I must apologize for not making this clear before. It is perfectly OKAY to enter your own dummy records into the alpha or beta versions of LIDA, just to play around with them and get the feel for entering data.
THE CAUTION is that you might lose that data in a future upgrade, if and when we change the data structure of the table that holds the data you entered.
If this is not a problem for you, then by all means, go ahead and enter your own dummy data.
If it IS a problem, there is a solution – I can rescue the data you entered, but I’ll have to charge you for my time doing that.
HOW TO ENTER DATA: Simple – just scroll down to the last record in the list, and there will be a new blank record below it – just start entering there. The shortcut to go to that record is look in the bottom margin, where it tells you how many records are being displayed (more than 23,000 in the sample data that comes with the alpha/beta versions). Look just to the right of that for the tiny button with the asterisk. This is the “Add New Record” button. Click that and you will be taken to the new record, where you can begin entering your dummy test data.
Or even your live data, if you’re willing to take that chance.
But the bottom line here is BY ALL MEANS! Please go ahead and enter your own test data into LIDA! How else can we test all aspects of the program?
By the way, we should have the “Enter New Record” button on the main menu activated in the next two or three days, so you will be able to enter a new title in its very own dedicated screen. But it will just duplicate the new record data entry ability you already have, so I haven’t been hurrying to get that one active.
Have fun!