The data window is the space in a field where data is entered or displayed. The display format of the data window controls how the data appears when displayed on the form. For a data entry field, you can specify a data input template as the display format to control the way in which the user enters data in that field. If a field corresponds to a data column in a table, the display format for that field must be appropriate for the data type and length declared for the column in the database table. While data type and data display format are related, they are distinct and different entities. Data type identifies the kind of data. Display format refers to how the data is presented or entered on a form.

A single data type can have many different display formats, and some display formats can be applied to more than one type of data. For example, numeric type data can be displayed as whole integers, decimal numbers, and in scientific notation. The scientific notation display format can be used with both numeric and monetary data types.