|
Section 4 |
The Search/Lookup utility of TheGreatMultitude is designed to give the user a quick method for finding the records of a particular Partner or group of Partners.
The objective of this section is to acquaint the user with the Search/Lookup functions of TheGreatMultitude and familiarize them with its operation and features. By the end of this section the user should be able to use the Search/Lookup function to locate an individual Partner record or group of records without use of the Partner ID, sort through the search results and access an individual Partner record from the Partner Lookup window.
The Search/Lookup utility is accessed from the Main
Partner Screen by clicking on Search/Lookup 
on the Menu Bar or by keying Alt+L.
This will open the Partner Lookup window.
To locate a Partner by using their Last Name, the user
should enter the Partner’s Last Name into the text box in the column labeled
“Last Name”, then Click on the Search button 
(Alt+S) or press ENTER on the keyboard.
TheGreatMultitude will then alphabetically list all of the Partners with
the same Last Name or it will display a message that no records were found
matching that criteria. The same procedure is used to search by any of the
other available fields.
With a small enough database of Partners,
the search may be done based on just the first character of the desired
criteria. An “R” under Last Name will yield a listing of all Partners with a
last name beginning with the letter “R”.
The results of the Search/Lookup are initially sorted alphabetically by last name unless the user makes a different choice from the Initial Sort Order Drop-down Menu in the upper left of the window.
To re-sort the Search/Lookup results, the user should click on the title at the top of the desired column. For example, to sort by first names, the user should click on the title “First Name” at the top of the column. A second click on the title will cause a re-sort in reverse order.
To begin another Search/Lookup, the user should type over
the previous entries in the text boxes or click on the Clear button 
(Alt+C) to remove the previous entries.
If a Search is requested with all text boxes blank, Partner Lookup will return an alphabetical listing of all the Partners in the database.
The user can select Donor Level as the search criteria by selecting the desired Donor Level from the Donor Level Drop-down Menu.
Searches can be made using multiple criteria by entering the criteria into the appropriate text boxes. To Search only for the Rubbles who live in Bedrock the user could type “R” into the Last Name text box then tab to and enter “B” into the City textbox then ENTER. This will usually return limited results even with a moderately large database.
Figure 4-5 Search For “R” &
“B”
In larger databases in may be necessary to spell out the full criteria or use additional criteria to narrow the results.
If all of the results of a search will not fit into the current Partner Lookup window, the user can scroll through the list of results using the scroll bar on the right of the window. The user may also limit the actual number of records brought up by selecting a number from the # of Records drop-down menu in the upper right of the window.
The information returned from each search includes the Type of Partner (I = Individual, C = Church, M = Ministry, B = Business) and the Partner ID representing this Partner’s place in the database.
The Partner highlighted in blue in the search results
listing is now selected. This will be
the top listing. The up/down arrow keys
on the keyboard will allow a different Partner to be selected. To select this
as the active record and return to the Main Partner Screen, the
user must click on the OK button 
(Alt+K) at the bottom of the Partner Lookup window or double-click on the desired
Partner.
ThePartner can also be selected by double
clicking anywhere on their information line.
This will cause three actions to occur: it will return the user to the Main Partner Screen, it will display the information for this Partner, and it will activate the VCR buttons on the Menu Bar.
The VCR buttons are activated on the Main Partner Screen when a Search/Lookup has been completed and the user selects a Partner from the Partner Lookup window.
These buttons allow the user to conveniently move from one record to the next of those records found during the Search/Lookup. The sequence of the records is determined by the last sorted sequence displayed on the Partner Lookup window. If the user had last sorted the records by Zip/Postal Code, then the sequence used by the VCR buttons will also be by Zip/Postal Code. If the records were left un-sorted, then they will be sequenced alphabetically by the last name.
The First Record button 
takes the user to the first record found
during the Search/Lookup.
The Last Record button 
takes the user to the last record found during
the Search/Lookup.
The Pervious Record button 
takes the user to the previous record found
during the Search/Lookup. This button is
non-functional if the user is at the first record found.
The Next Record button 
takes the user to the next record found during
the Search/Lookup. This button is
non-functional if the user is at the last record found.
To move quickly
between Partner records, click on the VCR buttons without waiting for a record
to load until the desired partner ID is shown in the Partner ID box.