line of unformatted text, then use a Text control. See Combo Box.
If you want users to type in multiple lines of unformatted text, then use a Text Area control. See Comfill.
If you want users to type in any amount of HTML-formatted text, then use an HTML Editor control. See HTML Editor below.
Text
The Text control allows users to type in or view a single line of unformatted text. You can also make a Text control read-only to display the value of a particular field or if the control is part of a Subform control virtual join.
Example Text control
The benefits of a Text control are listed below.
- You can make the control read-only to display data you do not want users to change, such as a record ID number.
- RDBMS tools can typically query Text control fields as long as you map the field to a simple character data type in the back-end RDBMS.
- Third-party reporting tools can typically read Text control fields as long as you map the field to a simple character data type in the back-end RDBMS.
- The user does not have to apply any text formatting to the value typed.
- If the control is editable, users can update the text value at any time.
The costs of a Text control are listed below.
- The content of the control is displayed on one line of text. The database definition mapping of the fields determines the width of the line. For example, if the input field is mapped to a VARCHAR(255) column, then a user can only type 255 characters of text.
- The control uses the character encoding of the back-end RDBMS to determine how to store character data. If users type in text using a character encoding that your system does not support, the data will likely become corrupted.
- It is difficult to validate that users type in meaningful values into the control.
- There is no way for users to format the text they type into the control.
- The longer the width of the Text control the more form space the control requires.
In general, a Text control is best used in the following circumstances.
- The user only needs to type in or view a single line of text.
- You want the option to make the text read-only. For example, the text is a unique ID or part of a virtual join in a Subform control.
- You do not need to format the text.
If you want users to type multiple lines of text, use a Text Area controls instead. If you want users to be able to format the text they type in, use an HTML Editor control instead.
Text Area
The Text Area control allows users to type in or view multiple lines of unformatted text. You can also make a Text Area control read-only to display the value of a particular field or if the control is part of a Subform control virtual join.
Example Text Area control
The benefits of a Text Area control are listed below.
- Users have multiple lines in which to type or view text.
- You can make the control read-only to display data you do not want users to change, such as the description of an open interaction.
- RDBMS tools can typically query Text Area control fields as long as you map the Text Area's input field to a multi-row array table. See the Multi-row array table section in Array mapping options.
- Third-party reporting tools can typically read Text Area control fields as long as you map the Text Area's input field to a multi-row array table. See the Multi-row array table section in Array mapping options.
- The user does not have to apply any text formatting to the value typed.
- If the control is editable, users can update the text value at any time.
The costs of a Text control are listed below.
- You must choose an array mapping strategy in which to store the Text Area control data. See Array mapping options.
- The control uses the character encoding of the back-end RDBMS to determine how to store character data. If users type in text using a character encoding that your system does not support, the data will likely become corrupted.
- It is difficult to validate that users type in meaningful values into the control.
- There is no way for users to format the text they type into the control.
- The longer the width of the Text Area control the more form space the control requires.
In general, a Text Area control is best used in the following circumstances.
- The user needs to type in or view multiple lines of text.
- You want the option to make the text read-only. For example, the text is a part of an closed record or part of a virtual join in a Subform control.
- You do not need to format the text.
If you want users to type a single line of text, use a Text controls instead. If you want users to be able to format the text they type in, use an HTML Editor control instead.
HTML Editor
The HTML Editor control allows users to type in and format multiple lines of text for display in an HTML Viewer control. Unlike other text input controls, if you do not want users to change the HTML text, you must display it in an HTML Viewer control.
The benefits of an HTML Editor control are listed below.
- Users can format multiple lines of text for display with the built-in editing tools or with HTML tags.
- Users can spell check the text.
- RDBMS tools can typically query HTML Editor control fields as long as you map the HTML Editor's input field to a multi-row array table. See the Multi-row array table section in Array mapping options.
- Third-party reporting tools can typically read HTML Editor control fields as long as you map the HTML Editor's input field to a multi-row array table. See the Multi-row array table section in Array mapping options.
- Users can update the text value at any time.
The costs of an HTML Editor are listed below.
- You must use a separate HTML Viewer control to display a read-only version of data you do not want users to change, such as an approved knowledge article.
- You must choose RDBMS mapping that has sufficient space for potentially large HTML input. Typically, an array mapping strategy is best for storing HTML Editor control data as there is no risk of data truncation when users type large amounts of text. See Array mapping options.
- The control uses the character encoding of the back-end RDBMS to determine how to store character data. If users type in text using a character encoding that your system does not support, the data will likely become corrupted.
- It is difficult to validate that users type in meaningful values into the control.
- You must use a separate HTML Viewer control to provide a read-only version of the text.
- The longer the width of the HTML Viewer control the more form space the control requires.
In general, an HTML Editor control is best used in the following circumstances.
- The user needs to type in and format multiple lines of text. For example, the text is a knowledge document.
- You want the option to spell check the text.
If you do not want users to format the text, use either a Text or Text Area control instead. Likewise, if you need to display the value of another text field in the system, use either a Text or Text Area control.