This screen permits you to manage all aspects of your tabs.

 

Tabs are used to name or classify one or more general data records that you wish to store in the RecordsKeeper database system. They appear as button tabs in the top portion of the main screen.

 

Tabs are associated with a specific user and with a specific tabset. They are not shared with other users. When a new user is created, that user is provided with a default tabset that is named ‘Main’ and that tabset is created with a set of default tabs with various names. You can change the names of the default tabs to something that is meaningful to you using this screen.

 

With the exception of the ‘Personal’ Tab which is changed via the 'Caption Control' screeen, you have complete control over the names of all of the tabs that appear on the main screen by setting values using this screen.

 

When you open this screen, you are presented with the status of the tabs associated with the user and the tabset shown in the header portion of the screen. If you wish to change tabs that belong to other tabsets, you must first close this screen, select the tabset whose tab names you want to change from the list box on the main screen, then return to this screen to make the changes.

 

 

You decide whether or not to display or use a tab by setting its check box (to the left of the tab name in the 'Show Tab‘ column) 'on’ or ’off’. When a check box is set ‘off’, meaning it does not have a check mark in it, the corresponding tab on the main screen will be inactive. The tab will still appear, but it will not contain a name and will not respond to a mouse click. Note that if a tab contains data records and you subsequently un-check this field, the data associated with the tab is not lost - it simply will not appear on screens or reports. Re-setting the field to 'on' will restore the data, thus you can temporarily set a field ‘off’ while preparing a report if you wish, or you can set it ‘off’ if you wish to keep any data hidden.

 

You decide what to name a tab by entering a name in the second data field. The name cannot be longer than 36 characters in length. You can see what it will look like and whether it will fit in a tab button on the main screen by clicking the button at the bottom of the screen. The number of characters that are still available for a tab name is shown immediately to the right of the tab name. You can click in the tab name field to refresh this number at any time.

 

You provide a description of what type of information you will be recording under the tab name in the next data field. You are free to include any type of information that will be meaningful in this data field. What you enter here will appear on the main screen to help you with managing the data you store under that tab and will appear on reports to help define the type of data being reported.

 

You control the order of, or sequence that the tabs appear in on the main screen by using the ‘Up’ and ‘Down’ arrow buttons on the right side of the screen. When you move a tab up, it will replace the tab immediately above it and appear before it on the main screen.

 

You can also control the names of all of the data fields that are used to store data under a specific tab by selecting that tab’s check box on the right side of the screen in the 'Select Switch' column and then opening a screen for this purpose by clicking the ‘Update Field Headers’ button. You will find further help on how to do this when you open that screen.

 

You do not need to worry what you call a tab, because it can easily be changed to any other name you want by simply visiting this screen again and changing the name.

 

If you are only using a few of the tabs for a tabset, you can blank out the names and descriptions of all of the unused tabs by clicking the 'Blank Unused Tabs' button. This will simply reduce clutter on the screen so that you can more clearly see what tabs are currently active.

 

Tips and Techniques:

 

You use combinations of tabsets and tabs to organize your data in the manner which is best suitable and meaningful to you.

 

If you wanted to store information about various types of cards that you have, for example, you could simply name one of your tabs ‘Cards’ under any tabset, then when you enter a record about a card, you could use such terms as ‘Credit Card’, Debit Card’, ‘ID Card’, ‘Membership Card and ‘Business Card’ in the ‘Type of Card’ field to differentiate them. Alternatively, you could create a tabset named ‘Cards’, and then within that tabset, you could name individual tabs using terms such as ‘Credit Cards’, Debit Cards’, ‘ID Cards’, ‘Membership Cards’ and ‘Business Cards’ and then use the ‘Type of Card’ field to categorize them further using terms such as the ‘Vendor’, ‘Contact’ and so on.

 

There is no one way that is necessarily better than the other, and you can choose to organize your data in the way that is most meaningful to you. The RecordsKeeper database system provides you with a variety of ways to do this. Use your creativity!