User manual

Chapter 2
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Creating databases 45
Keep these points in mind:
1 Any field type except summary can store a global value. For more
information, see “About storage and indexing options” on page 52.
1 Be sure to use a date field (instead of a text or number field) to store
dates. To avoid confusion when using dates, always use four-digit
years.
1 Use text fields instead of number fields to store postal codes, phone
numbers, and other values with leading zeroes or characters like
hyphens or parentheses.
1 Although you can’t find or sort records based on a container field,
you can define a text field to describe or identify the contents of the
container. Then, you can find or sort records based on the data in that
text field.
1 To change the way data is displayed in text, number, date, time, and
timestamp fields, see “Formatting field data on a layout” on page 63.
Defining text, number, date, time, timestamp, or
container fields
1. With the database open, choose File menu > Define > Database.
2. In the Define Database dialog box, click the Fields tab.
3. If your file contains more than one table, select the appropriate
table from the
Table list.
4. For the Field Name box, type a name for the field.
See “About naming fields” on page 44.
5. For Type, select a field type.
See “About choosing a field type” on page 44.
You can enter a description of the field in the Comment box.
6. Click Create.
Container 1 Graphics, movies, photos, bitmaps, sounds of up to 4 GB per
field
1 Documents, including Microsoft Word or Excel files, PDF
files, and so on
1 Multimedia file types supported by QuickTime 6.0 or later
(Win) or QuickTime 6.4 to 6.5.2 (Mac OS)
1 software
1 OLE objects (Windows)
Calculation The result of a calculation formula that uses field values from the
current record or related records. The formula can use values of
all field types. The result can be one of these types of data: text,
number, date, time, timestamp, or container.
Summary A value that’s produced by summarizing field values from more
than one record in the same table.
Select this
field type If the field data will be
Summary fields
produce results from
values in multiple
records
Agent Item Qty Amount
David Michaels ET3 1 $29.95
David Michaels ET4 1 $32.25
David Michaels ET1 2 $73.90
David Michaels ET5 3 $98.85
Total $234.95
Sophie Tang ET6 2 $64.50
Sophie Tang ET7 5 $12.50
Sophie Tang ET2 2 $25.00
Sophie Tang
Total $102.00
Grand Total $336.95
Sales Report
Calculation fields produce results from values
in the current record or related records