4.15.20 Actions TI or F6 and TC or F21 (Text Insert/Change)
Actions TI/TC are used in both the screen and report design facilities.
When action TI is used the following steps occur:
- A field appears at the bottom of the screen that allows up to 80 characters (screen design facility) or 120 characters (report design facility) of text to be specified.
Additionally (in the screen design facility only) an area to specify CUA emphasis, attributes and colors also appears.
- Once the desired text (and optional attributes) have been specified, and the enter key pressed, the user is asked to nominate, by positioning the screen cursor, the position on the screen at which the text string is to be inserted.
- If the text will fit at the position nominated it is inserted into the screen/report image.
To use function key F6 do the following:
1. Use function key F6 at any time.
2. In the resulting action box choose the option to insert text by positioning the screen cursor and pressing enter.
3. Specify and position the new text as previously described.
When action TC is used the following steps occur:
- The user is requested to position the screen cursor on the text to be changed and press enter.
- The selected text then appears at the bottom of the screen in exactly the same format that it had when originally input.
- The user can then edit the text and its attributes (screen painter only) and press enter.
- The user is asked to indicate with the screen cursor where the text string is to be (re)inserted back into the screen or report layout and press the enter key.
- If the text will fit back at the position nominated it is (re)inserted into the screen/report image.
To use function key F21 do the following:
1. Position the cursor on the text to be changed and press F21.
2. Edit and (re)position the text as previously described.
Some important points to note about inserting text are:
- During the first text operation a warning about unconstrained text usage will appear. Press enter to proceed after this warning has been read.
- Up to 50 text strings can be inserted into one screen image or report line.
- The maximum length for a text string on a screen panel is 80 characters. For a report line it is 120 characters.
- Do not position text strings that "wrap around" onto following lines.
- RLTB (right to left users) are strongly advised against inserting text strings longer than 80 characters into reports. Failure to observe this warning may complicate the subsequent movement of the text strings around the report.
- In the screen design facility, options appear to allow attributes of the text string to be specified, these include:
- CUA emphasis
- Attributes (underline, reverse video, etc)
- Colors
The following should be noted about these options:
- The use of "CUA Normal" or "CUA Emphasized" is best, because the final attributes assigned to the text string are derived from the site standards for these types of text strings. This avoids a "rainbow" system and produces consistent results.
- If either CUA option is chosen all other options are reset to N (not required).
- Color options are only used when on a color device. This applies to both the screen design facility and the resulting end user screen panel.
- IBM i restrictions and complications regarding the use of colors and attributes in combination exist. Refer to the IBM Manuals for more details. If these complications are not understood, use the CUA options only.
- Where a DISPLAY or REQUEST command results in multiple screen formats, text strings can only be inserted onto the first screen format in the set. In such situations modify the RDML program to use multiple DISPLAY or REQUEST commands (each with only 1 screen panel) instead.
- Text strings cannot be inserted into the "browse" portion of a screen image in the current version. To achieve this result use a field in the browselist that contains the required text string value.