Occasionally it may be useful to display to an enumerator or keyer the possible values for a given field in a data entry application. For example, if a survey is being conducted on a tablet, it may be easier for an enumerator to use a finger or stylus to select a value, rather than to key the value using the screen's touch keyboard. CSPro's capture types allow for such flexibility by allowing the program to specify the capture type associated with a field.

You can specify a capture type while editing a dictionary item, or while modifying a field's properties. If a field has a capture type specified, it will override the dictionary item's capture type setting.

When dragging an item to a form to create a field, you can indicate that you want to automatically use capture types by selecting the Capture Types: CAPI Mode option in the Drag Options dialog. If this option is selected, CSPro will automatically choose a capture type for the field based on the field's first value set.

You can manually change the capture type for a field by editing the field's properties. CSPro allows you to select a capture type that is suitable for the item's first value set. A warning will appear if the value set is not suitable. In this case, if the value set is compatible at the time of data entry (because the value set was changed dynamically using the setvalueset function), it will be used; if not compatible, the field will appear using the base type (generally a Text Box).

The CSPro Designer shows the fields that use capture types by coloring the border of the field in blue. The blue border does not exist when the data entry application is run in CSEntry. The field border will be a lighter blue color when the Number Pad capture type is selected.

By default CSEntry displays the label of the value set in the window of the capture type, but this title can be turned off using programmatic logic:

See also: Multimedia Features, GetCaptureType Function, SetCaptureType Function