What you do in the Database painter

In the Database painter, you can:

• Create, modify, and delete named display formats

  The named display formats are stored in the extended attribute
  system tables. When you have defined a display format, it can be
  used by any column of the appropriate datatype in the database.

• Assign display formats to columns and remove them
  from columns

  These formats are used by default when you place the column
  in a DataWindow object in the DataWindow painter.

What you do in the DataWindow painter

In the DataWindow painter, you can:

• Accept the default display format assigned to a column in
  the Database painter

• Override the default display format with another
  named format stored in the extended attribute system tables

• Create an ad hoc, unnamed format to use with one
  specific column

Display formats and the extended attribute system
tables

When you have placed a column in a DataWindow object and have given
it a display format (either the default format from the assignment
made in the Database painter for the column or a format assigned in the DataWindow painter),
there is no longer any link to the named format in the extended attribute
system tables.