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About Item Hint Text

Oracle Forms can display item-specific help text on the console's message line at runtime. The help text for an item, or hint, can only be displayed when the input focus is in that item. To display the hint text defined for the current item, execute the HELP Built-in procedure.

Hint text is usually advice to the operator on how to enter valid data in the item. For example, the hint text for an item that contains part numbers might be "Enter a 6-digit part number." You control the display of hint text by setting an item's Hint and Display Hint Automatically properties.

Suppressing Hint Text If you do not want Oracle Forms to display hint text for an item, leave the Hint property blank. When the Hint property is blank, the Display Hint Automatically property has no effect, and can be either Yes or No.

Note:The Hint and Display Hint Automatically properties apply only to items that are assigned to a canvas. (Hint text does not apply to NULL-canvas items.)

Default Hints for Data Items When you create a data block with the Data Block wizard, Oracle Forms sets the Hint and Display Hint Automatically properties for each item in the block as follows:

Hint The default hint is Enter a Value for: <item_name> where item_name is the name of the data item created through the Data Block wizard.

Display Hint Automatically Set to No (Oracle Forms displays the hint only if an operator presses [Help] in that item).

Display Hint Automatically property

Hint (Item) property

About default values for items in new records