How to Delete Field Choices

[Winn Collier]

I’m working with Mac OS. I’ve created a field titled genre, but when I was creating the field choices, I accidentally included one that is blank. How do I delete (or edit, in the future) field choices. I see how to add a new field, but I can’t see how to delete or edit existing choices. Thank you.

[Winn Collier]

Okay, I see now how to edit (change spelling, name, etc.) existing choices – but not how to delete one.

[Brendan]

Hi Winn,

To delete a Pick List value, click the Edit Pick Lists option under the Tools menu. Then select your Genre Pick List. Then select the value you don’t want. Then click the [–] button at the bottom of the values list to delete it.

Thanks!

Brendan

[Winn Collier]

OK. You’ve got me headed in the right direction, I’m sure. However, when I click on “Genres” in edit tools, it’s not showing me the options I’ve created, the way I see it when I’m inside my form. It’s showing me pre-ordered fields.

First screen shot is my custom field section, with the blank spot

Second screen shot is what I see when I use the “edit tools” function as (I think) you instructed.

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[Brendan]

Ah I see.

So you’ve used Quotes and Stories as the source for your Pick List values.

The list of values below that radio button choice are the default values that ship in the Genres Pick List. So you’re effectively not using them.

What this means is you probably have a record in your form that has no Genre associated with it.

Are you wanting a dynamically generated list of Genres based upon what you type into that field in other records?

There’s also the new Auto-Complete function I recently added which can generate a list of values from that field in other records. Basically stuff that you typed out before will appear in a menu as you type.

Try and find the record that has no value set for that field and see if you can assign a value to it. Or you could also switch to the “Use values from list” option and enter in all the possible Genres manually.

[Winn Collier]

I’m sorry. I’ve not been clear and am making this far more complicated than it needs to be, I fear.

I’ve been using this for quite a while now (have over 1250 entries) and use the “Genre” field to customize the two choices I wanted: (1) Quote (2) Story

These are the only two I need. However, two days ago, I was tinkering around in that area and accidentally added the blank value/choice. I was simply trying to figure out how to delete it.

[Brendan]

Maybe what you want to do is switch back to using the “Use values from list” option instead then if there should only be 2 values? Or maybe you have another Genres Pick List that I couldn’t seen in your screenshot?

Generally to delete a value from a Pick List you just have to select the value from the list and then click the [-] button to delete the value.

[Winn Collier]

Hmmm… the plot thickens.

So I realize that my field is “Genre” while the one in the list here is “Genres” (with an ‘s’) – and there is no “Genre” in this list. So apparently I’m not editing the right thing.

I’ll attach a shot to show my main entry screen. You’ll see “Genre” there.

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[Brendan]

The field name has no relationship to the Pick List name.

It’s the association of the Field to the Pick List on the Field properties inspector panel on the right that tells you what Pick List is being used.

And the list of values used is determined by the setting “Uses values from list” or “Use values from field”.

[Winn Collier]

Okay. I had an unnamed List (“new pick list”) that I apparently had created and didn’t know it was the one associated with that field. I got it now. Thank you.

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