F3

F3 Turns searches On and Off. Used throughout the program.

This key enables you to search a data file. Go to Data File Maintenance->Individuals. The cursor should be blinking in the Last Name field. Enter the first few letters of the last name, and the system will fill in the rest if there's a match with what you've typed. Hit F3. The system will display a window with all entries in the file beginning with what you've already typed in. You can narrow down your search: "BAK" will produce a search for all entries beginning with "BAK" (the system understands both capital and lower case letters by treating them the same in this particular section of the program). The more letters you type, the more specific the search.

The F3 key is available whenever the system asks you to enter a code or file number; you will see the prompt "F3 SEARCH" appear in the help section of a window.

If you are searching the Master file, the program will ask you to enter the last name and then the first name. If you are searching the company or PAC file, the program will ask you to enter up to the first 20 characters of the company or PAC name. If you are searching any of the Code files, you may enter up to 5 characters of the code.

After each character that you type, the system will fill in the field with the closest match that it finds. Keep typing until the exact match is found. If the match isn't found, or if you're wondering if there's a duplicate, hit the F3 key to see scroll of the next few records in the file. While this scroll is present, you can use the Up and Down Arrows to view more records, or you can hit F3 again to exit the scroll window.