SAP Tip & Tricks

Business Applications

Information Technology
IT Manual







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Changed by Change Date
Carles Gamero Document Creation 20/02/2012


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CONTENTS

1- System access
2- Options in SAP Easy Access
3- Navigation area
4- Favorite creation
5- Favorite folder management
6- SAP screen
7- SAP sessions
8- Printing from SAP
9- Maintain user profile
10- Personal List
11- Match code
12- Layouts
13- Variants
14- Running a report in background mode
15- Messages
16- Others

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1- System access

The first time is acceded to the system, and in regular intervals later, the password key is
prompted to be modified. Remember that password has to be with letters, numbers and
special characters.

The system starts selecting the SAP Logon icon in desktop:



Double clicking in this icon the
following window is opened:












It appears the following screen (Screen of access):



In this screen it is necessary to inform the following values:
Client: It always must be 430, already informed by default
User ID
Password
Language: it should be blank.

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After you have introduced data in a field, it is possible to move the cursor to the following
field pressing the Tabulator in your keyboard.

Press INTRO. The first time that is acceded, the system automatically shows the window of
dialogue for a new Password. It is necessary to modify the Password of initial access.
























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2- Options in SAP easy access

In order to configure your SAP Easy Access you should go to the upper menu selecting:
Extras Settings. It appears the following window of dialogue:










It is possible to indicate:
If favorites must appear before or after the menu.
If only favorites should be displayed.
If technical names (transactions) should appear in the menu.
If the picture on the right side of the screen is suppressed.

3- Navigation Area

In order to fold or to unfold menus in the navigation area it is necessary to click arrow
downwards:



4- Favorite creation
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In folder FAVORITES it is possible to save frequently used transactions. In this way you
have a quick and easy access, and it is not necessary to remember where a transaction is
into the SAP menu tree.

Insert a transaction from SAP menu

Drag and Drop:
Select a transaction from SAP menu with your mouse.
Drag it to your favorite folder and drop it.



Menu Bar:
Select a transaction from SAP menu
Go to Favorites Add









Insert a transaction:

Select Favorites Insert transaction. It will be displayed below popup screen:


Fill in transaction code and click continue

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5- Favorite folder management

Favorite folder can be managed with:
Creation of new folders
Shifting, changing names, or deleting favorite transactions and folders.

Creating folders:

Select Favorites Insert Folder









It will be displayed below pop-up screen. Type a new folder name and press
continue.













Moving favorite transactions and favorite folders:

To move favorites or folders:
Select favorite or folder to be moved.
Select Favorites Move Up / Down

Favorites and folders can be also moved dragging and dropping with the mouse.


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Rename Favorites and Folders:

Select favorite or folder.
Select Favorites Change
It will be displayed below popup screen. Fill in the new name and select continue.




Delete favorites and folders:

Select favorite or folder to be deleted
Select Favorites Delete




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6- SAP screen

SAP screen is the user system interface:



Tool Bar:

Tool bar have buttons to do common actions, like Save, Intro, Search, etc.



Below you have specified most functions used with the tool bar:

Button Name Function

Intro Confirms your selection in the screen.

Command
field
Allows you to type transaction names.

Save Saves your data.

Back Goes back to previous screen without
saving data.

Exit Finish without saving. Goes back to
main screen.

Cancel Finish a task without saving.

Print Print screen data.

Find Search data in your screen.

Find next Extended search.

First page Shows first page.
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Previous page Goes to previous page.

Next page Goes to next page.

Last page Show last page.

Creates new
session
Creates a new SAP session (screen )

Generates a
shortcut
Allows creating a shortcut to your
desktop from any SAP transaction.

Help F1 Shows help for the field where the
cursor is located.

Menu front
end
Allows configuring display options.

Menu bar:

This menu is organized depending on the task you are doing.
Menus have dropdown list when an option is selected with more options inside.



Below there are standard options available in all SAP screens:

Menu Description
System Functions related to system like Create session, User profile,
Log off, etc.
Help Online help options.

Customize Local Layout like Hardcopy, Visual design, etc.

