Describing SAP GUI Functions, Help, and Personalization

The SAP Easy Access menu automatically displays after logging on. It represents the standard access point to an SAP system for the SAP GUI for Windows. The navigation bar in the left part of the screen contains a clear tree structure, consisting of menu entries, and favorite entries. You can adjust the Favorites area to your own particular needs. The entries of the SAP menus and the user menus can only be changed by system administrators.

Log on to an SAP system and you see the SAP Easy Access menu.

The end user can switch from the role-based user menu to the SAP standard menu if the system settings permit this.

The role-based user menu is created based on the roles assigned to the user, and is transferred to the front end. Therefore, it makes sense to keep roles as small as possible because large roles can take a long time to transfer to the front end.

If a user has several roles assigned, then some functions can be repeated in different parts of the role-based user menu. If you do not want these functions to appear twice, see SAP Note357693: Redundancy avoidance in Easy Access (and the other SAP Notes listed in this SAP Note) for information on identifying and deleting duplicates and related questions.

The user and SAP menus can be structured in quite a complex way. It is, therefore, difficult to remember the exact path for the transaction you are looking for. As long as the transaction has not been copied into the favorite area, you can find it more easily with special search transactions. The transactions SEARCH_SAP_MENU and SEARCH_USER_MENU search the corresponding menus for the predefined text pattern. The search result is in a list view from which you can take the navigation path. The transactions found cannot be started directly with a double-click.

You can choose Extras → Settings to influence the design of the initial screen of the SAP system, for example by including a picture in the right-hand area of the view or including the technical names (transaction codes) on the SAP Easy Access screen.

In addition to the area menu or SAP menu, the user is also provided with functions in the Favorites area. Links to frequently used transactions, web links, or files can be stored in the Favorites area.

The favorites list contains references to SAP system functions or links to internet content or to files on the end user's front-end computer. The favorites list, which is initially empty, can be edited by each end user according to their preferences. You can only view your own favorites list. Data on favorites is stored within the SAP system, therefore each user might have different collections of favorites in different SAP systems.

To improve the structuring, sort the favorites in separate folders. You can edit favorites in the SAP Easy Access screen using the menu option Favorites.

The Favorites menu gives you the option of adding a function from the user (or SAP) menu to your personal favorites list by selecting the function and choosing Favorites → Add. Here, the menu path is also written with the text of the favorite entry to a limited extent. If you have highlighted a menu option by using the mouse, you can copy the selected node in the Favorites area by right-clicking the node.

Alternatively, you can also drag the elements from the menu area by using the mouse and store them in the Favorites area. You can add URLs or links to files to your list of favorites by choosing Favorites → Add Other Objects. Click the triangle symbol to the left of the file symbol to expand or collapse the list of favorites.

You can delete favorite entries that you no longer need. In doing so, the link to the corresponding function is deleted from your favorites list. If you want to delete the entire Favorites menu, highlight the entry Favorites and right-click to call up the available context menu, then choose Delete all favorites.

You have several options for navigating in an SAP system:

• By entering transaction codes in the Command field

• By selecting entries from the SAP menu

• By selecting entries from the user menu

• By selecting entries from the list of favorites

• By choosing items from menus in the menu bar

Log on to an SAP system and choose System.

You can reach the menus in the menu bar using the key combination Alt + # (# corresponds to the underlined letter of the selected menu item) or Alt and cursor navigation using the arrow keys on the keyboard.

You can use the keyboard to access the SAP Easy Access screen or the Command field and call SAP system functions from there.

Press F1 in the Command field to display the input options for this field. The following entries are possible:

The SAP system provides you with various help options, which are introduced in the following section.

You can use the F1 key to display an explanation of fields, menus, functions, and messages. The F1 help also displays technical information on the relevant field. It contains the parameter ID, which you can use when defining user-specific default values for input fields that also refer to this parameter ID.

You can also display interesting information by, for example, calling the F1 help for the command field.

You can also use other buttons in the Performance Assistant dialog box to display information on the selected field. One of the most important pieces of information, besides the link to the context-sensitive Application Help, is the link to the Technical Information. Choose this option to display detailed information, such as the parameter ID assigned to the field. You can use parameters to set defaults for frequently used input fields. To do this, the parameters are stored with the desired values in the user master record.

Note

You may need to activate the Performance Assistant first using the menu Help → Settings... → F1 Help.

You can choose F4 to display possible input values. You can also call up the input help for a field using the button immediately to the right of the selected field. If a field contains a check mark symbol, you can only proceed to the next step in that application after entering a permitted value (required entry). You can use transaction or screen variants, or Customizing to mark fields as mandatory or optional, hidden, or filled with hidden standard values.

The following figure shows the use of F4 button:

The input help displays a list of possible entries for a field. If there are many possible entries, a separate selection screen displays. If there is a long hit list, the input help only displays as many entries as the user has specified on the F4 Help tab page under Help → Settings.... The default value for this is 500.

Hint

If there are more than 500 hits, you can use the button shown in the figure once to increase the number of hits for this selection, or change the search variant.

Hint

Users can also create personal values lists. An S&D employee who is only responsible for customers in Germany wants to see the German customers, and defines a corresponding personal value list. However, despite this (depending on the authorizations assigned) the employee still has the option at all times of switching to the total view of all customers or of updating or completely deleting the values list.

The System and Help menus are always available with the same options on every screen in an SAP system.

The System menu allows you to access various system functions. This menu also contains functions that you can only access using this menu (and not in any other way). You can log off using System → Log Off, and display useful information on your system and the function you are currently using, such as the transaction code, by choosing System → Status....

You access the SAP system documentation from the Help menu. You can also configure the standard settings for the input help. However, you will mostly use the Help menu to navigate to the specific section of the documentation relevant for your current work in the current context. The context-sensitive help is also called Product Assistance. The tool for accessing the documentation as a whole is the SAP Library.

The SAP system contains a wide variety of personalization options.

In the standard toolbar, use the following button to adapt the local layout: Using SAP GUI settings and actions, you can manage the input history by choosing Options... → Local Data.

If it is activated, the input history creates a small database on the front end containing the last n entries made in input fields in transactions. You can specify the value for "n" yourself. These entries display as input help for fields that are declared accordingly. There is a slight delay on the input history. To minimize this display, choose Options → Local Data → History → Immediate.

The Options... also enable you to set the speed of quick info, and to display system messages in dialog boxes (Options... → Interaction Design → Notifications). Various other aids and settings are available here, for instance, you can choose a color scheme for your GUI.

Log on to an SAP system and follow the screen shot

You can choose System → User Profile → User Data to set personal default values. You can choose between the Address, Defaults, and Parameters tab pages.

To find the parameter ID, select the input field for which you want to define a default value, and choose the F1 help, followed by the Technical Information button. This calls up a dialog box that displays the corresponding parameter ID under Field Data (as long as a parameter ID is assigned to the field). If, for example, you enter parameter ID XUS in your user profile on the Parameters tab page, and assign a value to this, all fields with XUS as their parameter ID now have the value you entered as a default. This is the case in transaction SU01, for example.

The favorites list on the SAP Easy Access screen and the status bar display variants that provide additional personalization options.