4.5 DEFAULT DISPLAY
FORMAT
The
display format means the way that
the records will appear
when you use browse the database or
display search results. Display formats can also
be used in producing printed output. There must be at
least one display format for the database and that
must have the same filename
as the database. You can
always create more formats, or modify existing ones, later.
A message
box appears asking
“Do you want Winisis to launch the Print Format Assistant?” and you can choose Yes or No. If you are new to CDS/ISIS,
or if you just want an off- the-peg format
to save time, click Yes. You are then given
the choice of five pre-defined formats. The
order
of fields will be the same as in the Field Definition
Table.
Normal style. This uses
font 2 (normally Times
Roman) and colour 4 (normally blue) and gives
a display with the field names
in one column and the data in
the
next.
CDS/ISIS
DOS compatible format. This
is similar to
the
Normal style
but it uses only black
text and
Courier font,
and features which are
within the capabilities of
the DOS version of CDS/ISIS.
Decorated format. Three fonts and
various colours feature in the format.
The
record number
(MFN) and the name of
the
database appear in a
box and the field names
appear
in italics.
HTML normal. This is a format
using very basic HTML (HyperText Markup Language), the
language used
to create pages
for the World
Wide Web. No
HTML tags
are
included to separate the contents
of one record from
the next.
HTML table with headers. This again incorporates HTML tags and displays field
names and their contents in the form of a
table.
Once
the format has been created,
it will be displayed in case you wish to edit
it. The next chapter
describes the formatting language in some detail, but just to give
you a taste:
a) Fields
are specified by using v (for variable) in front of the tag: thus v10 means display the contents
of field 10.
b) Text between
single or double
inverted commas forms a literal
and will appear in the display just as it is
written.
c) The slash (/) means start a new line here.
A
simple format for a database containing fields
10, 20 and 30 could be:
v10,v20,v30
This
would display field 10,
immediately followed
by
field 20, immediately followed by field
30, e.g.
Walton, C.Good
office management practice1990
To
display the fields
on different lines, they should be separated by slashes, e.g.
v10/v20/v30
This
would display the above example as:
Walton, C.
Good
office management practice
1990
Unlike in the DOS version of CDS/ISIS, you can
use
carriage returns
in the format to make it easier
to read, e.g.
’Author: ’
v10/
’Title:
’ v20/
’Date:
’ v30
Do not worry about getting your display format right first time. It is best to try the format out when you have entered a few records and then edit it as necessary. When you have used the services of the Assistant, or you have written your own format, click the green arrow to go on.
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