The Edit Dialog allows the user to both visually inspect and modify the
values of an object's fields. As an inspection tool, the user can use
and edit dialog to check the values of an object's fields, and as an
editing tool the user can use the edit dialog to change the values
of some or all of those fields. For some objects, the edit dialog is the
only representation available for inspecting, or accessing it members.
Other objects may have extended edit dialogs or even multiple views
which may also allow modification of the object's fields. An edit dialog
also presents the user with easy access to the substructures of an
object including editing of its subgroups and arrays. In addition the
edit dialog may allow access to certain member functions on an object.
Edit Dialogs are created by choosing "Edit" from an object's menu or by
the EditObj
command in css (see section 7.4.6 CSS Commands).
The basic layout of the edit dialog includes a list of object member
names which are listed in a vertical column along the left hand side of
the display. Clicking on a member name will popup a short description
of the member. Certain members may not appear in the edit dialog. This
is determined by the show_iv
field of the global settings
(see section 6.17 Settings Affecting GUI Behavior). Typically the unshown members will not be of
interest to the average user, or will contain values which are
potentially dangerous to change.
The Show menu on the right-hand side of the menu bar at the top of the edit dialog will allow you to control how much stuff to view on a case-by-case basis. Typically, you'll only want to switch to viewing Detail, which is not viewed by default, but all levels can be controlled in this menu. If you suspect that something is not there which should be, try selecting Show/Detail.
The values associated with the member names appear to the right. There are a number of different graphical representations of the content of these fields, which are described in the following section.
In addition, there can be special buttons and menu actions available on the dialog. These are described in subsequent sections.