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Editing Data in Grid Windows

This section describes the basic operations that can be used for editing data in grid windows for the following database items:

Moving around the grid

To move between the cells in the grid

  • Use the arrow keys to move one cell at a time in any direction.
  • Press Page Up or Page Down to move up or down one screen at a time.
  • Press TAB or SHIFT+TAB to move right or left one cell.
  • Use the mouse to click on a cell or click on the scroll bars to display a different section of the grid.

Selecting cells

To select a single cell, click on it to make it the current cell.

To select a group of cells

  • Drag the mouse pointer to mark a rectangular block of cells.
  • Click a cell, hold the SHIFT key and click on another cell to mark a block.
  • Hold the CTRL key while clicking on several cells to select non-adjacent cells.
  • Hold the SHIFT key and then use the arrow keys to select a block of cells.
  • Hold the CTRL key and drag the mouse pointer to select more than one block of cells.

To select a whole column or columns

  • Click the column header to select a single column.
  • Press the left mouse button on the column header and drag the mouse when holding the left button to select a contiguous group of columns.
  • Click a column and then, holding the SHIFT key, click on another column to select a contiguous group of columns.
  • Hold the CTRL key and click on one or more columns to select non-contiguous columns. You can deselect columns by holding the CTRL key and clicking on a column that is already selected.

To select a whole row or rows

  • Click the box on the left of the row.
  • Use any of the operations described above for columns

To select the entire grid, click the top left cell.

Cell editing

Click or choose Copy from the Edit menu or from the context menu to copy the contents of the current selected cells to the clipboard.

Click or choose Paste from the Edit menu or the context menu to paste data back into the grid.

Use the DELETE key to delete the contents of the current selected cells.

Editing a single cell

To enter a new value or replace the existing value for a single cell, click the cell and type the new value.

All edits are applied to the current cell. The current cell has two states; active and inactive.

If you move to the cell using the arrow keys, or click with the mouse inside the cell but not on the cell data, the cell becomes current but inactive. An inactive current cell is shown with a thick border. Typing or pasting data into an inactive current cell will replace the current cell contents.

If you double click within the cell data, or begin to edit an inactive current cell, it becomes active. The active current cell is shown with a flashing cursor at the point where text will be inserted. Typing or pasting into an active current cell will insert text at the insertion point.

Editing multiple cells

For network objects grids only.

To enter a new value or replace the existing values for several cells simultaneously

  1. Select the cells to be changed.
  2. Right-click on the selected cells and choose one of the options from the Current Cell(s) Value submenu.
    1. Choose Set new value(s) for cell(s). The New Cell Value dialog is displayed. Type a new value for the cells and click OK.
    2. Choose Adjust current value(s) for cell(s). The Adjust Cell(s) Value dialog is displayed. Enter the values by which the cells are to be amended and click OK.

Editing rows

Row based grids allow you to add or delete data a row at a time, assuming these operations are available for the particular data in the grid.

Add a row

To add a new row to the grid, begin typing in the append row. The append row is marked with the symbol. As soon as you begin editing, the append row moves down one, and the newly added row is marked by the symbol.

This shows that it is the current row, and it is being edited.

Edit a row

The current row is marked with the symbol. To edit a row, simply make changes to the require cells. As soon as you make changes, the symbol changes to a symbol. The symbol will only change back to when data for the row has passed any validation tests and been properly saved.

Tip: This means the data has been saved internally by the grid. You may also have to save again to save the data into the database. There will be a Save button or menu item. If there is unsaved data when you try to close the grid, you will be given the option to save changes. Some grids, such as the network object grids, work directly with the database, and save data to the database whenever you change rows.

Delete a row

To delete a row or rows, the row(s) needs to be selected. See Selecting Cells above. Once rows are selected they are highlighted in blue:

To delete selected rows, press the DELETE key.

Printing from grid windows

You can print the data in a grid window. See the topic Printing from Grid Windows for further information.

Sorting items

Data in a single column or multiple columns on can be sorted. Sorting can also be limited to selected rows.

Single column

To sort the rows in the grid according to the contents of a particular column

  1. Select the column on which the grid is to be sorted.
  2. Right-click and select either Sort Ascending, or Sort Descending from the context menu.

When carrying out subsequent sorting on single columns, the order of the previous sort is preserved where possible.

Multiple columns

A selection of columns can be sorted by using the Sort on Selected Columns options from the grid popup menu. All columns must be sorted either by ascending or by descending order:

  1. Select the columns to be sorted.
  2. Right-click in the grid and select either Sort on Selected Columns Ascending or Sort on Selected Columns Descending from the context menu.

Selected rows

To sort the data in a selection of rows only

  1. Highlight the rows to be sorted in the grid.
  2. Right-click in the column containing the values by which the data is to be sorted and select either Sort Ascending (Selected Rows) or Sort Descending (Selected Rows) from the context menu.

Network objects can also be sorted using the Sort Grid dialog. See Sorting Network Objects for further information.

Customising layout and appearance

A number of options change the layout and appearance of the grid:

Change Font Size

Available in Network Object grid windows only.

To adjust font size, select options from the Font size submenu of the Grid menu:

  • Larger to increase text size
  • Smaller to decrease text size
  • Reset To normal to return to the standard text size

Adjust column width

To adjust the width of a column, drag the divider line on the right of the column header.

The cursor will change as shown when correctly positioned over the column divider.

Change column order

To change the column order, select a column and drag it to a new position. If the position is valid, the dividing line between columns where the dragged column will be inserted turns red.

The picture shows a valid drop position for the selected DS Node ID column. If the position where you want to drop is invalid the cursor will be displayed

Freeze columns

Columns can be frozen at the left hand side of the grid so that they are visible at all times. Select one or more columns and choose Freeze columns from the context menu. The columns are moved to the left hand side of the grid. The boundary between frozen and scrollable columns is marked with an extra thick line. When you scroll the grid sideways, the frozen columns do not move.

To unfreeze all frozen columns, choose Unfreeze columns from the Grid menu.

Autofiltering grid data

Data can be autofiltered in network grid window columns, allowing the display of rows of data based on the content of cells and conditions applied to them.

See Filtering Grid Data for details.

Topics in this section
Parent topic: Working with Database Items
Parent topic: Network Object Grid Windows

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