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The properties defining a user data extension can be viewed and edited in the User Field Specification dialog, which is composed of two tabs:

Type - Enter the user data specification.

Notes - Enter any notes related to the User Data Specification.

Type Tab

The Type tab is composed of two sections:

Type - Contains fields for entering the label for the user data extension, as well as the data type. Format - Contains fields for defining the specification of the type of user data extension selected in the Type section.

Type Section

The Type section contains fields for entering the label and data type for the user data extension. The name entered in the Label field corresponds with the User Data Extension field on the User Data tab of the Element Editor. This label will also be used as the column heading if the user data extension is added to a FlexTable.

If you want the label to be displayed on multiple rows when it is used as a column heading, you can use forward slashes to specify the location of line breaks. When the label is used as a field label in a dialog, the forward slashes will be converted to spaces. In FlexTables, there is an option to use abbreviated labels for the column headings. If you want an alternative label to be displayed, you can specify an abbreviated label after the original label, and separate them by the bar symbol, '|'. When the option to display abbreviated labels is enabled in the FlexTables, this is the text that will be used as the column heading. For instance, if you specified the label 'Date/Installed | Date/Inst.' it will be displayed in one of the following three ways, depending on the location and options selected.

Field Label (Reports/Element Dialogs) Column Heading (FlexTable)

Column heading with abbreviated label option

selected (FlexTable) Date Installed Date

Installed

Date Inst.

You can select from five different types of data for the user data extension from the drop-down list in the Type field. An explanation of each is presented in the list below:

• Date/Time - Use this data type when you want the values you are entering to be in a standard date and time format. This format can be more useful than storing date information in a simple text field because it allows the dates to be sorted correctly when they appear in a FlexTable.

• Memo - If a user data extension is defined to be a memo, it will appear as a scrolling text pane in the User Memos section of the User Data tab in the Element Editor dialog.

• Number - Use this data type for fields that contain numeric values. You can specify a unit for the information in this field. The values contained in this field will then be automatically converted if you change the unit for this field.

• Text - Use this data type to create a single-line text field.

• Yes/No - Use this data type to display the attribute as a check box to represent true/false data.

Format Section

This section is enabled only if you select Date/Time or Number in the Type section. Here is where you define the properties governing the type of data selected.

Number Format - If the type of data you selected was numeric, you can select a unit type (length, volume, intensity, etc.), a unit, a display precision, and whether to use scientific notation. There are no format options for memo, text, and Yes/No data types.

Date/Time Type Format - If you selected the Date/Time type, you can specify whether you would like the date or time to appear first in the input field, as well as the format of the date and time information. The format in which the date and time information will be displayed can either be selected from the drop-down lists, or you can type your own custom format directly into the Date Picture and Time Picture fields. If one of these fields is left blank, the corresponding information will not be displayed.

The Date/Time data type consists of an input and an output format. The input format is a fixed format that is determined by the regional settings on your computer. Whenever you enter information into a

Date/Time field, the information must be entered according to the input format. If it is not entered in the proper input format, the value will simply revert to the original value.

The output format is simply a mask that defines the manner in which the date and time information will be displayed. It does not affect the way the date and time information can be entered into a Date/Time field. The output format can be edited as follows:

• To specify dates with no leading zeros for single-digit days, years, or months, use lowercase d, lowercase y, or uppercase M.

• To specify dates with leading zeros for single-digit days, years, or months, use lowercase dd, lowercase yy, or uppercase MM.

• To specify abbreviations for the day, year, or month, use lowercase ddd, lowercase yyy, or uppercase MMM.

• To specify the full name of the day, year, or month, use lowercase dddd, lowercase yyyy, or uppercase MMMM.

If there are characters in the output format that do not map to valid date or time information, then the actual value of the character will be displayed. For example, if you wanted the date to be displayed as June 15, 1998, you would define the format as 'MMMM d, yyyy'. Since the spaces and comma do not map to any of the date information, their actual values are displayed. To include a piece of text that contains a character that maps to the date or time information, use single quotation marks (') around the text.

Notes Tab

This tab contains a text pane for entering notes about the current data extension. The text entered here is not displayed anywhere in the model, but allows you to keep records for a particular data extension.