Welcome to Toad
Welcome to Toad for Oracle
Version 17.1
Toad® for Oracle provides an intuitive and efficient way for database professionals of all skill and experience levels to perform their jobs with an overall improvement in workflow effectiveness and productivity. With Toad for Oracle you can:
- Understand your database environment through visual representations
- Meet deadlines easily through automation and smooth workflows
- Perform essential development and administration tasks from a single tool
- Deploy high-quality applications that meet user requirements; perform predictably and reliably in production
- Validate database code to ensure the best-possible performance and adherence to best-practice standards
- Manage and share projects, templates, scripts, and more with ease
The Toad for Oracle solutions are built for you, by you. Over 15 years of development and feedback from various communities like Toad World have made it the most powerful and functional tool available. With an installed-base of over two million, Toad for Oracle continues to be one of the most preferred tools for database development and administration.
It is important to note that Toad for Oracle will only let you do what your DBA has granted you the rights to do via direct privilege grants or indirectly through roles. Toad does not circumvent, augment or otherwise defy your Oracle database security settings. If the DBA does not grant you the CREATE TABLE privilege, then the Create Table in Toad will not work. Likewise If the DBA does not grant you the CREATE PROCEDURE privilege, then the PL/SQL Editor in Toad will be severely limited. You will not be able to compile procedures, functions or packages. Toad only allows you to do what your DBA has permitted you to do.
About This Guide
The goal of this guide is to help you start using Toad quickly by learning basic features and tasks. Toad is a very diverse and powerful tool, and there are many features not covered here. In many cases, a feature may be introduced in this guide, with further instructions to see the online help. Refer to the online help for thorough documentation on all Toad functionality. You can access the help at any time by pressing F1. You can:
- Use the Table of Contents to get an outline view of all the components of Toad and links to the related documentation. You can also go directly to this page by clicking Help | Contents.
- Use the Search tool to find topics based on keywords that you input.
- Use the Favorites tab to bookmark topics to which you refer frequently.
Toad Resources
Toad provides a wealth of internal and external resources to support you in your work. These resources can help you work more quickly, collaborate across locations, and more.
Jump search
You can use Jump Search to find Toad features and functionality within the application. You can also use Jump Search to search the Web, Toad World, Quest's Knowledge Base, Toad Help, Quest videos and product pages, and the Quest Support Portal. A single search returns results from all applicable categories simultaneously.
To use Jump Search
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The Jump Search field is located on the main toolbar (far-right side).
- Locate a Toad feature. To find a Toad feature (or functionality) in the application, enter the Toad feature or a related keyword in the search field. For example, enter "Export DDL." Search results are returned in a drop-down list. Then do one of the following:
- Press ENTER to go to the first search result.
- If a window is returned, double-click the window to open it.
- If a menu item is returned, double-click the menu item to open the menu with the item highlighted.
- If an option page is returned, double-click it to open the page in the Toad Options dialog.
- Search the Web and Toad resources. To search the Web and all Toad resources, including the Help and Toad World, enter one or more keywords into the search field. Results are returned in one or more of the following categories:
- Knowledge Base—Double-click a link to open a Knowledge Base article from the Support Portal.
- Toad World—Click Toad World to open the search results in Toad Forum. Double-click a link to open the Toad World forum or blog post.
- Product Page and Videos—Double-click a link to view the Toad product page or helpful product videos.
- Toad Help—Click to open Toad Help.
- Search Web—Click Search Web to open search results in the search engine specified in View | Toad Options | Online.
- Try this example. To learn how to use Jump Search, review the following example:
- Enter "code snippets" in the Jump Search field on the main toolbar. Results display incrementally as you enter the search term. Then do one or more of the following:
- Under Menus and Toolbars, double-click View > Code Snippets. This action opens the View menu with the menu item highlighted.
- Click the Search Web heading to open search results in the search engine you specified in View | Toad Options | Online.
- Double-click a link under Knowledge Base to open a Knowledge Base article relevant to your search term.
How Jump search functions
The following points highlight key functionality of Jump Search.
Search is based on your license
Jump search results reflect licensing. For example:
- A search on 'Health Check' will not produce results if you have a Standard license.
- A search on 'Code Analysis Rules' will not produce results if you do not have the Professional Edition.
Clicking on a search result, such as Editor > Save File, applies the same inherent limitations you would experience in your instance of Toad.
Items searched
If available with your license, Jump Search searches the following:
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Windows and most controls on all major windows. These search results, or Targets, are contained in a file in the user application data directory named "JumpTargets.dat."
Caveats:
- If the Target is on a connection-bound window and no connection is present you'll be informed.
- If the Target is on, say, Step 3 of a wizard pane, it will take you to the control on step 3, even if this means the window is not in a useable state.
The error will indicate "Item not available in current window state."
- The "as you type" facility uses a priority-based search algorithm which examines the various components of the Target display string: the window, the path to the Target, and the destination Target itself, and gives priority first to the control, next to the window and then to the path.
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Toad Options.
Note: You can also go to View | Toad Options and use the Search field at the bottom of that window to limit your search to Toad Options.
- All menu items and main form toolbar buttons. If you have customized your toolbars, and you removed an item for which you are searching, it will open the toolbar customization dialog to let you know that item is no longer there.
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Files. A variety of file paths are included in the set Toad searches. Among them are:
- All Toad installation and application directories
- All Toad MRU files
- All filenames embedded in Actions
- All of the items of SQL Recall
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Code Analysis Rules. All of the following fields are searched:
- RuleID
- Category
- Type
- Severity
- Description
- Toad World User Forums. The Toad World User Forums are searched and links are provided.
- Help Documentation
- Search Web. Double-clicking this link loads your search string into a search engine which opens in your default Web browser. To specify the search engine to use, go to View | Toad Options | Online, and then select a name under Jump Search.
- Knowledge Base. Displays links to the Toad Knowledge Base articles that match your search term. Double-click a link to open the article.
- Product Page and Videos. Links to the Toad page on the support site and links to videos about Toad.
