6.6 The Edit Dialog

The Edit Dialog allows the user to both visually inspect and modify the values of an object's fields. As an inspection tool, the user can use and edit dialog to check the values of an object's fields, and as an editing tool the user can use the edit dialog to change the values of some or all of those fields. For some objects, the edit dialog is the only representation available for inspecting, or accessing it members. Other objects may have extended edit dialogs or even multiple views which may also allow modification of the object's fields. An edit dialog also presents the user with easy access to the substructures of an object including editing of its subgroups and arrays. In addition the edit dialog may allow access to certain member functions on an object. Edit Dialogs are created by choosing "Edit" from an object's menu or by the EditObj command in css (see section 7.4.6 CSS Commands).

The basic layout of the edit dialog includes a list of object member names which are listed in a vertical column along the left hand side of the display. Clicking on a member name will popup a short description of the member. Certain members may not appear in the edit dialog. This is determined by the show_iv field of the global settings (see section 6.17 Settings Affecting GUI Behavior). Typically the unshown members will not be of interest to the average user, or will contain values which are potentially dangerous to change.

The Show menu on the right-hand side of the menu bar at the top of the edit dialog will allow you to control how much stuff to view on a case-by-case basis. Typically, you'll only want to switch to viewing Detail, which is not viewed by default, but all levels can be controlled in this menu. If you suspect that something is not there which should be, try selecting Show/Detail.

The values associated with the member names appear to the right. There are a number of different graphical representations of the content of these fields, which are described in the following section.

In addition, there can be special buttons and menu actions available on the dialog. These are described in subsequent sections.