Entering Data Into Tables
You have designed the two tables Persons and
phone_numbers. None of them contain any data yet. You can
enter some, and in this chapter you will learn how to do this fast and effectively.
Start with the persons table. Open it in Data View using the Project Navigtor's context menu.
The current cell is marked with
(usually black) thicker border, a cell cursor. The contents
of the cell, if present, are highlighted with a different color. The current
row, i.e. the one you have placed your rectangular cursor in, is marked
on the left hand with an arrow symbol.
You can navigate through table cells using the arrow keys, Page Down,
Page Down, Home, End keys; you can also
click with the mouse in a cell to select it.
Initially, after opening the table Persons, the cursor is placed in
the id column. The column has autonumber property defined,
marked with blue (autonumber) text in the last row. It
means you do not have to enter values there by hand when entering data for a new
row because the cell will be filled automatically with successive numbers.
Inserting new rows and entering data for them in &kexi; is different from
the way of doing this in spreadsheets. To enter data for a new row, you need
to use the arrow keys or mouse, to move your cursor to the special empty last
row marked with a plus
sign. Place your cursor in the (second) name column and enter a
person's name. Also enter surname, street, house number and city. When
done, move the cell cursor to the last empty row either by using the
Arrow Down key or by clicking in the last
row with the mouse to append a new row.
Details About Actions Available While Entering Data Into Tables
As soon as you enter the first character, the current row is being edited. A pencil symbol appears on the left side of the data table.
Double clicking a cell with the &LMB; or pressing Enter or the F2 key also starts
editing of the current row.
Pressing the Esc key when the contents of a cell is edited
cancels changes made to this cell. However, the pencil
symbol will not disappear because you can still move to a different cell
of the edited row to change its contents. To
cancel changes made to the entire edited row, press the
Esc key again.
Instead of pressing the Esc key, you can click the
Cancel
toolbar button or select
DataCancel Row Changes
from the menubar.
Click the ShiftEnter
keys to accept changes made to all cells in the currently edited row. You can also click
OK toolbar
button or select DataSave Row
from the menubar.
Fill the phone_numbers table with data. In the persons column you
need to provide a number of the person existing in the persons
table.