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NOTICE:
These features are considered to be advanced development tools built in the program and are documented sufficiently for an experienced programmer or someone proficient with database design. Some sample forms and reports are provided which can be used as-is, modified for your needs, or studied as examples.
Our normal technical support will answer basic questions about the capabilities of these functions, but we cannot explain detailed examples or provide training for expressions programming, or debug changes that you've made. It can take some time to learn the details of these functions, even for experienced programmers, since they use a unique "language".
Through the Dialogs Setup functionality, several of the main data entry dialogs can be customized to a large extent -- new entry fields can be added to a dialog (e.g. for new data fields added to a table through Data Field Definitions), existing controls can be disabled, deleted, moved or renamed, and the dialog can be enlarged to accommodate new fields. Additional actions can be taken when any control is activated (e.g. when a button is clicked, edit field changed, etc.), supplementing the normal program operation with your own special functionality.
In addition, completely new dialogs can be created for displaying information or for data entry. A custom dialog can be displayed by calling the Expressions function DlgOpenUserDialog( ), for instance when a new button is clicked on another dialog, or through a custom Menu Definition or when an Event Action is triggered.
As with all advanced customizations, this requires a rather technical understanding of the system. It must also be emphasized that modifications to existing Dialogs are more "dangerous" than most other customizations because they change the operation of the program, and can also cause a system malfunction.
Additional Topics:
Data Field Definitions (adding & modifying data fields)
Advanced Customizations Overview & other topics