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Old 12-16-2007, 10:55 AM
ashwken ashwken is offline
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Join Date: 10-16-2005
Location: Blairsville, GA USA
Posts: 431
Quote:
Originally posted by Jon Polish
As I write this, I can think of a work around. Create just one item based on your template. The go back to your template and uncheck the user defined keywords that you would like unchecked by default. All new items based on this modified template should (I think - I have not tried this) appear with the checked and unchecked user defined keywords.
Yes, this just dawned on me this morning before I saw your post - Thanks.

You need to create a "dummy" Item (probably create under it's own Folder) to hold the checked value (.T.) for the desired list of user-defined keywords. The Item Type (for this dummy record) is irrelavent becuase user-defined keywords are database-wide, and exsist within the database as long as there is one Item that contains a .T. value for the keyword.

The list of user-defined keywords will appear unchecked (.F.) for ALL Items in the database, including Templates and new Items. The user-defined keywords are "available" to all Items (Ctrl-K), but must be assigned (checked) to each Item.

At the Template level you can "assign" (check) specific keywords to create a range of potential values for the new Item derived from the Template. Unchecking from these defaults after Item creation will further specify the Item.

For the particular project that prompted this exploration, I'm creating a Contact db for a local non-profit which has a range of needs (keywords), these needs correspond to the scope of interest of the volunteer (Contact - person or vendor).

An alternate path is to use Item Attributes instead of user-defined keywords. Here you would create an Attribute for each desired user-defined keyword, and the Attribute type would be Logical (Yes/No). Then place these Attributes on a Form, essentially providing a check list of values.

I wanted to stay away from this solution because I want to use the default Contact Template, which would mean that the Check List Form would have to become a Child of the Contact Item. Or create a custom contact form that includes the check list values.

Although this is a valid path, using the keyword dialog (Ctrl-K) seemed the more elegant solution.

Perhaps this has been mentioned before - for Attribute Type Logical, could there be a checkbox option in addition to the default drop-down list.

Last edited by ashwken; 01-07-2008 at 02:47 AM.
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