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Location: Blogs
Daniel Norwood's Blog
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| dnorwood |
7/29/2009 12:21 PM |
We all come from different backgrounds... some of us are old Toadies, and some of us are used to different tools. Did you know that Toad for Data Analysts can be configured to act and look much like Toad for Oracle and many other tools? Even down to the keyboard shortcuts? Yep - it sure can!
Once you have used Toad for Data Analysts a few times, you may want to tweak the configuration a little, to better suit your preferences. The Configuration Wizard will walk you through some of the larger tweaks while the Options will allow you to fine-tune your experience.
You can find the Configuration Wizard under TOOLS > Configuration Wizard.
Layout and Settings
The first screen will let you pick one of several preconfigured layouts. For instance, if you’ve used Toad for Oracle in the past and prefer the layout (workflow) of that tool, you can simply select it here and you’re done. This will make Toad for Data Analysts mimick the layout of that tool (keyboard mappings included). However, if you prefer to customize the layout, choose “Custom” and click next.
On the following screen you will be presented with several choices to configure the look and feel of the windows and grids. Here you can change colors, contrast and more. The Configuration Wizard window will update with your changes to give you a glimpse of what each style really looks like.
The next screen in the wizard is where you can choose a default style for your Database Explorer and Object Explorer. The default is to divide objects by their type and display them on separate tabs; if you prefer a tree-list or stacked tabs, this is where you can change that.
After the next screen, where you can choose to use the Quick Guide or not, you’ll be presented with a series of options to control the visibility of your document windows. Let’s review each one:
Group Documents
This is a global setting which determines whether or not those Understand, Query, Report, Automate buttons are used or visible. When this is checked, and when the “Hide windows per group” option is also checked, then ER Diagrammer and Database Explorer document windows will be grouped together with all other windows hidden. The same goes for the other types: Query Builder and SQL Editor document windows will be grouped under Query, Microsoft Excel and Toad Reports will be grouped under Report and the automation workflows grouped under Automate. The wizard image will update to show you an example.
Regardless of what option you choose there, the default is still set to hide all of the document windows not associated with the current database connection. However, if you want to turn of this hiding, uncheck the “Hide windows per connection” checkbox.
Above is how things would look if everything was unchecked. Notice how the Understand, Query, Report and Automate buttons are missing? Notice how there’s an Oracle document open as well as a MySQL document and that the Microsoft Excel report is no longer hidden?
Group Document Defaults
This screen will help you set up the default actions for the grouping buttons. (You will not see this screen if you chose not to use the document groups in the previous screen.) For example, clicking on the Understand button will open a new ER Diagrammer document, by default. If you prefer to use the Database Explorer instead, this is where you can change that.
The Query and Report options are a little more important because your choice here not only applies to the document grouping buttons, but also to the Wizard Bar (discussed on the next page). For instance, when you’re using the ER Diagrammer and you want to begin your query with those tables, you can click “Send to Query” on the bottom of the screen. This action will open the Query Builder with these tables, by default. So this Configuration Wizard screen is important because it allows you to change this default to the SQL Editor instead. The same applies to the Report option as well.
Wizard Bar
The Wizard Bar is located at the bottom of many document windows and is designed as a suggestive aid with links to things you may want to do next. It’s a dynamic bar as well, since it changes with context. As you can see below, when viewed in the SQL Editor, the Wizard Bar is configured with links for sending the results to a report, adding the query to the Project Manager, executing the query, opening a file and even a link to a video tutorial. This screen gives you the option to turn it off (on by default).
Connection Documents
This screen will allow you to specify which (if any) documents you want opened by default when you create a new connection. This can be a nice timesaver if you’re frequently doing the same thing each time you connect.
Additional Settings
This last screen will let you specify whether or not you want to automatically add all saved files (ER Diagrams, queries, reports, automation workflows, etc) and any query you execute to the Project Manager. This can be useful when building a new project template for other team members. Regardless of your choice here, you can still add things to the Project Manager manually.
And that’s it! Once you’ve decided on these options, click “Finish.” (It’s recommended to restart Toad for Data Analysts after making such sweeping changes.)
-- Daniel
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