Tips for Entering Data

To decrease chances of erroneous e-file rejections, the program automatically deletes lone spaces or lone decimal point entries in numeric fields, just as if you pressed the Delete key manually.

Data fields are color-coded according to the type of information they contain. Fields that accept user input without overrides have blue backgrounds. In general, you should only enter data in blue fields.

To enter data:

Activate an input field by clicking the field or pressing the arrow keys on your keyboard.
Selecting a check box with the mouse does one of the following:
Inserts an X in the box
Clears the box if it was already checked
To navigate to a check box without changing its status, press Enter or Tab in the previous field.
Enter the appropriate information.

Fields requiring special number formats, such as phone numbers, dates, and tax ID numbers, are preformatted. You do not need to add hyphens or other such characters when entering this information.

Advance to the next field by pressing Enter or Tab.

To reverse direction, press Shift+Tab.

To edit or delete data:

Navigate to the field that contains the data you want to edit or delete.
You can use the mouse to navigate to any field, but if the cursor is inside an active (yellow) field, first press Enter or Tab.
To delete the entire entry, press Delete.
To edit the existing information, press Backspace, edit the data, and then press Enter.