Below menus are standard in almost all SAP applications:

Menu Description
<Object> Usually named like to object you are working with. For instance if
you are looking to Material Master, it contains Create, Change,
Display, etc.
Edit
Edit components for the object you are working with. For instance,
Select, Edit, Copy, Cancel.
Go to Allows to directly going to other areas inside the transaction.

Below menus can appear as well:

Menu Description
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Extras Contains additional functions not frequently used.
Environment Contains functions to display additional information.
Optiones Allows to fix specific transaction user parameter.

Status bar:

Status bar gives general information for a specific task SAP is doing. On the left side of the
bar are displayed task messages. On the right side of the bar is displayed system
information.



Status fields below are described from left to right in the bar.:

Left side:
o Identifies error messages
o Identifies status messages.
To suppress or display system information fields, select:
To display different kind of system information, select :
o System
o Client
o User
o Program
o Transaction
o Response timeetc
Second system information field shows server name.
Third system information field specify the way to enter data. Clicking in this field
it can be selected between Insert (INS) and Overwrite (OVR)

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Tabs:

Inside an item it can be found many tabs with information related to the item. You can
display that information clicking at the tab.
Tabs are shown order by importance and transaction process.

In case there are more tabs than the ones that fit in the screen, they can be selected
clicking at the end upper right side of the tabs to display all tabs available.



Selection button and checkbox

Sometimes it is necessary to select different options to introduce information in the system.
There are cases where it is needed to select more than one option; others just choose one
of the options.

When it is only necessary to select one option it will be
shown a selection button:




When, there is more than one option to choose, they can be selected flagging the desired
checkbox. To deselect a checkbox you need to click on it again:
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Pop-up dialog screen

System shows dialog screens when:
Requires information before continue.
It is displaying message information that belongs to a specific task

Before continue it should be selected one of the options in the dialog screen clicking on it.

When a task is finished without saving data, the system is always showing a dialog screen
to confirm that action.



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Scroll bars

When displaying information not always all information fits in the screen. In order to display
additional information there are scroll bars horizontal / vertical.





Move to Selecting Or Press Or Press
First page

Shift + F9 Ctrl+page up
Last page

Shift + F12 Ctrl+page down
Previous page

Shift + F10 Page up
Next page

Shift + F11 Page down


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7- SAP Sessions

A session is a window in your screen. Different sessions allow you to work with more than
one task at a time, saving time.

It is possible to open up to 6 sessions by user. It can be close a session without log off the
system.

Create a new session:
Too many open sessions can result in a low system performance.

To create a new session you can select in the upper menu bar System Create session or
select icon in the tool bar.



Closing a session:
When the task in a session is finished SAP recommends closing it. Every session takes
resources from the system and performance could be affected.

Before closing a session data it should be saved. Notice that when you close a session,
system is never asking/reminding you to save data. If there is only one open session and
you close it, SAP system will be logging off.

It is possible to close a session selecting in the menu bar System End session or
selecting in the upper right side of the active screen





Introducing a transaction code
To introduce a transaction code, the cursor it should be in the command field (white box in
the upper left side of the screen).
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It can be displayed a list of the last 15th transactions used, selecting the black
arrow at the end of the command field.




Type /N plus the transaction code wanted in order to end with a task and start
a new one in the same session.





Type /O plus the transaction code wanted in order to start a new stask in a
new session.



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8- Printing from SAP

When the system is asked to print a data, SAP send a document creating a Spool request.
To print directly those documents it should be selected Print Immediately option in the
print screen.
If it is only necessary to display data then unflagging Print immediately. It is possible to
display data in the Output controller.


SAP printing options:

If it is selected Print icon or selects System List Print, system shows selection
screen where it can be fill different output criteria.


Printing screen:
System shows printing screen where it is possible to indicate which printer to be used and
how to manage output request.


















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Output controller- List of spool requests:
Transaction SP01 or menu bar System Own spool requests



. Output controller allows you to verify status on a spool request or print a printing request.
It is mainly used when it has been created a spool request without immediate printing.

