SUManager PlusEfficient Data Entry |
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SUManager has been designed to make data entry as fast and efficient as possible. Spend a few minutes experimenting with the following features before investing significant time doing data entry work. You'll save a lot of time, guaranteed. This is especially true about dates, so be sure to read that part.
Saving vs Canceling Changes
SUManager assumes that anything you type should be saved, so there is no special action you need to take to save changes. Closing a form or moving off the record will cause all changes to be saved.
Most data entry forms have a record status bar on the left side of the window. The icon lets you know whether or not changes are pending.
If you see the pencil icon it means there are changes not yet saved. SUManager has two levels of "undo" for canceling changes:
Press the ESC key once to undo changes to the current field.
Press ESC a second time to undo all changes to all fields.
To save changes without closing the form or moving off the record, click the pencil icon in the status bar. You will see the pencil icon change to the arrow icon.
Repeating Entries
Typically, information like city names, states, ZIP codes, school names, dates and similar information is repeated over and over. SUManager copies data from the previous record into the current record when you hold down the Control key and press the apostrophe ( ' ) key, also known as the single quote key.
This is primarily intended for use in the quick data entry forms but in practice it works everywhere. Below, if you place the cursor in the Address field for Jan Thornton, pressing the key combination copies the address from Haley Thornton's record, which is immediately above. Moving down to the next record (Roger) makes it possible to copy again.
Note that this feature is not the same as using the clipboard to copy and paste data. This feature is context-sensitive and works with whichever field is selected at the moment.
Working with Dates
Accurately entering and changing dates can be a major source of wasted time and frustration. Use the Help-Working with Dates menu choice to display a training window. Spending five minutes with this window will save you dozens of hours of time.
SUManager displays dates in a way that makes them easier to read and understand. You can, if you wish, enter dates in the same format but in practice you can enter dates in almost any way that SUManager can interpret as a correct date. For example, all of the following entries will result in the same date which SUManager displays as 4-July-2006.
7/4/2006 Use slashes 7-4-2006 Use dashes 7 4 2006 Use spaces 7/4/06 Last two digits of year 7/4/6 Single digit of year 7/4 Assumes current year When entering birthdates you can usually enter just the last two digits and SUManager will interpret them correctly. For example, two digit years between 30 and 99 are assumed to be 19xx. Single digit years between 0 and 9 are assumed to be 20xx.
Today's Date is instantly available when you hold down the control key and press the semicolon ( ; ) key. This works everywhere and not just in date fields.
Moving dates back and forward in time is accomplished with different keyboard combinations, as documented in the Help-Working with Dates menu choice. Here's an example: You want to schedule an event for one month from today. Hit the Control-; combination to enter today's date, then Control-keypad-plus to advance the date one month.
Moving Between Records
Any time you see the following in the lower left corner of a window it means you can navigate back and forth between records. This is faster than closing the window and locating a different record using the switchboard.
The buttons do what you'd expect them to do: first, previous, next, last. Sometimes you can create a new record as well.
New Records
When the rightmost button
is enabled you can click to add a new record. And when you see an asterisk on the left, a new record is immediately available -- just start typing. Below, you can create a new person record by placing the cursor anywhere in the bottom row and typing.
