Working with User-Edited Fields

Once you have created a user-edited field, you can begin to populate it with data.

Initially, all the cells are empty (for user-edited fields of Character or Memo data types) or contain a null value (for Numeric or Date/Time data types).

Entering data manually

To edit a value, simply select the desired cell using arrow keys or the mouse, then begin typing. If the cell already contains text, you may click inside the text to begin editing with the insertion point at the place where you clicked. When you leave the cell in any fashion (for example, by using the down arrow key) your changes are saved. You may also cancel edit mode by pressing the Escape key.

Pasting data from the clipboard

You can easily paste data from Monarch Classic and other applications by selecting the data you want to copy and choosing Copy or CTRL+C. Next, highlight the cell at which you wish to start pasting the data, right-click to bring up the context menu, then select Paste. You can also use CTRL+V.

Note: If you are copying data from Monarch Classic, then you can use the "Include field names as the first row of output" setting on the Clipboard tab (see the Export and Clipboard Options dialog) to add or remove the field names.

For user-edited fields of Numeric or Date/Time data type, the value shown in the cell may not be exactly what you originally entered, depending on the particular formatting chosen for that field. For example, you might have a Numeric user-edited field whose precision is set to one decimal place.

When entering values for this field you might enter 1.07 in a cell, but when you leave that cell you will see the value displayed as 1.1 because the value is rounded to one decimal place. If you subsequently click in the text of that cell with the intention of editing the value, as soon as you get into edit mode the text will change back to 1.07 (the raw text that you originally entered), so that you can edit it.

In short, user-edited fields always remember and let you edit the raw text that you entered in a particular cell, but when you are not actively editing the cell the value is displayed as properly converted and formatted according to the overall field settings.

Note: There are some curious scenarios that can arise when dealing with user-edited fields. For instance, suppose you define a sort that sorts by a user-edited field and you make that the current sort. What happens if you then edit values in that field or add new values? Obviously, you don’t want Table view to instantly resort (or worse, re-filter) each time you change a cell. For that reason, Table view permits you to change values in the user-edited field, but it won’t resort (or re-filter) until you explicitly choose to do so by choosing Rebuild Data View from the Table View Ribbon.