The Properties Pane

The Properties pane is used to view / modify information about items:

 

1. Properties Pane Sections

The Properties pane is divided into the following sections:

  1. Item Properties
  2. Marked items
  3. Grids
  4. Forms
  5. All Fields

1.1 Item Properties

The Item Properties section shows everything there is to know about the current item:

  • Nominal information, such as unique Item ID, when it was created / modified and by who, font and lock properties and its Home
    Created and modified dates and Created By can be edited (right-click > Edit value > Confirm action)
  • Tags: List of tags assigned to the selected item. Details here: 3. Tags
  • Values: List of field values assigned to the selected item
  • Parents: List all parents of a selected item
    • An item can have multiple parents
    • Parent list is shown as an inverted tree. This is in particular very useful when items have multiple parents
    • Each parent is a hyperlink. Click on the link to move focus to that parent
  • Siblings, Children: List of such items
  • Related Items. Details here: Related Items Links
  • Shown in: Grids where the selected item was recently displayed. An arrow is shown after the grid name:   . Click this arrow to open it

1.2 Marked Items

This section shows currently marked items. Marked items are a persistent list of item used in many places within InfoQube.

See Marked Items for details

1.3 Grids

Lists grid related information:

  • Current Grid: This section is dynamic and shows the columns of the current grid. Values can be edited
    Use Alt + Up / Down arrows to rearrange grid columns
  • All grids that are set to be visible in the Properties pane.
    Click the grid name to expand and show its columns (and use it a simple data entry form)
    An arrow is shown after the grid name:   . Click this arrow to open it
  • Grid Groups: List the Grid Groups. Click to show the grids in each group. Click on a grid in a grid group to open it
    Details here: 7. Grid Groups

1.4 Forms

List all forms. Forms are a user-defined ordered list of fields

Forms can be loaded as column sets. Details here

Drag-drop and the equivalent keyboard shortcut (Alt+Up/Down) can be used to add and move fields in forms. For more extensive changes to form, use the Manage Forms dialog. Details here: 4. Forms

1.5 All Fields

  • List all fields in the current IQBase
  • Flat view or tree view. Click the icon on the right to toggle between the two views
  • In tree-view, fields can be arranged in hierarchy using keyboard shortcuts or drag-drop. See section 3. below for details
  • If the field has the same name as a grid, an arrow is shown after the field name:  . Click this arrow to open it
     

2. Using the Properties Pane

  • The Properties pane shows the values of the currently focused item
  • If using a view that supports multiple selections (most do), only one item of the selected items has the focus and it is that one that is shown in the Properties pane
  • Adding / Editing / Deleting a field value is performed on ALL selected items
  • The left column supports Auto-search. So to find a field, simply start typing. Press F3 to find the next occurrence 

2.1 Context Menus

Right-click on a line in the Properties pane to view a context menu. Each type has a specific context menu:

  • Tags
  • Field
  • Parents header
  • Parent item
  • Sibling / Children item
  • Related Items header
  • Related item
  • Marked items header
  • Marked item
  • Grid and Grid Group
  • Forms header
  • Form
  • All Fields header
     

3. Field Hierarchy

Fields in the All Fields section of the Properties pane can be arranged in a hierarchy

To turn on it On, click on the button to the right of the All Fields section


 

There are 2 methods to arrange fields :

  1. Keyboard
  2. Drag-drop

3.1 Using the Keyboard to arrange fields

You can use the same keys that you use to arrange items in hierarchy :

  • Alt + Up / Down
  • Alt + Left / Right

Tips :

  • Only one field can be moved at a time
    To move multiple fields, move these under a parent field and move the parent field
  • The Item > Move command buttons are enabled, so they can also be used

3.2 Using Drag-Drop

You can arrange fields using Drag and Drop. Do make sure though when dropping that the mouse pointer changes to "sub-item"" :  
 

4. Tips on using the Properties pane

  • You can drag the Tags section to a grid to show tags as a column in the grid
  • You can drag a field from the Properties pane to a grid to show it there
  • You can perform bulk operation (i.e. on multiple items) using the Properties pane. e.g. on Field2, entering =[Field1] + 4 would execute that function for all items selected.
    If Field2 is not set to automatically parse equations (Field properties > Properties), right-click on the equation > Parse Equation
  • F4 moves the focus between the Properties pane and the active view. This works even if the Properties pane is in auto-hide mode
  • F7 / F8 works even when the focus is on the Properties pane (to select the Previous / Next item). It is therefore possible to view the properties of other items without going back to the active grid
  • All item-type entries (parent, children, marked items, etc) can be edited in the Properties pane. Right-click > Edit (or F2) to edit
  • All field-type entries support double-click: Double-click a field will open the grid that has this field as a source if it exists, otherwise, the Scratch grid will open
  • In Tools > Options > Program > Other > 1.6.13 there is an option to show the checkbox to the left of the field, instead of right of it (in the values column)