The way we manage Lookup Tables is changing. The interface has gotten an upgrade, and is now basically like working on a spreadsheet, with the powerful tools that comes with.
- This means that we can do things like highlight rows, change fonts, copy/paste, and freeze panes, which provides a major quality of life improvement for people who maintain Lookup Tables, without affecting the underlying database functionality at all.
- The functions of the Table and Data tabs in the old interface are all available, without having to switch views.
- If you are creating a new table, when you click Save you will be prompted to name the table, by renaming the Sheet.
- Double clicking the Sheet tab at the bottom opens the name for editing.
- The new interface has the same data integrity protections as the old one. For example, you'll find that unlike in Excel or Sheets, once a column header name has been saved, it cannot be changed.
- If you are creating a new table, when you click Save you will be prompted to name the table, by renaming the Sheet.
- To change the data type for a column, first click the column header, which will activate the button. The button will be labeled based on the current data type: Text is the default, and Number and Date are also available with the usual formatting options.
- Clicking Text will open the format popup, and Apply will save the changes.
- The formatting tools are across the top, and right clicking a cell or cells gives additional options.
- There is also an Export button that will open a save dialog. You can choose from Excel or PDF formats.
- The Insert tab is used to manipulate columns and rows.
- The new interface even provides limited support for formulas, although because it is still a database it doesn't store those themselves, but rather the results. If you enter one, it will perform the calculation, but only until the Lookup Table is saved . For example, =SUM(A2:A4) might give us a result of 12. If we change the values in the range, the result will update, until we save the the LT. At that point, we will still see the 12, but the formula that produced will be gone.
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