>>You can set validation rules for views, but not for free tables. There is no other way to get validation ruels on a record basis in grids that is bulletproof. That is one of the many reasons that I NEVER allow editing in a grid. I woudl give the other reasons I don't allow edits in grids but it would exceed the length of a UT message and I'd get in trouble with Michel :-).
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>Jim,
>Thank you for your information. However I thing many users prefer direct editing in grids. Could you mention just 3 or 4 other problems that we may encounter in grid direct editing.
Ben,

Well it is hard to keep it down to 3 or 4 but here goes;

Grids manage their own internal data source and this can cause problems synchronize the grids recordsource with the data enviornmetn for a form when other controls are being used to do other things. I ahve seen at least one situation where the result was a GPF that was traced down to the user adding a record to a table then using the grid that was already there to try and edit that new record.

Grids do not provide the same level of control of the editing process that the other controls do. The events of the columns and the controls inside the columns are not always firing as we expect them to.


Grids display problems when using certain types of conrols in the columns. This is especially true of lists and comboboxes, I don't choose to give up the interface capabilities of those controls for a grid.

I have never had a user request editing in a grid. When I have designed a functional and fast editing interface the users have never said, "Hey I'd really like a row and column oriented display of my data that allows me to see records I am not concerned with while I edit one." Or "Hey, we have al;ways vieweed our information on paper and I would really like a completely foreign display that doesn;t look at all like anything we have ever used before so I can see multiple records from the tables in the database with a two dimensional display of record and fields."

I have however replaced interfaces that were browse or grid oriented with form based interfaces and received thanks from the users because the information was now shown to them in a meaningful format that they understood.

I get the impression that many of us think we know what the users want adn so we design things that way. Well it has been my experience that the only folks who see information as being a two dimensional matrix of rows and columns are accountants and computer database programmers.