Address, Postcode and Bank solutions
SEARCH TAB
Although Names & Numbers can find most addresses using the Find Box and Lookup button, there are times when a more complex search is required - or where you wish to search on other fields. These are available on the Search Tab (shortcut key [Alt]+1).
You may enter as many search parameters as you wish - and they will be used in combination - but beware! Most problems in finding addresses result from giving TOO MUCH information rather than too little. Try to use no more than two or three parameters until you are confident with the process.
When you have entered your Search request, click the Search Button or use the shortcut key [Alt]+S.
Please note: The Lookup Button and the shortcut key [Alt]+L only work with the Find Box - and cannot be used with Searches from the Search Tab, More Tab, Map Tab or Cameo Tab.
Names & Numbers includes a type ahead feature for the street, locality, town and county fields (other fields are not included as they have too many possible values for this feature to be useful). This allows you to start typing your search criteria, e.g. 'LON' in the Town field and Names & Numbers will automatically complete the first matching field value which starts with the letters you have already specified. Type-ahead starts after you have typed the first three letters and with every subsequent letter you type Names & Numbers will update it's selection. You can therefore search or move to your next field when the suggestion is correct without having to type the field in full. If you press the delete key Names & Numbers will delete the rest of it's selection and you can continue entering the field details without the use of the type-ahead feature.
The type ahead feature can be toggled on and off from the Edit menu.
Most fields on the Search tab also have a List button (with three dots '...' on them). These buttons will display a List window with available results for the search parameter currently entered in that field. For example: if in the Surname field, the entry is 'PETERS?N^', the list box would show two possible results - 'PETERSEN' and 'PETERSON'.
Click an entry in the List to transfer one of these results back to the Surname box - or double click it to force an immediate search (which will be used in combination with any entries in other fields on the search tab).
Names & Numbers can easily lookup addresses within a set linear distance of a grid-reference point. To do this, you must supply at least three pieces of information - the Grid Easting, Northing, and a radial distance. Since few people will know a Grid Easting and Northing, the Lookup button ('...') next to Grid East can look up a postcode and return its Grid Easting and Northing (if any) to the Search Tab - so that you can then simply add a radial range in either kilometers or miles.
Grid References can be used with other search parameters - eg to find, say, all accountants within 20 kilometers of your office! To make this type of search even easier, you can use the Map Tab to draw a circle around the area you wish to search (see below).
If a Grid Reference Easting & Northing is specified on the Search Tab, Names & Numbers will return the Linear distance from the reference point for each address record in the search.
Grid references are not available for some postcodes- especially PO boxes which are not geographic delivery points. No Grid references are currently available for Isle of Man or Channel Islands postcodes but in view of their small geographical area, nominal figures have been supplied for the Grid References to enable these to be plotted - and linear distances calculated.
You can also manually enter a grid reference or latitude and longitude values on the Search tab. Please note that grid references used must be on the British (not Irish) grid and latitude and longitude values must be in decimal format.
Clear All ([Alt]+C)
Click the Clear button at the base of the Main Window to clear all Search Fields, and any results - use Field-Clear (below) to clear just one or two fields.
Field-Clear
To clear any individual field on the Search Tab, click the descriptive label to its left - eg to clear the 'Surname' field, click the letters of the word 'Surname' just to its left.
Note - in the case of Grid References and/or Distances, any Field Clear will clear Grid East, Grid North, Km & Miles as all are inter-dependent.
Enter the text you wish to search in the relevant Search text box, then click on the descriptive label to its left with the RIGHT mouse button to change the type of search. As you keep clicking, Names & Numbers cycles through the special search codes for you in the following order:
| Code | Action | |
| (No Code) | Starts With ..... | |
| $ | Sounds Like ..... | |
| ~ | Spelled Like ..... | |
| * | Ends With ..... | |
| *..... * | Contains ..... |
As you select each of these, they will be shown in the message bar at the base of the window.
To move text from one field to another - without re-typing it - hold down one of the [Shift] keys (usually marked with a hollow arrow pointing upwards). Then click and hold down the left mouse button on the field you wish to move (drag) text FROM - the cursor will turn into the shape of a hand with a pencil -
now move to the field you wish to place the text in (keeping the mouse button down). Finally, release the mouse button to drop the text in the new field.
You can also drag text from other Windows programs - like Microsoft Word - and drop it into the fields on the Search Tab.
The Edit menu offers several Skip Options. This suppresses the display of more than one record within each postcode, sector, outcode or area and can dramatically reduce the number of records to be examined in some types of Lookup or Search.
A 'Postcode Sector' is defined by the number just after the space in a postcode - thus 'AB10 6' is one sector 'AB10 7' the next.
An 'Outcode' is the part of the Postcode before the space - eg 'AB10'
A 'Postcode Area' is the whole area covered by the same letters - eg 'AB' - thus a search for the organisation 'Post Office', with 'Skip to Next Postcode Area' in use, would show only 1 Post Office in the 'AB' postcode area - the next one to show would be in the 'AL' postcode area
The 'Order Results by Number' option on the Edit Menu will order the results in the list box in order of house number within each postcode. Using this option can make it easier to find a particular property. With this option switched off, items are returned in DPS (Delivery Point Suffix) order instead.
The Edit menu offers an option to 'List Surname First'. This alters the way that the Results List handles the names of individuals - and can be useful when searching on address elements rather than surnames. When the option is switched 'On', a check-mark is displayed on the menu, and the Results List shows the surname of individuals before the Title, First Name and Initial.
Names & Numbers contains support for alias localities. These are localities which are not part of the postal address but may be given as part of an address and so can be used to help find addresses were the postcode is unknown. These can be included in a search by placing the locality name in the Locality search field. For example placing 'Clay Lane' in the Street field and 'Gilbertstone' in the locality field will find all addresses on the Street Clay Lane in Birmingham which is in the Gilbertstone locality. Gilbertstone itself is not part of the correct address. It should be noted that these localities are only known to sector level, and so some address may be returned which are not in the locality searched for. As these alias localities are not part of the correct PAF address and the correct one for a particular address is not known they cannot be included as part of the address returned, however you can view all the localities in the same sector as the selected address by switching on the 'Alias Localities' option from the Names & Numbers 'View' menu.
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