Adding to Readerware Lists

When you enter data into Readerware products, you will notice that several fields are lists. You select the appropriate item from the list. Fields that work this way include: So how do you add new entries to the list? It is actually very easy, you can add, update and delete items right from the list itself. Each list has a popup menu, simply right click on the field and select the operation you want to perform from the popup menu.

Mac OS X users, hold down the Control key while clicking to display the popup menu.

The items we are interested in here are the last three items. In the following examples I use the category fields, but the same instructions apply to any of the other fields listed above. you can maintain a list wherever it is displayed, i.e. in the detail view  on the edit mode in the table view etc.
 
 

Adding New Category

To add a new category simply type the new value into the category field, right click and select Add to Database from the popup menu. Readerware will then add this new item to the Category list. This only adds it to the list. If you also want to change the displayed book to use this new category, make sure it is selected and update the book.
 
 

Changing a Category

To change  an existing category, first select it. Then make the necessary changes, right click and select  Replace in Database from the popup menu.

It is important to understand that a book in the Readerware database does not include the full category, instead it holds the category key and uses the key to access the real category description when it is displayed. This means that if you update a category, all books in the database that use this category, will now use the new category.

If you want to change the category, just in the current book, don't update the category, add a new one instead. To simplify data entry, you can select  a current category, make changes to it, right click and select Add to Database from the popup menu.
 
 

Deleting a Category

To delete  a category, select it, right click and select Delete from Database from the popup menu.

Again all books that use that category will no longer have a category. If all you want to do is remove the category from the current book, don't delete the category, just remove the selection. Display the category  list, hold down the Ctrl key  and click on the current selection. This will remove all selections and the current book will no longer have a category. Update the book to change the category selection in the database.
 
 

Conclusion

Being able to maintain the list fields right in the list itself without having to bring up a separate list maintenance dialog is a very powerful feature. It makes editing your data much easier. Once you get the hang of it, list maintenance is a breeze in Readerware.
 
 

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