If the auto-complete search feature is enabled in System Configuration, when you start typing in a Customer, Employee, Vendor, General Ledger Account, or Item field, a list of matching records appears, and you can select the record from the list.
The basic version of auto-complete search works by comparing your entry to the beginning of the customer, employee, vendor, general ledger account, or item name.
The advanced version compares your entry to any word within the name field and other fields, which are listed in the How the Auto-Complete Search Works section of this article.
Enabling Auto-Complete Search
The basic version of auto-complete search is enabled by default, but you can disable it in System Configuration. To turn the feature on or off, select or clear the Enable Auto-Complete check box on the Preferences tab.
In addition to the system-wide setting, auto-complete search can be enabled or disabled for each user in User Maintenance. On the Auto-Complete tab, use the Enable check boxes for each record type to turn the feature on or off. For example, you can turn on auto-complete search for item records but not for customer or vendor records. By default, auto-complete search is enabled for all record types and for all users.
To enable the advanced version, see the Indexing Records section of this article.
To activate the advanced version of auto-complete search, in addition to selecting the Enable Auto-Complete check box in System Configuration, you must run the Build Search Index utility. Then as new records are created, you must rebuild the index so that they appear in the auto-complete search results.
When you run the utility, a folder named Index_AC (for fields that do not contain encrypted data) and a folder named Index_ACencrypt (for encrypted Payroll employee data) are created in the ../MAS90/MAS_System folder. If you delete these folders, the basic version of auto-search is again used unless you run the utility again.
You can use Task Scheduler to automatically run the indexing utility on a regular basis. When creating the job in Task Scheduler, select Other in the Type field. Then on the Tasks tab, select Build Search Index from the Task list.
You can specify which types of companies to index by entering the company type code in the Run Time Arguments field:
- L = Live company
- D = Demo company
- T = Test company
- A = Archive company
For more information, see Schedule a Task.
When you start typing in a Customer, Employee, Vendor, General Ledger Account, or Item field, your entry is compared to the data in certain fields to determine if there is a match. Your entry must match the beginning of any word in one of the searched fields.
For example, if you type, "corp," the results list will include Avnet Processing Corp., but it will not include Avnet, Incorporated.
The search is not case-sensitive.
The basic version of auto-complete search works by comparing your entry to the beginning of the customer, employee, vendor, general ledger account, or item name.
The advanced version of auto-complete search works by comparing your entry to the beginning of any word within the customer, employee, vendor, general ledger account, or item name field and the following list of fields for each record type.
You can use the special characters listed below to refine your search results.
Note The special characters will not work as described if they are the first or last character in the text that you type.
Character How to use it * (asterisk)
Use an asterisk in the middle of a word or at the end of a word (except for the last word) as a wild card replacement for one or more characters.
For example:
Typing: D* S
... shows records where the first word starts with the letter D and the second word starts with the letter S.
? (question mark)
Use a question mark as a wild card replacement for one character in the middle of a word. You can use more than one question mark if you need a wild card for multiple characters.
For example:
Typing: ARS-??01
... shows records with the following item numbers: ARS-9101, ARS-9201, ARS-9301
- (dash)
Use a dash to exclude matching characters.
For example:
Typing: Drawer -S
... excludes all records containing the word drawer followed by a word that begins with the letter S.
You must insert a space before the dash when using it to exclude characters; otherwise, it is considered a regular character in your search criteria.
For example:
Typing: Right-Hand
... shows all item numbers beginning with Right-Hand because there is no space before the dash.
