Display fields form: This feature consists of the big box at the top of the screen. It allows you to control which columns are displayed on the screen. For example, on the Products screen, by default each product's code, name, active status, price, and order are displayed. You can change it so every column of information is presented, or only just a few.

The Display field form

Filter form: This consists of the box on the left hand side of the screen next to the "Filter" and "Clear" buttons. The form allows you to filter the items that are displayed to just those that match a given search string. For example, to filter products on the Products screen to just those with the word "Jupiter" in the short description, name, or code, type "Jupiter" into the filter form and click the "Filter" button. This can be extremely useful when grappling with a large number of records.

The Filter form

Edit Mode button: Turning on the Edit Mode button allows you to edit every piece of information that's currently being displayed at once. For example, if you needed to update the prices of all your products at once, you could increase the page size to equal the number of products in the system. (Perhaps you would also want to limit the number of columns being displayed using the Display fields form, to just the Price and Name of the products.) Then click the Edit Mode button. Each of the prices (and any other fields being displayed) are now editable.

The Edit Mode button

Output records to ... drop down: This feature allows you to create ad hoc reports by outputting the records on the screen, or all the records in the system, to either a printer-friendly format, or to an Excel spreadsheet. For example, to print out a report of the last 50 orders placed in the store, you can go to the Orders screen, enter 50 for the page size, sort the items by the order date in descending order, and then select "Print-Friendly Display" in the Output records to ... drop down menu.

The 'Output Records To ...' menu

Add New Record button: On each of the screens, you can add a new record to the system--be it a product, order, state, etc.--by clicking the Add New Record button. That will take you to a form where you can add the item, whatever it is.

The Add New Record button

Per Page form/ Next and Previous buttons: The per page form is self-explanatory. It controls the number of items currently being displayed on the screen. Similarly, the Next and Previous buttons help you navigate through the pages.

Page Controls