4.3 FIELD DEFINITION TABLE (FDT)
The
FDT defines the fields that
may
be present in the database and certain parameters
for
each field. You enter the
values in the boxes at the
top of the dialog
box. In the DOS version,
the FDT had little effect – you could repeat a field or enter subfields
regardless
of what the FDT said. The Windows
version is much stricter and you
need
to be more careful
about your definition (although
you
can
always
change it later).
The boxes are as follows:
(a) Tag -- see above. You can use the up and down arrows if you like to select the number, or type it in.
(b) Name -- this is to help you identify the field. It can be up to 31
characters long and can contain
spaces. When you come to set up the data entry
worksheet, this name will be used as
the prompt for the field,
but you can override it there. It is also used to
specify
the field in the “Guided
Search” form.
(d) Type. Unless you can predict
that the field will contain
only letters (no spaces
or punctuation) or only figures
(no symbols or decimal point)
it is
best to leave this as Alphanumeric. The other possible
values are Alphabetic or
Numeric. The beginner is strongly advised
to use Alphanumeric.
(e) Rep[eatable]. If you want to allow multiple occurrences of this field,
e.g. several authors or several descriptors, click this checkbox.
(f) Pattern/subfields. If you are dividing the field into subfields, you should
list the subfields here (without
punctuation or spaces)
e.g.
abc
If you are not
using subfields, press the ( key to leave this box blank.
Pattern fields are not supported in Version 1.4.
When you have entered
the data for each field,
the focus will be on the Add button. Either
click the button or press {Enter} to add the field to the table (displayed in the large box). If you need
to correct the details
for any field, just click on that entry in the large box and
the details will be
copied into the boxes
used for editing. If you need to
remove an entry, highlight it
and click the Delete Entry button. You can
alter the order of fields
by
selecting a field and
clicking the up-arrow or down- arrow key:
they do
not have to be in numeric order,
though
that
is usually clearest.
An example of
an FDT
is shown in Figure 4.1.
Figure 4.1 Example of a Field Definition
Table (FDT)
After entering all the
fields,
click the button with the green arrow to go on.
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