Whenever you want to look up information in the database, you tell TAG what you want to look at by querying the database. There are four steps to querying the database:
select the type of information to search for
change to query mode
type in your search criteria
execute the query
Before searching for information, you have to tell TAG what type of information you want to look for. You tell TAG what type of records to look for by selecting one of the block on the screen. (Blocks are made to retrieve exactly one type of record.)
TAG screens have two display modes: viewing mode and query mode. If the screen you are on is in viewing mode, you can change to query mode by pressing the Find button on the toolbar, or by selecting the Enter Query command from the menu or keyboard. The words "ENTER QUERY" always appear in the second line of the Status bar when a screen is in query mode. There are two ways of returning to viewing mode from query mode: you can perform a successful query, or you can cancel the query.
Search Criteria
Once you are in query mode, you navigate from field to field and enter your search criteria. Most fields are queryable (if a field isn't queryable, you won't be able to navigate to it when in query mode). You determine your search criteria simply be entering what you want to look for in a queryable field.
Some fields allow for Wildcard searches. This means you can use the % sign as a wildcard. When you include a % sign in your search, TAG looks for all records that start with the characters before the % sign. For example, if you used JO% when searching for someone's first name, TAG would return all records with a first name that started with JO; this might include JO, JOHN, JOE, JOSEPH, JOANNE, and any other name in the database that starts with those letters. If you don't use the wildcard character, TAG looks for an exact match in most cases. For example, if you used JO when searching for someone's first name, TAG would return all records with a first name of JO.
You execute the query by pressing the Find button on the toolbar, or by selecting the Execute Query command from the menu or keyboard. When you do, TAG searches the database on the query criteria you entered.
When TAG performs a search, it returns records that match ALL your criteria. The more criteria you add, the less records TAG is likely to return. If you search for someone with JOE for a first name and SMITH for a last name, only people with the name JOE SMITH will be returned-you won't get a list of all JOEs and all SMITHs in the database. If you refine your search too much, you may find that no records match your request.
If no records matching your search exist in the database, the screen remains in query mode (the words ENTER QUERY remain in the Status bar) and the first line of the Status bar reads:
When a query is successful, records matching your query will be retrieved, and the screen will switch to viewing mode.