Creating User-Edited Fields

User Edit fields are a special form of calculated field in which the user may enter text. Such fields might be used to annotate rows in the table or perhaps to enter corrections for bad data. The values in a user-edited field are only saved in a project file, not the model file. When reopening the project, the data for user-edited fields are restored.

Notes:

Note that when you are creating several similar fields you can save time by using the first definition as the starting point for subsequent definitions. Refer to Duplicating Fields for details.
In order to distinguish user-edited fields from other types of fields, the column for each user-edited field appears in light green – a signal that this column contains editable cells.

Steps:

Select Add on the Table Design ribbon, then select User Edit field from the drop-down. The User Edit Field Properties Window displays.
On the General tab, enter an appropriate name for the calculated field in the Name box, and the click on the green check icon to accept.

Field names may be up to 62 characters in length and may contain uppercase and lowercase characters, spaces, and punctuation, except for periods (.), exclamation points (!), accent graves (`), and brackets ([ ]). Names may begin with any character, except for an underscore or space. If a name is entered with leading spaces, the name is accepted but the leading spaces are ignored.

Note: If you elect to enforce DBF field naming rules, field names must adhere to dBASE III field naming conventions. Names may be up to ten characters long and may contain any letter or number and the underscore character (_). The first character must be a letter. Spaces and punctuation are not allowed.

From the Type drop-down list, select the appropriate field type. The available types are Character, Date/Time, Numeric, and Memo. For a description of each option, see Changing field types.
For numeric fields, specify the decimal accuracy in the Decimals box.

Enter the number of decimal places that you want to calculate for this field. Ensure that the data length value (described below) is large enough to accommodate both the integer and decimal portions of the largest number your field expression is likely to produce.

From the Format drop-down list, select the desired setting. The format settings available are determined by which field type you specified in Step 5 above. For example, if you select the Date/Time field type, the format options available are General, Short Date, Long Date, Short Date & Time, Long Date & Time, and Time. If you select the Numeric field type, the format options available are General, Thousands, Currency, Percentage, and Time span. If you select the Character field type, only the General Format option is available. For a description of each of these format options, see Changing field types.
Enter the desired column width in the Display Width box.

Note: The Display Width setting affects only the appearance of the data on screen; the underlying data is not affected. If the column width of a character field or a date field is not wide enough to accommodate a field value, the field value is truncated on screen. If the column width of a numeric field is not wide enough to accommodate a field value, the field value displays as pound signs (####).

Specify the desired alignment for the calculated field by selecting one of the following:

Left: select for a left-aligned calculated field.
Right: select for a right-aligned calculated field.
Center: select for a center-aligned calculated field.

Select the Hidden check box if you don't want the calculated field to be visible in the Table window. (To view or hide fields see Hiding and Displaying Fields.)
Choose Accept to accept the calculated field definition, otherwise choose Cancel.

Monarch Classic displays the new calculated field after the last field in the table. To view the field, scroll all the way to the right. To position the field elsewhere in the table, see Moving Fields in the Table Window.

See Working with User-Edited Calculated Fields for related information.