Hot Keys

You use the hot key to select the elementary search help from the collective search help and to enter the restrictions in the dialog box for restricting values directly from the entry field. If the user frequently searches for values using the same search help, this procedure can save time.

The hot key is available only if for the relevant screen field there is an entry in the Search help attribute in the Screen Painter, that is, if this attribute is not initial. Two types of entries are possible:

• If a search help is attached directly to the screen field, its name appears in the Search help attribute. (For more information, see Attaching to Screen Fields .) Thus the hot key is available for the screen field.
• If a search help is attached to the screen field using a reference of the field to the Dictionary, in the Search help attribute '=' must be specified to make the hot key available for this field. For more information about the assignment of search helps to screen fields, see Assignment of Search Helps to Screen Fields .

The short cut must be entered in the input field according to the following convention:

=<Hot key>.S1.S2.S3....

S1, S2, S3 and so on are the restrictions that would be entered in the corresponding dialog box in this order.

The following figure explains the functionality of a hot key using an example.

If the elementary search help stored as the standard search help is to be used, you do not need to specify the hot key. If S1 contains more than one character, the first separator '.' can also be omitted.

If you define the hot key without restrictions ( =<Hot key> ), the dialog box for restricting values is called. If restrictions are defined, the system skips the dialog box for restricting values and displays the hit list immediately. If exactly one hit is found, the hit list is not displayed. The values of the found hits are immediately returned to the screen template in this case.