Working with DSPF records

When Screen Designer is started, the Design records mode is selected. Use this mode to design individual records. Use the Design screens mode to manage screens, and associate records with screens.

In both modes, you can add a new record by selecting either Standard Record or Subfile Record in the Palette and then clicking anywhere in the design area. Alternatively, palette items may be dragged onto the design area. For subfiles, both subfile record and subfile control record are added.

Records are created with the name RECORDn, subfiles as SFLn and subfile controls as CTLn, where n is a sequential number. Type over the name in the Properties view to give your record a meaningful name. New records are automatically added to a currently active screen.

To add an existing record to a screen, select the Records tab, select the desired record in the Excluded list and press the Add button. This moves the record from the Excluded list to the Included list. For subfiles, you only need to select either the subfile record or the subfile control record and press the Add button to associate both with the selected screen. Repeat the above steps to add additional records. If you want to add a large number of records to a screen, it might be faster to use the Add all button and then remove the records that do not belong to the screen. To remove a record, select it in the list of Included records and press the Remove button.

Right-clicking anywhere in the design area shows a pop-up menu with the actions Properties, Undo, Redo, Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete, Print, Align, and Sort. Use Align when selecting multiple fields within a record to align their position. Use Sort to automatically reorder the source of the fields in a record, according to their row and column order on screen.


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