Field Level Help

Here we examine how to use the Field Level Help tool to get details about a field. See Field Help module for details about adding and editing Field Help descriptions.

With Field Level Help it is possible to obtain a range of useful information about a field. Some of this information is intended for users (a field description can explain what data users should enter in the field for instance); some information is useful for Administrators (back-end details which are necessary when referencing the field for a wide range of administrative purposes).

Field Level Help details include:

• A field description (typically giving the purpose of the field).
• The (back-end) name of the module in which the field is located (e.g. eparties).
• The (back-end) name of the tab on which the field is located (e.g. QryPerTab).
• The field's (back-end) column name.
• Its Type (e.g. Text) and Kind (e.g. Atom).
• Its Lookup Name and Lookup Level.

To display Field Level Help for a field, either:

• Use the F1 key: place the cursor in a field and press the F1 key.

  -OR-

• Use the What's This button:
  1. Click (which changes the cursor to a pointer with a question mark).
  2. Click a field.

The Field Level Help displays in a pop-up window:

Here we see the Field Level help for the Party Type field in the Parties module.

Click More to reveal more (back-end) details about the field:

From this we can tell that the Field Level Help was accessed while the Parties module was in Search mode.

We know this because the Control and Tab names are preceded by Qry; if the Field Level Help had been accessed while the module was in any other mode, the prefix would be All.

Field Level Help for Party Type reveals that:

• The field description is: The type of Party record, e.g. Person, Organisation, etc..

  Authorised users can add their own field description here.

  Tip: It is possible to have a field's description display automatically at the bottom of a module window whenever the cursor is in the field. See Show a field's description in a module window

• The back-end name of the Parties module is eparties.
• In Search mode the field is located on the QryPerTab.
• The column name for Party Type is NamPartyType.
• This is a text field.
• It belongs to a Lookup List called Party Type and it is in the first level of the Lookup List.

These details may be required (typically by Administrators) when performing some more advanced tasks in EMu.

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