Fields - Changing a Definition

It is possible to change the definition of a field or field set. Choose the menu Tools > Administrative Tools > Field Administration.

The procedure is the same as for creating a new field or field set: see Field Set and Field Definition.

If you change a field, two scenarios are possible:

· The field is not yet in use.

· The field is in use.

Field is not yet in use:

If the field is not yet being used, there is no problem with changing the field definition. The changed definition will be saved and you can continue designing fields and field sets.

Field is in use:

If a field is in use, and you change the field definition, this will result in the loss of all of the values you have entered in that field.

Note: It is important to see what the consequences of changing a field definition will be before you proceed, because all entered values will be removed from the database.

If you are trying to change a definition that will result in data loss, you will be warned by an alert message.

Note: It is possible to assign a field to another field set. This is accomplished by deleting the field from one field set and assigning it to another. However, this has the following two consequences:

· Any values in the fields currently will be lost.

· If fields have been assigned to several field sets, and occur more than once for a certain topic (because at least two field sets containing that field are assigned to that topic), these fields will be displayed once for each field set.