Everything you wanted to know about drop down list boxes

Realms uses drop down list boxes anywhere it makes sense to try to improve data validity.  I wrote Realms to be as flexible as possible, without me deciding what you could enter and what you couldn't. Therefore, the drop down list boxes are initially empty, and they fill themselves in as you enter data.

 

For example, let's say you are entering you're very first title, "Batman" into Realms. On the Title Maintenance window, after typing "Batman" into the Title field, you tab to the Publisher field, which, at this point, has no entries in the list box. So, you type in "DC". As soon as you leave that field, Realms will add "DC" to the list, so the next time you go to the Publisher field, you can type it in, or select it from the list. Each time you type in an entry, Realms checks to see if it is already on the list, and if not, it adds it.

Ease of use features:

• All of the drop down boxes use type ahead.  This means as you type into one, it pulls up the first match in the list it can find.  In most cases, you can get the correct entry with only a couple of keystrokes.
  
• The Up and Down arrow keys move up and down the selections in the list, without the drop down part of the list displaying.  I often enter the first character or two to get me close to the entry for which I am looking, and then use the arrow keys to find the correct selection.
  
• Pressing the Enter key will drop display the list without using the mouse.  Press the Tab key to close the list and move to the next field.
  
• On the Miscellaneous tab of the Preferences window (from the Options menu), you have two drop down options of interest.

1. If you check the Drop List Box on focus option, whenever you tab into or click on a drop down list box field, the list portion will display automatically, without you having to click on it or press enter.
   
2. You can enter the number of items to display in the list portion (which basically sets the height of the list) towards the bottom of the window.  The default is set to 8 items.

What about an incorrect entry in a drop down list box, how do I get rid of it?

Ok, this is the most common question I get concerning the drop downs.  It's a little confusing, but not too bad.  The explanation immediately below applies to all drop downs with the exception of the Creative Team and Appearance drop downs.   They have special rules detailed further down on this page.

When you type an entry into a drop down list box, Realms checks to see if it is there already, and if it's not, Realms adds it as a new entry. It really has no way of telling a "good" entry from a "bad" one.

For example, suppose I was trying to type "Zero Hour" into the Crossover field on the Issue Detail window. I accidentally type "Hero Hour" and don't notice it until after I leave that field. If I go back and correct it, I will now have both "Zero Hour" and "Hero Hour" on the list. I want to get rid of "Hero Hour" but don't seem to be able to.

Here's How:

Click the File menu, and select Build Lookup Files. This option scans you're entire collection for all values that are actually used by any record, and then updates all the list boxes. In the above example, it would only find "Zero Hour" as being actually entered in the crossover field (assuming you corrected it), so "Hero Hour" would no longer appear in the list since no record actually used "Hero Hour" as a crossover.

If what you consider to be a bad entry still shows up after you run the Build Lookup Files option, that means it is being used by at least one record. Use the Find option on of the Summary window to find any issues using that entry. Then correct it, and run Build Lookup Files again.

It's a good idea, though not necessary, to run this option every once in a while just to clean things up, but it may take a few minutes, based on the size of your collection.

You may wonder why I don't simply correct everything on the fly as you enter data.   The problem is that each time you make any entry, I would have to scan your entire collection.  This would be way to slow.  Using the Build Lookup Files feature is a compromise that allows you to correct the data when you want without forcing you to wait when you don't need to.

What about Creative Team and Appearance entries?  I can't seem to get rid of the incorrect entries.

I'm sure everybody incorrectly types in creative team members and/or appearances from time to time. You can't directly delete entries from the drop down list, so how do you get rid of them?

Basically, the theory is the same as in the other drop downs.  You have to correct the incorrect entries on the records containing them.

Ok, so the next obvious question is how do you find which records have the incorrect entries. You actually have 2 options.

As an example, let's assume you discovered that "Ennis, Garth" is in the drop down list for writers as "Enis,  Garth".

Option 1:  Using the Find option on the Summary window  

Bring up the Summary window. Click the Find button. In the Creative Team field (or Appearances field), type in the incorrect entry surrounded by an asterisk on each side.  In our example, you would enter *Enis, Garth* in the Creative Team field of the Find window, on the Summary window.

Click the Find (and) button. The Summary window will then list all the issues that have "Enis, Garth" somewhere within the creative team. Click on each row, then right mouse click, then choose Creative Team from the pop-up menu. When the Creative Team window appears, you will see the incorrect entry. Fix it.

Once all the incorrect entries have been corrected, the next time you bring up the Creative Team window, the bad entry should be gone.

This process works, but can be pretty tedious if their are a lot of records to fix.

Option 2 (preferred):  Using the Batch Edit window  

This is the preferred method. From the Summary window, click the Batch Edit button. On the Batch Edit window, select "Creative Team Member" from the Select Column drop down list box.

The Current Value list box will display all the values currently on file.  In our example, you will see "Enis, Garth" (the incorrect entry) in the list.  You will most likely see "Ennis, Garth" also, assuming there are issues with the correct entry.  Click on the incorrect entry.

Then, type in "Ennis, Garth" or select if from the list (if it's already there) in the Change To field. Then click the Replace Data button.

Realms will display a window telling you how many records it found to replace.   Click the OK button, and Realms will replace all the incorrect entries with the corrected ones.

An important word of warning: Be very careful with the Batch Edit process. It will do what you tell it to do, so if you tell it to replace the wrong data, it will (I think someone once said "With great power comes great responsibility").

It's not a bad idea to just scroll down the list of current values to see if there are incorrect entries you were not even aware of.

I advise making a backup of your data before using the Batch Edit function.

Fixing Appearances errors using Batch Edit works exactly the same way.

BTW, you can access the Batch Edit feature from the Creative Team window, and the Appearances window as well.