In this article
The command can be activated via the Data → Columns setup menu. With this command, columns can be:
- Displayed
- Hidden
- Renamed
- Moved left or right in the various tables.
Display Tab
Header
This is the column header.
Header 2
This header is used by the program for only a few fields (e.g. Amount column).
Description
This is the column description field. This description will be shown as a tooltip.
Format
This is the format to show numbers, date and time (refer to Columns setup page for specific information).
Width
This section defines the horizontal size of the column.
Column Style
This is a drop-down menu that indicates the style to be used. This style has priority over the style of the row.
Alignment
The user can choose whether to align the text right, left or center.
Wrap text
This option allows the user to view the input text on more than one line.
Protected
This option allows the user to protect the entire column so that no data can be input or edited.
Exclude from printing
When this option is activated, the field will be excluded from printing.
Visible
This option allows the user to make column visible.
The tables can be modified. Columns can be added, headers can be changed, and column sizes and the order in which they are displayed can be altered.
Move up, Move down
The columns can be moved to the right or to the left: just click on the name of the column and with the Move up button, the column is moved to the left; with the Move down button, the column is moved to the right. Columns can also be moved simply by dragging them with the mouse.
Add
Add columns in the active table. The columns added by the user have a purely informative function and the program does not perform calculations on any numeric data.
If you add a column of type Amount in some cases, the data entered by the user is used in the calculations. Amount columns are summed only in the following tables:
- Accounts table,
- Account cards table,
- Extract rows table.
Delete
This function is used to delete a column from the list. A system column, however, cannot be deleted.
Settings Tab
Name
Enter the field name of the column to add. The program automatically inserts the new column in the list.
Xml name
This is the name of the active field in the Xml format and it is automatically inserted by the program.
Data type
It is possible to choose between the following preset types: Text, Number, Amount, Date, Time.
Max and Min length
Maximun and minimum field length.
Max and Min Value
It is possible to enter minimum and maximum values (numbers or characters).
Decimal points
It is possible to define the field decimal points
Column number
This is a number automatically attributed to a column, and has uniquely a technical purpose.
All caps
By clicking this option all column data will be converted to capital characters.
Date and numbers format by default
Once the program is installed, it automatically uses as default your operating system settings.
If you wish to change your operating system settings, you should go to your Control Panel (Windows) or your System Preferences (Mac).
Here is the step by step process on Windows 8 and Windows 10:
- from the Start → Control Panel menu
- click on International options and then on Change date, time or numbers format
- a dialog window will appear where you can change your data format (in the Format tab)
- in order to change your numbers or currency format, from the same window you can click on the Additional settings button and then on the Numbers or currency tab.
Here is the step by step process on Mac OS X 10.9.5:
- from the Apple logo (on the top left of your screen) click on System Preferences
- from the dialog window that appears choose the Date & time icon
- a new window will appear where you can choose Open language & Region...
- a new window will appear where you can click on the Advanced button
- finally a new window will appear where you can change the numbers format (General tab), date or time format (Date and Time tabs).
Date, time and numbers format
When no particular formats are specified for the date, time and numbers, they are displayed in the formats specific to the operating system.
- Within Banana, only the display format can be changed.
- To change the input format (when changing a value) you must change the settings of your operating system.
To change the format, click on Data → Columns setup and enter the desired format type in the Format box. The format types are listed below with some explanatory examples:
Date format | Examples for date |
d mm yy | 1 01 15 |
dd m yy | 01 1 15 |
ddd mmm yyyy | Fri Jan 2015 |
dddd mmmm yyyy | Friday January 2015 |
The letter “d” (day) indicates the day, the “m” (month) indicates the month, and the “y” (year) indicates the year. |
Time format | Time examples |
hh:mm:ss:zzz | 04:04:36:089 |
h:m:ss:zz | 4:4:36:89 |
Naturally the user can also invert the order of the elements making up the date or the time as desired (e.g.: mm dd yyyy). | |
As far as the separators are concerned, the user can choose between all of those available on the keyboard (for example: #, @, -, /, ., etc.). |
Numbers Format | Example for numbers |
0. | 259 |
0.00 | 258.85 |
0.000 | 258.848 |
The number of decimal spaces in a number field can be edited according to the user’s needs. Actual calculations are made using all the inserted decimal numbers. Rounding is only done for what is shown on screen. |
Link Format | Example for link |
:link: | "receipts/office electricity october.pdf" |
:file: | "office electricity october.pdf" |
:file:16: | "office electrici" |
:file:16:ellipsis | "office electr..." |
:file:-24:ellipsis: | "...electricity october.pdf" |
:link:symbol: | ">>" |
Note.: The link format is only applied for printing on paper or pdf files, it does not affect the display on the screen. |