Creating Regions

Creating Regions

Overview

A Region is a field on your company's Form. Regions are the individual fields you define on top of the Form background image and allow the user to provide necessary and relevant data.
Regions come in all shapes and sizes, including include Text, Numeric, Date, Drop-Down, Check Boxes, Bar Codes, and Photo types. They can be required, can be hidden on the Form, or have dependencies on other Regions.  Basically, Regions and their definitions create a Smart Form to ensure data consistency and readability.
  

Adding a Region

1. Open your Form in Forms Designer.
2. Click on the Form tab on the menu ribbon at the top of the screen. Select Region from the menu ribbon if it is not already selected.

3. Determine where you want to draw your Region. Holding down the left mouse button, draw a box on the background starting at the top left corner and ending at the bottom right corner. Let go of the mouse button to complete your Region.

Once your Region is completed, you will be presented with a Create Region dialog box.  The Create Region dialog box allows you to set specific properties for each Region. There are multiple tabs at the top of the dialog box. Each of these tabs contains a set of options for the Region. Different Region Types may have different tabs available. All Region Types have the general tab as the first tab displayed.
 

General Tab



a. Region name: Enter a unique name for your Region. Region names need to be in one of the following formats: one word ("ClientApproval") or with an underscore ("Client_Approval"). The name may not contain spaces or special characters.
Note: As a best practice, Field2Base recommends that you name your regions to match your Form background. For example, if your Form background has an area for Last Name, name your Region "LastName".
b. Region type : Select the Region Type you need from the drop-down menu. The only Region properties that require a value are Region name and Region type. All other Region properties are optional. For information on all available Region Types, see the article on  Region Types .

c. Database column: This property is rarely used. Unless you are using XML to map this region data to a back office system, DO NOT adjust this Region property.

d. Enable Quick Copy for this region: Selecting this option will allow a user to Quick Copy information into this Region from a previously sent Form.

e. This field is required: Selecting this option will require the Region to contain data before the Form can be sent. If no data has been entered, the Mobile Forms application will direct the User back to this field for completion before being able to send the Form.

f. This field value is locked: Selecting this option will not allow the User to enter new information into or change existing information in the Region. It is possible to lock and unlock Regions using scripting.

g. Include this field in analytics: Selecting this option will allow the data from this Region to be used if analytics is enabled or may be enabled in the future.

h. Tab index: In the Windows™ based version of Mobile Forms, a User can navigate to the next field on a form using the Tab key on a keyboard. The tab index option allows you to set the order in which each Region will be highlighted when a user presses the tab key. 
Note: This feature is not available in either Android or iOS clients.

i. Region instructions: This option may be used to provide your Users with helpful instructions on how to enter data in the Region. Your instructions are presented to the User as a small question mark in the Region. When the User clicks on the question mark, they will see the Region instructions. For example, the instructions can give details on if a Region is required or if a specific data format is needed.

Display Tab   

The Display tab allows you to customize the appearance of the Region on your Form. Some types of Regions have extra or different properties on the Display tab. Details on these extra properties are available in the article  on  Region Types .

a. Font: Allows you to select the font that will appear in the Region.

b. Size: Allows you to set the font size of the numbers in the Region.

c.  Bold: Allows you to embolden the numbers in the Region.
    Italic: Allows you to set the data in the Region to be italicized.
    Underline: Allows you to set the data in the Region to be underlined.

d. Font color: Allows you to select the color of the data in the Region.

e. Preview value: Typing any value in this field will allow you to preview how the value will appear in the Form.

f. The red box in the preview window shows where the Region is placed on the Form background. You can resize or drag the Region to move it within the preview window. 

g. Reset Rectangle: This will reset the red box back to the original dimensions of the Region.

h. Text Alignment:
     Horizontal: Controls the Left, Center or Right placement of the Region value.
     Vertical: Controls the Top, Middle or Bottom placement of the Region value.
 

Work Orders Tab   

The Work Orders tab allows you to decide if you want the Region to be available to be filled and dispatched through the Admin Portal. Field2Base offers several options for sending Work Orders to your Users but the options in this tab apply only to work orders being dispatched through the Admin Portal.

 
a. Show this region when creating Work Orders in Admin Portal: This allows the Region to appear as an available Region in the Admin Portal for a dispatcher to fill out and submit to selected User(s).

b. Order index of this region on the Work Order page: This allows you to customize your Work Order page in Admin Portal. Inserting a number value in this option will determine where this Region appears on the Work Order page. For example, your Region has a value of “1” for this option, then it will be the first region on the Work Order page in Admin Portal.

c. Require this region when entering Work Order data: Selecting this option requires the dispatcher to complete this field in the Work Order page of Admin Portal before they can send the Work Order to the User.

d. Default value on Work Order page: Entering a value for this option allows you to set a default value to appear for this Region each time the dispatcher opens the Work Order page in Admin Portal. The dispatcher can still change the value in Admin Portal if needed.
 

Other Tabs Available

Different types of Regions offer different tabs in the Create Region dialog box. For more in-depth information on each Region Type and their specific properties, see the article on   Region Types .

 



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