I have over 100 fields in my database. When I use the Find Box while in Form mode, the (Current Field) option under "Look in" does not work and I then have to search through my 100+ fields to find the one field that I need to search in. Entering the first letter of the field makes it easier to find that one specific field but still, having to scroll through a whole bunch of fields just to start a find operation is a hassle. Is there a work around that I'm missing?

Can the (Current Field), if it does work, be made the default instead of (All Fields)?

Also, is there a way to reset the starting point in the Find Box automatically to the beginning when I start a new find?

Thanks,
wmae
kexi 2.7.5
Mageia4

Hi Wmae.

There are a number of things here:

- auto-completion in the field combo box would help you to easily find field name you need, I discussed this addition with Wojciech Kosowicz, who may add it in Kexi 2.9; appropriate wish will appear in the KDE bugzilla;

- 100 fields in a table is quite a few -- unless you're using pivot tables or other specialized analytic data (interesting anyway not yet supported)... what is your table for? Databases are quite different than spreadshits, in particular they have more narrower tables than a few wide tables. I find it enough important so Kexi handbook covers it even: http://userbase.kde.org/Kexi/Handbook/I ... readsheet; splitting the table to a number of smaller tables would maybe help (though I know data relationships are weakly presented in Kexi -- no subforms/subtables are presented, just combo boxes for one-to-many relationships)

- that said, Kexi easily supports hundreds of fields in each table, the problem is that maintenance of such table is harder, the case you presented shows that;

- I think it's saner default to be able to search in all fields; we can discuss on thing however: Kexi can remember last settings of the search for you... all we want to avoid is situation when user expects global search in a table but instead single-filed search is invoked by accident

- regarding "a way to reset the starting point in the Find Box automatically to the beginning when I start a new find": there's a tip; if you set 'Search' to 'All Rows' then any new value that you enter will be searched from the beginning of the table; I am not claiming this is the most intuitive; for comparison see that MS Access has "Find FIrst" button for that but it just maybe complicates the workflow (you first need to click Find First then you need to remember clicking Find Next as Find First won't "work" )

- auto-completion in the field combo box would help you to easily find field name you need, I discussed this addition with Wojciech Kosowicz, who may add it in Kexi 2.9; appropriate wish will appear in the KDE bugzilla;

Auto completion might help a bit but for it to be more effective, I would have to rename most of my fields so that their names are more unique. Currently, they're named table001, table 002, table 003, etc. I still think activating the "Current Field" option would work best for me.

- 100 fields in a table is quite a few -- unless you're using pivot tables or other specialized analytic data (interesting anyway not yet supported)... what is your table for?

I do indoor events so my Kexi table consists of personal information and a visual representation of the booths in the room. This way I can easily see where the current record person is in the room, where the aisles are in relation to him, how close the exit is to him, etc. That is why I have so many fields. If the room can hold 300 booths then I would need each one to be a field. It is hell to do searches because I would have to sift through all of the booths to find any field that I want to search on.

- regarding "a way to reset the starting point in the Find Box automatically to the beginning when I start a new find": there's a tip; if you set 'Search' to 'All Rows' then any new value that you enter will be searched from the beginning of the table;

This is a good tip. Thanks.

wmae
Kexi 2.7.5

Hi,
For visual representation of this kind, custom form or tabular view would be better. Of course until this is programmed specifically for the use case you need, I understand spreadsheet-like denormalized physical data layout follows the visual representation.

The representation a bit reminds me a cross tabulation.