XpressDox creates the data capture interview for a template by analysing the template (and all of its included templates) at the time it is run. It will place data capture controls onto the interview in the sequence in which it encounters them on the template, starting in the header of the template, then the body, and lastly the footer.
Sequencing the data elements in v14
This is very easy – use Manage Interview available on the XpressDox ribbon!!
Sequencing the data elements prior to v14
If the data elements are not in the correct sequence on the interview there are a few tricks you can do to fix it.
The CaptureDataElement command can be used to force the capture of a particular data element higher in the form, and CaptureLater command can also be used to position it later i.e. the next time the data element is encountered.
If the data element you are interested in is too high on the form, you would have to use CaptureDataElement for all those which come below it on the form.
A snippet of a template might look like this:
«CaptureDataElement(Greeting)»
«Addressee»
«AddressLine1»
«AddressLine2»
«AddressLine3»
Dear «Greeting»
This would cause the data element Greeting to appear on the top of the data capture interview, rather than after the third address line.
Headings
If you have a template with many data elements, the interview can start to look overwhelming. There are a number of ways of handling a large number of fields on an interview, to make it look more friendly for your users. Here we will discuss the use of Headings and Tabs.
Suppose we have an application form template which looks something like this (not a real example, a real example would be formatted nicely):
Name: «Name»
Address: «Address»
Telephone Number: «Telephone»
Fax Number: «FaxNumber»
Employer:
Employer: «EmployerName»
Address: «EmployerAddress»
Telephone Number: «EmployerPhone»
Fax Number: «EmployerFax»
The data capture form could be split into two with the following two commands:
«Heading(Name,PERSONAL INFORMATION)»
«Heading(EmployerName,EMPLOYER)»
The first of these will put a heading with the text “PERSONAL INFORMATION” above the Name data element on the form. The second command puts a heading above the EmployerName data element.
Tabs
The second mechanism for dividing up the data capture form is to use the Tab command.
Applying this to the above example, instead of the two Heading commands, we could use two Tab commands:
«Tab(Personal,Name,Address,Telephone,FaxNumber)»
«Tab(Employer)»
This will cause XpressDox to create two tabs on the data capture form. The first will be labelled “Personal” and the date capture controls for the Name, Address, Telephone and FaxNumber data elements will be included on that tab. The second tab will be labelled “Employer”, and all the data elements not mentioned for the Personal tab will be included on that second tab.
