Specifying the field format

While defining fields, specify the format information of each field as accurately as you can. The Format part of the Standard tab changes based on which field Type you choose. Select all of the below that apply:

Numeric 

For numbers.

Alpha, uppercase

For uppercase letters.

Alpha, lowercase

For lowercase letters.

Special characters

For characters such as commas and periods.

Space  

For blanks. Normally, spaces and special characters are ignored and do not need to be specified in the format string. When Special characters is selected, the program expects these characters to be represented in the format string that you type into the Specification box. See also Interpret bank checks.

Multiple lines

For character fields consisting of more than one line of text.

The exact set of characters FORMS looks for during interpretation depends on which character set you choose in the Form definition settings dialog.

You must also specify the type of character:

Handwritten  

For handwritten characters. If you choose Handwritten, the handwriting style FORMS looks for during interpretation depends on which style you choose in the Form definition settings dialog. In that dialog you can also specify that all handwritten fields have the same style (are written by the same person).

Printed  

For machine-printed characters.

Auto  

If the characters can be either printed our handwritten. FORMS selects the machine or handwritten interpretation routine depending on the style of the characters and their relative positions. As Handwritten allows both handwritten and machine-printed characters to be interpreted, use Auto only if about 50% or more of the characters are expected to be machine printed, and use Printed only if all of the characters will be machine-printed.

No interpretation

Select No interpretation only in special cases.

Detailed format specification

Some types of fields require that you type a specification string in the Specification box. Others do not require any specification at all. Click for information about:

Specifying a context

Specifying a trigram table