Once data has been input to Enterprise 6, many functions and facilities rely on its retrieval. In some cases, this will be carried out automatically by Enterprise 6, but in many cases you will need to perform a search yourself.
Each main menu (ie each menu on the main splash screens), such as the Products menu shown below, contains at least one ‘View’ function and at least one ‘List’ function. The two functions behave in the same way, except that the ‘List’ function assumes you wish to print a report, whereas the ‘View’ function assumes you just want to see a list on screen. The following description therefore applies to all ‘View’ and ‘List’ functions, and most other report functions as well.
The basic structure of these functions is firstly to perform a search, secondly to view the records found in a list format, thirdly and optionally to manipulate the list using the Buttons Palette and fourthly, if you have selected a list function, to print the list.
For example, selecting ‘View Products’ or ‘List Products’ will bring up a ‘dialogue box’. This particular dialogue box is specifically known as the Quick Search Dialogue Box.
This dialogue box presents you with several options. Typing in a Product Code or Name will cause Enterprise 6 to find a single Product, or a small selection which will be listed on screen. Typing in a single letter will cause Enterprise 6 to list all Products beginning with that letter. Simply clicking [Find] will list all the Products in the database. Finally, if it is desired that a more complex search is performed, the [More Choices] button should be clicked to bring up what is known as the Comprehensive Search Dialogue Box (or the More Choices Dialogue Box) as shown below:
Full coverage of these two dialogue boxes is found in the next section, Quick Queries and Comprehensive Queries. For now, ensure that the Quick Search window is blank and click [Find]. Enterprise 6 will produce a list.
This is the standard listing screen. It is used in all circumstances where records need to be listed, unless the ‘Statistics View’ option on the File menu is switched on. More details of this option can be found later in this chapter. Whenever the standard listing screen is being used, it is controlled, like all input screens, by using the Buttons Palette. You can manipulate the data in the list using this palette. For example, you can create a new record and add it to the list using the [+] button, you can double-click on an item to modify it, you can Sort the list using the [Sort] button, or you can search again to produce a new list using the [Search] button. Full details of the use of the Buttons Palette can be found in a later section.
Once the list is such that you are happy with it, the difference between the View Function on the one hand, and the List Function and other report functions now becomes apparent. So far all three of these functions have behaved in the same way - search using either the Quick Search or the Comprehensive Search windows, list the findings and manipulate the list. If you have used the View Function, you have now finished what you wanted to do, so clicking either [√] or [X] will bring you back to the main splash screen. The View function simply allows you to search and list records, nothing more. Clicking [√] or [X] signifies that you have finished with the function, so the list is put away. If you have used the list function or one of the report functions, however, Enterprise 6 assumes you have done so because you want a printed report. Clicking [√] therefore in this situation will bring up the Print Settings window, from where you can print a report.
It will be noted that the Buttons Palette does not contain a [Print] button, nor is there a Print function on the menu when a list is on screen. This is because Enterprise 6 will assume you do not want a printed report if you use a View function, and that you do want a printed report if you use a list function. Therefore, if you are using a list or report function and you click [√] to leave the screen list, you are saying to Enterprise 6, ‘OK, this list is acceptable. Please go on and print it for me.’ If you use a list function and decide not to print, you can either click [Cancel] on one of the Print Settings windows, or you can click [X] to leave the list without printing.
Note that some reports will impose their own sort upon the data to be printed. The Price List is a good example of this - it will sort the Products by Group. When you are listing the products on screen prior to printing, you can sort the list to aid selection of which products are to appear in the report, but this sort will be overridden in the report itself.
In the EnquiryWriter and the Sales Order Processing volume, there is a QuickAccess version of the listing layout. The only difference between the full and the QuickAccess lists is that the latter does not show the Contact Name. In contrast to the QuickAccess versions of input layouts, there is no ‘Switch Access’ function available, and the ‘Switch Access’ you might choose from a double-clicked Order does not change the mode of the listing layout. The only way that its mode can be changed is to change the File menu’s setting and re-launch the list.