PHONE

Avoid inadvertently deleting your records

While using a Phone Book database containing many records, I pressed the (Spacebar) twice to select (or mark) two records that I wanted to delete. Then, after pressing the (Delete) key and being presented with the dialog box asking, "Delete selected items(s)?" I chose "OK." Unfortunately, I had forgotten that I had, a few minutes earlier, used the (Spacebar) to mark a third record that I had planned to delete. I had changed my mind and decided not to delete the third record, but I had forgotten to unmark it.

Since the third record was near the end of the database, its diamond-shaped "selection marker" wasn't visible in the current screen. The deletion erased all three records, but I didn't realize this until I opened the database a few days later and couldn't find the missing third record. (Although I was using Phone Book, this situation can occur in any of the database applications.)

Here's what I now do to safely delete records. Before selecting a record to be deleted, I press (Shift), then (Spacebar). This de-selects any records that have previously been marked, and I can now select (and delete safely) only the intended records.

Note that pressing (Shift), then (Spacebar), when there are no records already marked, selects all records. Put another way, repeatedly pressing (Shift), then (Spacebar), toggles between selecting all records, and de-selecting all those records that have been marked.

All records that are marked for deletion may not appear in the current screen. You can thus inadvertently delete more records than you intend>