View - Fields

The View - Fields dialog allows us to change which fields are displayed in a table window.   This menu option is available when the focus is on a table window.

 

Check a field to display it or uncheck a field to hide it.    When a field is selected by highlighting it the up and down arrows in the dialog's toolbar allow us to move the field to the top, up one step, down one step or to the bottom to adjust where it is displayed.  Moving a field to the top displays it as the left-most column in a table.

 

We can select using the following mouse clicks and keyboard shortcuts.

 

 

We can use the above controls to rapidly convert the tedious checking of many fields into just a few, for example, when we want to hide many fields and show only a few.

i_tables_fields_01_01.png

Consider the above table imported from a government website providing information on roads in Europe.  Many of the fields are blank.    To show only some fields and to hide the others we choose View - Fields.

 

i_tables_fields_01_02.png

 

In the Fields dialog we can Ctrl-click onto the Classification Name field and also Ctrl-click onto the Accuracy Category field.

 

 

i_tables_fields_01_03.png

 

This highlights the fields.   We can now enter Ctrl-I to invert the selection.

 

i_tables_fields_01_04.png

 

All of the other fields are now selected.   We now tap the <Spacebar> to toggle selected check boxes.

 

i_tables_fields_01_05.png

 

Doing so clears the check boxes of all of the highlighted fields.  Press OK to apply.  

 

i_tables_fields_01_06.png

 

We now have only two fields displayed in the table.   To adjust the widths of the columns we can Right-click onto the column heads and choose Best Fit Title as desired.

 

Note that this technique is much faster and less tedious than unchecking each of very many fields one by one.  It is quicker to select just two fields, invert the selection and then clear the check boxes of all selected fields.

 

See Also

Getting Started

 

User Interface Basics

 

Tables