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REDCap FAQ
It's important to distinguish between the technical status of a project and the procedural status of a project. In REDCap, there is a technical distinction between "Development" and "Production" status. Data should never be entered into project in "Development" status. REDCap has several ways of protecting data but they are not in effect while in "Development". When a project is moved to "Production" status REDCap protects against changes that would causes data loss.
When developing projects, they may already be in "Production" status to protect the existing variables and track changes (e.g. the electronic consents will always start in "Production" status so all changes are tracked). This does not mean the project is ready for live data or use with a participant.
Projects that are new will
Most projects will have at least one hashtag after their name. Consents are marked with "#consents", collection projects "#collection", tracking projects with "#tracker", etc. These are used to categorize and track the projects – you may only see a few projects when you log in but the section has dozens of active projects (and hundreds total) so these help sort through everything.
Any project still being developed will have a #devel tag. Any project with a #devel cannot be used to collect data (or consent a participant in the case of the consents) – they have not been tested or approved for use.
There is a time and a place for matrix fields and it is almost never for any form that is participant/patient facing. The layout and labels can get lost because there is little control over the spacing and appearance. To control the layout use embedded fields and tables.