First of all you must understnd that you are working with a database and not a word processor. Each entry you make is tested against a variety of properties which can vary from field to field.

What are Properties? Properties are a list of rules, conditions and limits which must be met for the data to be considered 'valid'. Invalid data means corrupt data.

All of the fields we will deal with are either numeric or text fields. Text fields are also known as 'string' fields. Text fields can contain almost any character which can be input from the keyboard. Numeric fields may contain numbers, a period, dash or comma.

No formatting such as bold or italic can be used. These are printing and display properties applied during reporting. (There is that word 'property' again. It is used like an adjective to describe features of the object.)

The field properties will will have to contend with are field type and length. A list of all the fields and and lengths can be viewed HERE .

Just a quick review. All the horizontal cells are 'fields' of a members data 'record'.

To edit a cell click in the cell once to select it. It turns blue. Double click the cell and you enter edit mode and the cell turns Pink. To exit from edit mode you press enter to accecpt the data showing in the cell or press the ESC key located in the upper left corner or most keyboards to abandon any edits and return the data to a previous state. There is no UNDO feature.

Lets start simple and edit the address field. Open a file that contains data that you want to Cut-n-Paste or if you just want to practice, open Notepad and type in some test data.

If you have changes that you have already entered and want to save, save it now. Any changed we make from this point can be discarded by not saving the changes from the main file menu.

Note; You might consider working your your own record during this training so it will be easier to correct and spot data entry errors.

Double click an address field. With the pink background showing, right-click with the tip of the cursor in the field being edited. The available options will depend on your last operation.

If you are intending to copy from a text file, select the data you want to copy. Next remove the existing data from the field. Finally, right-click and select Paste. Verify your data. Use the arrow keys of the backspace key to make any edits and press Enter when you are finished.

As with any word processing program, watch where the 'I beam' inserting cursor is pointing because that is where the new data will be placed or keyboard edits be entered.

As long as you do not insert more than 30 characters (including spaces and periods) The system will not enforce any restraint as to the type of characters which can be entered.

Note: The following is simply my option given freely. If you drop the period following abreviations, use single letter abreviations for directions, and where possible not use the address2 space, report generation can be made easier. Mailing labels aren't as much of a problem as confined spaces in rosters. And as long as I am giving out free advice, consiter entering spouse names without middle initials or last names unless absolutely needed. Again this is done to ease space constraints on reports. Well, there it is, my advice worth exactly what you paid for it. In addition, consider placing cellphone numbers in the Squadron 1 field rather that the Cellphone field which is not up-loaded with the rest of your data.

Some fields will enforce field formatting. Dates insert '/' characters. The Phone number inserts a space after the third character and a '-' after the 7th character. Sex fields only Allow 'm' or 'f' to be entered and automatically capitalize lower case letters.

The DB2000 program will truncate (chop off) data that exceeds the allowed field length. No error message is given.

Let's take a look at the formatting constraints of the remaining fields

Phone numbers. The prefered entry format is AAAEEENNNN. This is the format of the stored data. The spaces and dashes are added by the dataformatter for ' viewing by humans '

   Prefered entry and entered results.

   Spacing and a dash entered is acceptable.

   This format exceeds the input field length and causes truncation and data corruption.

Vanity phone numbers are allowable but are under the same formatting restraints. Letters are allowed be cause the phone number field is a text string, not a numeric field which would limit to numbers.

Zip Codes. The big thing to watch out for here is do not entering numbers which include the dash. Unlike the phone number, the zipcode will be corrupt if the dash is entered.

Dates: format MMDDCCYY

  A reminder to clear the old data before new entries. Excess data is truncated, Note that the day did not change.

   Spaces were accepted in the input as are dashes and forward slashes (' / ').

   Omittng the 'CC' (century) can lead to defaulting to the 21st century.

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