Data records in Alventis can have Styles applied to them. The Styles we are referring to are purely visual and consist of the most common Font attributes: Font Name, Charset, Size, Bold/Italic/Underline/Strikeout style, Text and Background Colors.

While it is true that such visual Styles do not carry any well-defined "information" attached to them, they can still be effectively used as a kind of pseudo-data flags or qualifiers attached to record. For instance, you may set the background of all work-related records from all tables to some adequately repulsive color, and paint all entertainment-related ones in some other way. This allows you to quickly identify records by the visual queues their Style conveys to you. You can also sort and group them based on their Style, but let's not jump ahead of ourselves.

Stylizing records is done in much the same way you'd do it if they were simple lines of text in a Memo: select the records you want in the Search Results grid and use all the text-style tools available: Font, QuickStyle, Colors, Clear Text Formatting Style. Even the Format Painter. The latter can "copy" styles not only within Memos or between records, but between Memos and records too.

Styles that you assign to records are automatically added to the Style Picker (unlike the Memo whose styles you must add manually).

Every new style you apply to a record is given a default name, such as "Unnamed #123". This name appears in the Style Name column of the Search Results grid. If you apply to a record a style that already exists, the existing style is re-used. For example, if you make some record that didn't have any style Bold, its style may become "Unnamed #5". If you make some other record Bold, the second record will simply re-use the style of the first one, and it too will end up with the "Unnamed #5" style.

You can rename styles using the Style Explorer, which is discussed in its own chapter.

As we have mentioned earlier, once you have stylized some records, you can sort them and group them by their style using the Style Name column of the Search Results grid. You can also filter by style of course. All regular grid operations are supported. This gives you the ability to perform the above operations across the table boundaries. If you are, for example, marking all health-related records in a particular style, such records will be grouped together in the Search Results no matter which table they are coming from and what they contain: a record of your dentist in the Contacts table or a record of a healthy recipe in the Recipes table.

You can also stylize an entire table with a Default Table Style. Just select the table in the Tables Grid and use all the usual tools. Same goes for entire Databases as described at the very end of the Database Explorer chapter.

Record Styles are recorded on a per-user basis. That is, whatever styles you paint your records with, they are only visible to you and nobody else (if there are multiple users accessing the record/table/database in question). This is similar to how each user only sees his own Memo highlighting, remember? The exception to this rule is a feature in its own right, which is discussed below.

The following discussion is mainly applicable to Alventis used in a multi-user environment, but even a single user can draw some benefit from this advanced feature, so you may want to read on.

Administrative Styles. First, let's remember that users in Alventis exist in a hierarchy, a kind of "pyramid of power". Suffice it to say that we may be looking at such users as, for instance, an "Employee" and his "Manager". We'll use these two as an example for this explanation. Normally, the Manager can mark records with some styles, and the Employee can mark them in some other way, and each of them only sees his/her styles. In addition to this "user-style independence", it is possible for the Manager to apply a style in such a way that it will be visible to all of his subordinates. Such styles are called Administrative Styles. A user will see his own or his superior's Administrative Styles marked with the symbol in the Style Name column.

The basic rule is rather simple, actually. Ordinary, personal styles are only visible to their creator (the user who applied this style to the record, that is). Administrative styles are visible to their creator and all his subordinates in the user hierarchy.

Arbitration. The Employee can apply his preferred style "over" his Manager's Administrative style (we are of course talking about styles applied to the same record(s) here). The Manager's style is still intact, and still visible to his other subordinates, but not to our clever Employee. Imagine the following scenario. The Manager wants to bring some important piece of news to the attention of his department, so he marks the corresponding record in flashy red. The Employee has seen it, diligently read it, and doesn't really want or need to see this record in red any more, so he can "paint over it" using whatever style he prefers. Or not using any particular style. He can simply clear the Manager's style using the Clear Text Formatting Style button . This does not affect the Manager's style in any way, but from the Employee's perspective, this record no longer has a style. What happens in reality, is that the Manager's style is painted over using a neutral style that makes the record look as if it had no style at all.

But what if the next day there's an important update to that same piece of news in that same record, and the Manager would like to once again inform his team about it? He'll give the record an updated Administrative style, perhaps leaving the red background and making the text Bold, but what about our Employee who has "painted over" this record's style? He won't be left out either. Since the Administrative style is newer than whatever style the Employee has applied, it's the Administrative style that "takes over".

So, the Arbitration rule is also quite simple: if an Administrative style and a Personal style are applied to the same record, the more recent style application "wins".

This stylizing "war" can go back-and-fourth between the Manager and the Employee for as long as they want. Or until retirement.

So now you know what Administrative styles are, but we still haven't told you how to apply them. This is easy.

The Admin-Style Mode toggle button , when depressed, places you in a mode where whatever styles you apply (using all the usual techniques) become Administrative. You must therefore be diligent and turn this mode Off as soon as you're done. Otherwise your subordinates will end up seeing all your styles – unless that's what you want of course.

Since Administrative actions on your part affect other users, you may or may not have the Right to go into the Admin-Style Mode. The right to do so is part of Alventis' Multi-User Security system, and as such is only relevant to the Enterprise version.

There's one last thing to be aware of. The Manager himself sees both his Personal and his Administrative styles, and can arbitrate between them. For example, he can Administratively mark that news record red for his Employee, and then make that record green for himself with his Personal style (after turning Off the Admin-Style Mode of course).