Editing Specification Forms

This help file applies to an out-of-date version of MainBoss.
The most recent version of MainBoss is MainBoss 4.2.4.
For the latest version of this help file can be found here.

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You create or modify specification forms using the specification form editor. The usual way to open the editor is to click New Specification Form or Edit in the View section of Coding Definitions | Units | Specification Forms.

The specification form editor window contains the following:

Details section: Shows basic information for the record.

Code: A brief code to identify this record. No two records may have the same code.

Description: A longer description of the specification form.

Comments: Any comments you want to associate with the specification form.

Fields section: Opens a window that lets you specify the fields of the specification form. For more information on how specification fields work, see Specification Forms. For a description of the field editor, see Editing Specification Form Fields.

Default Report Layout section: Shows the default layout for this specification. (This is a read-only field.) The default layout consists of a separate line for every field, where each line has the form

Label: Value

Custom Report Layout section: Shows the customized layout (if any) for this specification.

You create a customized layout in the "Custom Report Layout" area of this section. This area can contain any text. You use a symbol of the form <FieldName/> to represent the values of fields. For example, if the report layout contains

The horsepower is <HP/>

you would see something like "The horsepower is 400" when information is displayed about a particular unit (e.g. in a report).

Specifications section: Lists units that use this specification form.

Save: Saves the current record. The editor window stays open in case you want to make more changes to the same record.

Save & New: Saves the current record and sets up the window for you to enter a new record. Fields in the new record will be blank or set to default values.

Save & Close: Saves the current record and closes the editor window.

Cancel: Closes the window without saving any changes you've made to the record since the last time you saved. When you Save the record, the Cancel button changes to Close, indicating that you can safely close the window without losing any changes.

Close: Closes the window. This button only appears after you've saved changes with Save or before you've entered any data at all. Otherwise, the button is labeled Cancel.

For more on specification forms, see Specification Forms. For more on viewing specification forms, see Viewing Specification Forms. For more on editors in general, see Using Editors.

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