All information is displayed and maintained through interactive forms. There are common components to every form that you will need to be familiar with in order to do your work.

Each form has its own window that resides in the work area of the Main Application Window. A form window contains a title line, a toolbar, possibly a find block/list and a content area. You will notice that the window title line takes on a different color for each application module.

Form Toolbar#

The form toolbar helps you perform a variety of tasks. Clicking the individual buttons on the toolbar lets you control the information presented in the form. Actions that are not appropriate at the moment are disabled.

Each of the actions supported on the form toolbar is defined in Form Toolbar Icons page.

Find Block#

In most forms, you must first select the record you wish to view or update. When there is a lot of data involved, a Find Block is provided to help you search for the record. A Find Block is a single line just below the form toolbar containing the following:

• search criteria fields
• up/down arrows
• record counts

You can enter search criteria to find a record or use the arrows to step through records one at a time. The record count indicates which record you are currently on and how many records there are on file. The quick key CTL+Shift+C takes you immediately to the Find Block.

As soon as you start to key into the Find Block, the information that was there before is cleared out to allow you to enter different criteria. Search criteria can be entered in any or all of the fields in the Find Block. A generic search is done using the characters you have entered.

Search criteria can contain wild characters.

The “%” symbol represents one or more characters.

The “_” symbol represents a single character.

For example, to search for all people with a first name of “Charles”, you just have to type “Charles” since the system automatically puts a “%” at the start and end of the phrase you type.

As you enter the search criteria, the system helps you narrow your search. A drop down window appears to show you what you have selected so far. Scroll up and down the list or continue to enter criteria to filter the list. The current record is highlighted. As soon as you see the record you want, double click it or highlight it and click Select Record to choose the current record.

List Block#

When there are a lot of records involved but less data on each, a List Block is used instead of a Find Block. The current record is always shaded. Click the record you want to work with. If you have update capability, you are able to enter your changes right on the list.

You can shorten or widen columns in a list be dragging their borders closer or farther apart.

Some forms have more data than will fit easily along a line. In these cases, the extra data related to the current record is shown in an overflow area to the right or below the list.

Lists are sorted by default on the first column in the list. You can change the sort order by dragging the column you want to sort on to the first column. In fact, you can rearrange all of the columns on the list to suit your purposes.

Content Area#

The content area of form windows varies significantly from form to form. Many forms have multiple blocks of information. Within a form block, related data may be organized into sections to make it easier to locate and understand the purpose of the information.

Complex forms have information organized into tabs to help you get to what you want quickly. To move from tab to tab, just click its name. One example form that has multiple tabs is the IEAS form.

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Notes #

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