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.
Words and Phrases
| Search for | Example | Results |
|---|---|---|
| A single word | cat
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Topics that contain the word "cat". You will also find its grammatical variations, such as "cats". |
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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. |
Using Boolean Operators
| Search for | Operator | Example |
|---|---|---|
|
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 design
The right edge of any form should be at grid unit 156. The bottom of any form should be at grid unit 42. Forms which follow this guideline will fit in the default fonts at 640x480 and 800x600. Additionally, these forms provide enough room along the edges for a scroll bar if required.
When placing controls on forms, make all character dimensions (coordinates for placement on the screen, height, width) even numbers, because the space required to display one character is 2x2. When the ArrayLength of a field is set to be a number greater than 0 and the field is situated at an odd coordinate, it will automatically shift to an even coordinate.
Important: Each field needs a unique name property. You can change the value in the name property, but do not delete it.
Things to keep in mind when designing forms.
- Provide logical navigation buttons in all forms. For example, the Back, Cancel, Submit buttons.
- Use a Submit or Search button where appropriate instead on relying solely on the ENTER key.
- Stack wide elements like text areas used for descriptions. Multiple wide fields can make a form to wide. Stacking is easier to read than wide elements placed side-by-side.
- Avoid creating wide forms. Recent surveys show that the majority of users do not use monitor settings greater than 1024x768.
- Avoid three–column layouts. Scrolling vertically is more acceptable to most people that scrolling horizontally.
- Avoid adding too many fields, widgets, and notebook tabs to a single form. Simplify forms by breaking it up into smaller forms that link to other forms through a logical flow. Too much information is overwhelming to most users and results in a less productive application. Too many controls on a form can severely degrade performance on the Web client.
- Avoid placing elements too close to each other. Forms are easier to read and use when the text and fields are spaced out. When users increase font sizes this becomes more apparent. This can translate into overlapping form elements, text, and containers in the Web and Eclipse clients.
- Printing works well with label/inputs. It does NOT work with arbitrary positioning of widgets in the form. If you want to print a table, make it a table. Do not simulate one with cleverly placed labels.
- When you design a QBE list form that contains a table, do not enclose the table in a Frame or Group; otherwise the QBE list form will not function properly.
Related concepts
Form creation
Forms Designer
Creating and editing forms
Forms Designer best practices
Building accessible forms
Dynamic View Dependencies
Format Control
Related tasks
Access Forms Designer
Create a form using the Form Wizard
Update a form
Add an HTML Editor or Viewer to a form
Add a dynamic form to a form
Related references
