Re: "Developing an optimal screen layout for CAI"

I've been reading Fred's paper, incorporating many of his suggestions into my modelib, and I have a question ...

Figures 3 & 4 contain "heading labels" in the Form Pane that read:

  ---- Whether working ----                 ---- Whether seeking work ---- 

I like this method of group related questions.

I might have missed this in the paper, but how do you incorporate "heading labels" in the Form Pane?

Just by looking at the headings you included, it looks like the programmer used an auxfield, and typed the heading text into the field description, or perhaps the field text, let's assume the former. Then the programmer used a special field pane that displays the description text and puts it ahead of the fields in the rules for that column.

Another method is illustrated on pages 103 - 104 in the Blaise Developer's Guide, though I note that the auxfield shown in the rules on page 104 should have the .KEEP method applied.

Mark M Pierzchala
MMP Survey Services, LLC

The example on page 104 of the Blaise Developer's Guide should have the .SHOW method, not the .KEEP method that I just posted (it's early morning here), and certainly not the implied ASK method shown in that example. The reason is that you don't want the interviewers to land on the auxfield, you just want them to see it. Normally you would also have the NEWCOLUMN layout instruction in front of the label.

Yours,

Mark M Pierzchala
MMP Survey Services, LLC
www.MMPSurveyServices.com

Hi Bill

Mark is right. The "trick" is to use an Auxfield with the text in the description but you also need a special FieldPane definition. Here are the details for the Mode lib change:

1. In the Mode library, under the Interviewing mode Field Panes add a new fieldpane called ForLabels.
2. In the Controls panel for the new Fieldpane go to each of the bold control elements (Field name, Input line, Answer name and Remark Icon) and undo the tick on Visible.
3. Go to the Descriptiojn Control and add a tick on Visible.
4. Set the controls for Left/Top/Width/Height to 3, 0, 47, 1. ( for the Width setting make sure the number is less than overall width of the FieldPane. If necessary you can reduce this number to fit.
5. Change the Colour setting to Crimson (128,0,64) and the Highlight setting to Red (255,0,0)
6. Copy this FieldPane definition to the Editing mode so that it will exist there also.

After you have done that then you can use this FieldPane to make your headings appear, as follows.

Define your Auxfields like:

    aBlank1 "" / "" : STRING[1]
    aLabel1 "" / "@b------- Introduction -------@b" : STRING[1]

I have added the @b to make the heading bold. That is optional.

Then use the SHOW method to put these on the path in the right place:

aBlank1.SHOW
aLabel1.SHOW 

Then add a LAYOUT section to the block in which you apply the FieldPane:

LAYOUT
    {Display labels using special field pane}
    AT aBlank1 FIELDPANE ForLabels
    AT aLabel1 FIELDPANE ForLabels

You will notice that I have used aBlank1 for a blank line. I know there are other methods but this one maintains consistency of approach.

The other thing to note is that you will need one Auxfield for every heading you want to present because you can only use each field once on the path.

Good luck

Fred