Hello All,

Hope you can help with this.

I have a client that despite all training and advice to the contrary has several users that forget what Mode they are in. As a consequence, thinking they are in Find mode, they start to enter their Find criteria and end up overwriting data in a record they are in Browse mode in. This results in a general panic and they exit the record and hope everything is OK, which of course it isn’t.

I am setting scripts to stop this but as they are able to search/edit in 45 different fields the problem is that I need to exit the script and remain in the field they want to edit or find in depending on the field they were in when they triggered the script.

Is there any way to do this without writing 45 slightly different scripts (one per field depending on what field they are in when they trigger the script) that enters the correct mode and takes them to the field they originally selected when the script was triggered?

In essence, if they are in Find mode then I need them to stay in Find mode and remain in the field the entered.

If they are in Browse mode then I need to run the script and if they are really trying to edit a record then allow them to edit it (on a different layout if needs be) but remain in the field they originally entered.

At present, if I write the script which exits if they choose Find, then I have to select the field to go to so the script does not run again by entering it and triggering the script, hence the possible 45 different versions problem.

Trust this makes sense and appreciate any advice.

Best regards
David

Seems a whole lot easier to use a dedicated Find layout, don't allow entry in the Entry layout while in Find Mode, don't allow entry in the Find layout while in Browse Mode, and only allow a script to bring the user to the Find layout. Once the Find script runs, the results might be shown in a List layout, or back in the Browse layout. The Find layout could be a reduced field set, or an exact copy of the Browse layout with the fields a slightly different color so they know they're doing a Find.

You would need to reduce menu access to keep users from selecting Find Mode from the View menu and key command.

Hi Ender,

Yes, I guess it does!

Thanks very much.

All the best.
David

Even in a single layout (for both Find and Browse) you can have interface objects that only "appear" in Find Mode, such as a big red "You're in Find Mode" banner. Or something more subtle. The trick here is that global container fields will display in find mode, where non-goobal container fields will disappear. So you can place a non-global browse mode version of some image on top of a global find mode version of that image so your interface alerts users to Find mode.

Cool. Thanks John.

This is such a good site!