User Support Forum

Is there a way to turn off automatic advancing to the next field when entering data? Our office manager is getting really frustrated with it because it causes her to overshoot the fields she wants to go to next.

Thanks,
Ellen Mykkanen

ellenmykkanen wrote:Is there a way to turn off automatic advancing to the next field when entering data? Our office manager is getting really frustrated with it because it causes her to overshoot the fields she wants to go to next.

Thanks,
Ellen Mykkanen

Not really.

Normally, data is entered in the sequence of the form. What is she having problems with?

NeilZ wrote:

ellenmykkanen wrote:Is there a way to turn off automatic advancing to the next field when entering data? Our office manager is getting really frustrated with it because it causes her to overshoot the fields she wants to go to next.

Thanks,
Ellen Mykkanen

Not really.

Normally, data is entered in the sequence of the form. What is she having problems with?

When she's doing a journal entry and enters data into a field that fills the characters available, the cursor jumps to the next field automatically. She wants to be able to tab between fields so she knows how far she's going to go with a tab. What happens now is that she enters the date for example, and the cursor automatically jumps to the next field - she presses the tab key, not realizing that the cursor has already moved, and moves on to another field and that's further than she wants to go. So she ends up entering the wrong information, has to backtrack, erase, and enter again.

ellenmykkanen wrote:

NeilZ wrote:

ellenmykkanen wrote:Is there a way to turn off automatic advancing to the next field when entering data? Our office manager is getting really frustrated with it because it causes her to overshoot the fields she wants to go to next.

Thanks,
Ellen Mykkanen

Not really.

Normally, data is entered in the sequence of the form. What is she having problems with?

When she's doing a journal entry and enters data into a field that fills the characters available, the cursor jumps to the next field automatically. She wants to be able to tab between fields so she knows how far she's going to go with a tab. What happens now is that she enters the date for example, and the cursor automatically jumps to the next field - she presses the tab key, not realizing that the cursor has already moved, and moves on to another field and that's further than she wants to go. So she ends up entering the wrong information, has to backtrack, erase, and enter again.

That's the way it works. Sounds like more a training issue where she's going to have to realize that entering the date will trigger that move. FWIW ... most every computer program that involves data entry works in that manner.

She can get around the date issue if she just enters the year and not the century of the date, as in 01/01/17. The system will properly read that and enter the year as 2017.

As as side note.

IMHO - if she's doing that many journal entries, something is not right as most entries should be done via the Contributions and Accounts Payable modules. If that's what you meant by 'journal entries' then disregard this

Thanks Neil, I agree that most data entry modules work that way, but I told her I'd ask just in case there's an option. Also, I was referring to any sort of data entry, because the program behaves consistently across the modules. I'm just going to sit with her as she gets comfortable with it. She's helping out with A/P, and isn't a trained bookkeeper so this is new for her.

This has also been an issue with me. When I enter the city, state, and zip code, it automatically jumps from the state to the zip code. Out of many years of habit to hit the tab key after each field, it is frustrating to have to go back every time that happens. Since this is not an issue in any other program I have used and currently use, it is not an easy habit to break.
Would be nice if a future programming update could include the ability to disable that feature.

Gitte wrote:This has also been an issue with me. When I enter the city, state, and zip code, it automatically jumps from the state to the zip code. Out of many years of habit to hit the tab key after each field, it is frustrating to have to go back every time that happens. Since this is not an issue in any other program I have used and currently use, it is not an easy habit to break.
Would be nice if a future programming update could include the ability to disable that feature.

As I mentioned above, Powerchurch is primarily a data entry program, and designed for continuous data entry once the block is filled with the total characters allocated. Since the state box is 2 letters, you enter two, and it progresses on to the zip code.

I really don't think that's going to change anytime soon.