Styles in Code Designer

Mike (or anyone on the list),

I'm trying to determine what styles buy me in the designer.
 If I understand correctly, if I have a field that I want
to display the same in all screens, I can set up a style.
 Example:

I use the Social Security Number on a lot of screens and in
files as a key.  If I want to display (output only) I could
set a style named "Display SocSec" and set the attributes
to display (output only), Color(white), Edit Code or Word,
Edit mask (which has it's own set of challenges), Database
reference information, etc.  When I then create a Social
Security Number on a display, I can, once the field is
created, go to the STYLE tab and use the "Reset to" push
button to set all the attributes to those settings.

If this is the case, it is not working.  The color, edit
mask/word, Alias, and others are not changed.  In fact, I
don't see that it did anything.

HELP!  I would like to understand the styles and what they
can do for me.

BTW: the Alias key word is not on the properties for a
database referenced field.  It shows up on the original
tab, but does not give me a place to override it, or add it
if it is not specified in the file DDS.

Thanks in advance!

Jim Essinger
Senior Programmer/Analyst
Student Loan Fund of Idaho
esinger@fmtc.com
208-452-4058