In order to send a spool request to an output device, you need to flag the spool
checkbox and click Print directly button.



To delete a spool request you need to flag the spool checkbox and click Delete
button.








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To display spool requests as it will be shown at paper, you need to flag the spool
checkbox and click Display contents button.












Status value Meaning
--- (dash) Request is pending to be sent to printer. To send request
to printer, select or Print with changed parameters
.
Compl. Spool request has finished and printed.
Error, Wait, any message in red
To have more information look at
log log. Select request and
then Output request icon .
Select Spool and click icon .
SAP system was not able to print the request or there is a
problem with the output.
Sometimes the issue it could be that the printer is off.


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9- Maintain User Profile

Every user has their own default parameters and they can be changed. To maintain your
user profile you can go to upper menu selecting System User profile Own data:



First tab includes generic user data:
















In Defaults tab it can be selected output
device (printer), output immediate (direct
printing), decimal notation and date format.

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10- Personal list

Open a search for a field and search for the records you need and want to repeat using (like vendors
for a PO).



Select 1 item an item and click Select next item, click again on , etc.

Next time you open a vendor field the vendors you inserted in your personal list will appear 1st. if you need
a vendor that is not in the personal list then click on field in the search and you can look for
another vendor.

If you want to delete vendors from your personal list, select the vendor you want to delete and click
(delete from personal list).


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11- Match code

Match code or search help, is a tool to search for data in the system. There are many fields
in every transaction that allow using this tool.

i.e. below you have a match code of vendor master data:



There are different tabs with vendor master fields to help finding the right vendor.



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For instance, if we use this search example, it will show you all vendors created in company
code 101 with the name PJ. Below we can see the result:



Once you get the list, you can double click over the vendor needed and the code it will be
displayed in the field.

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12- Layouts

After running a report, you can display results with the default layout.


Layouts can be modified, adding or extracting columns, sorting ascending/descending columns,
summarize values/quantities, and they can be saved for future executions, by clicking on Change layout
button


There will be a popup screen with all available options to be changed and saved:









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13- Variants

In SAP, there are selection variants and display variants.
In some reports (i.e.ZMM010) there is a first screen called selection screen where you can create a
selection variant.
If the same data selection is often used, then a selection variant can be saved to be taken every time the
report is executed.
It needs to be entered values on the selection screen:

Then click on save icon, enter a variant name and a description of the variant
, and click on again.

Next time the report is used, screen layout it can be selected clicking at Get variant icon




14- Running a report in background mode
In order to avoid a TIME_OUT error after executing a report (report data is too big and there is a limit
time for executing the report on line, so the limit time is exceeded), you can execute the report in
background mode. Fill in the selection you want to perform and then click on the menu Program -
Execute in background.




On the next screen, enter a SAP printer (mandatory) and remove flag to avoid
printing the report but display it on screen.

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Click on. On next screen, click on
if you want to start the
background job now, or on
if you want to select a date and a time. You
can also indicate that you want to run the
report periodically (click on
and select how often do you want to run it
). Note that flag
will set automatically.
Finally, click on and this message will
appear
.


Now, in order to see the result of background, click on:
and on next screen ,

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click on . Then click on on screen:

.


Finally, you will see the list of your jobs.
Check their status and if they have this icon next to job name to know if a job has finished. Also you
can click on to update the status and the list of jobs. Select the one you want to see and click on





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On the next screen, select the spool number and click on

.


Now the report can be displayed:




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15- Messages

SAP messages contain valuable information, please pay attention to them and read carefully!
After clicking on SAVE button or after copying one document into another, a message can appear at the
bottom of the screen or a pop-up screen can be displayed.
Example 1:


In this case, message is Check the notes in the log. Then, please go to:



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And read the error log:


You can click on in order to open out the explanation. Next, perform required actions.
Example 2: Pop-up after performing an action.



Read the message and perform needed actions.

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16- Others

It can be defined many different colors for a SAP system.
In the upper right side of the tool menu bar it can be clicked icon:




Select Set Color to System:







Choose one of the colors to be applied: