Design View

The Tables pane is not displayed when you access the editor by clicking Edit Data on the List Items property page for a data entry control. This is because only the single table that contains the data that is linked to the control can be modified by using the control's List Items property page.

The Tables pane lists all the tables in the document's embedded database, including any tables that are linked to data entry controls. Click a table to view its fields in the fields pane. To add or remove a table, click Add Table or Remove Table on the Home tab.

When you use the secondary mouse button to click an existing table, the following options are available:

• Rename: Renames the selected table.

• Remove: Deletes the selected table.

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• Cut: Cuts the selected table and places it on the Clipboard.

• Copy: Copies the selected table and places it on the Clipboard.

• Paste: Pastes the table from the Clipboard.

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• Import: Starts the Import Table wizard so that you can import tables from an external database. For more information, refer to Importing Database Tables.

The fields pane displays the name, data type, and description of the selected table's fields. You can click a field name to rename the field, click a data type to change a field's data type, or click in a description cell to add a description or to edit an existing description for a field. Alternatively, you can click anywhere in a field's row to select the field and view and configure its properties in the Field Properties pane.

When you use the secondary mouse button to click a field, a menu is displayed that provides the option to delete the selected field or make it a primary key.

The Field Properties pane displays the properties for each field in the selected table. You can edit these properties, create or edit a validation rule, and create a validation error message. When you click a property, a description appears in the right side of the pane.

Depending on the data type of the selected field, the following options are available:

• Format: Specifies the format of the data in the field. The available formats depend on the field's data type.

• Default Value: Specifies the default value of the selected field.

• Auto Number Start Value: Specifies the start value. Available for the auto-incrementing ID data type.

• Auto Number Increment: Specifies the increment interval. Available for the auto-incrementing ID data type.

• Field Size: Specifies the size of the field. Available for the text data type.

• Choices: Specifies the choices that you want to be available for the field when you are entering data. Click Choices to open the Enter / Edit Choices dialog, where you can specify the choices that you want. Available for the multiple choice data type.

• Indexed: Specifies that the Indexed property for the selected field is set to True (when selected) or False (when not selected).

• Required: Specifies that the Required property for the selected field is set to True (when selected) or False (when not selected).

• Unique: Specifies that the Unique property for the selected field is set to True (when selected) or False (when not selected).

• Validation Error Message: Specifies an optional error message that will appear to the user if the database is not valid.

• Validation Rule: Specifies a rule that is used to validate the data. To edit this rule, either click in the Validation Rule field or click to open the Edit Validation dialog.