Using VPLUS: An Introduction to Forms Design (32209-90004)

3-5
Figure 3-5. The Form Layout for the ORDER Form
Use Non-Printing Delimiters
The result is an order number field at the top of the form and five
fields of order information at the bottom, as shown in Figure 3-5.
Action
In order to fit these five new fields on a single line, you need to use
nonprinting delimiters, which are created by pressing ESCAPE and then [
to indicate the start-of-field; pressing ESCAPE followed by ] to indi-
cate
the end-of-field.
The start-of-field delimiter is in the same position as the first
character in the field, and the end-of-field delimiter is in the same
position as the last character. Thus, these delimiters, unlike the
brackets, take up no room on the screen. You use the field edit keys,
including Insert char and Delete char, to correct the position of the
nonprinting delimiters.
FORMSPEC allows you to fill a field with dots (periods) in any spaces
left in a field after the field tag. This is particularly handy when you
use nonprinting delimiters instead of brackets because the dots clearly
indicate the length of each field. Like the field tag, these dots are
not shown when the form is displayed for the user; they are a convenience
only to the forms designer.