Author: Steven Mathes

General
This General tab enables you to define the general properties of a form control. These properties differ, depending on the control type. Not all of the following properties are available for every control.
To access this command... 
Open context menu of a selected form element - choose Control - General tab
Open Form Controls toolbar or Form Design toolbar, click Control icon - General tab
If you export the current form document to HTML format, the default control values are exported, not the current control values. Default values are determined - depending on the type of control - by the properties' Default value (for example, in text fields), Default status (for check boxes and option fields), and Default selection (for list boxes).
Enabled
If a control field has the property "Enabled" (Yes), the form user will be able to use the control field. If the property is disabled, it will not be enabled (No) and will be displayed in a gray color.
Line count
For combo boxes with the Dropdown property, you can specify how many lines should be displayed in the dropdown list. With control fields which do not have the Dropdown option, the line's display will be specified by the size of the control field and the font size.
Action
You can use navigation actions to design your own database navigation buttons.
The following table describes the actions that you can assign to a button.
A Dropdown
A control field with the dropdown property has an additional arrow button which opens the list of the existing form entries per mouse click. Under Line count, you can specify how many lines (or rows) should be displayed in the dropdown state. Combination fields can have the dropdown property.
Combo boxes that were inserted as columns in a table control are always dropdown as the default.
Alignment / Graphics alignment
The alignment options are left-aligned, right-aligned, and centered. These options are available for the following elements:
Title of Label fields
Content of text fields
Content of table fields in the columns of a table control
Graphics or text that are used in buttons
The Alignment option for buttons is called Graphics alignment.
AutoFill
The AutoFill function displays a list of previous entries after you start to type an entry.
Label field
Specifies the source for the label of the control. The text of the label field will be used instead of the name of a database field. For example, in the Filter Navigator, Search dialog, and as a column name in the table view.
To define one character of the label as a mnemonic, so that the user can access this control by pressing the character on the keyboard, insert a tilde (~) character in front of the character in the label.
Only the text of a group frame can be used as the label field when using radio buttons. This text applies to all of the radio buttons of the same group.
If you click on the ... button next to the text field, you will see the Label Field Selection dialog. Select a label from the list.
Check the No assignment box to remove the link between a control and the assigned label field.
Width
Sets the column width in the table control field in the units that are specified in the OpenOffice.org module options. If you want, you can enter a value followed by a valid measurement unit, for example, 2 cm.
Repeat
Specifies if the action of a control such as a spin button repeats when you click the control and hold the mouse button down.
Delay
Specifies the delay in milliseconds between repeating events. A repeating event occurs when you click an arrow button or the background of a scrollbar, or one of the record navigation buttons of a Navigation Bar, and you keep the mouse button pressed for some time. You can enter a value followed by a valid time unit, for example, 2 s or 500 ms.
Record marker
Specifies whether the first column is displayed with row labels, in which the current record is marked by an arrow.
Date format
With date fields you can determine the format for the date readout.
All format fields (date, time, currency, numeric) are formatted automatically in the selected format as soon as you leave them regardless of how you entered the input. 
Spin Button
Numerical fields, currency fields, date and time fields can be introduced as spin buttons in the form.
Tristate
Specifies whether a check box can also represent ZERO values of a linked database apart from the TRUE and FALSE values. This function is only available if the database accepts three states: TRUE, FALSE and ZERO.
The Tristate property is only defined for database forms, not for HTML forms.
Print
Specifies whether you want the control field to appear in a document's printout.
Edit mask
By specifying the character code in pattern fields, you can determine what the user can enter in the pattern field.
The length of the edit mask determines the number of the possible input positions. If the user enters characters that do not correspond to the edit mask, the input is rejected when the user leaves the field. You can enter the following characters to define the edit mask:
Character 
Meaning
L