Useful tricks when searching SAP

As you already probably noticed SAP is huge. There are tones of programs, tools and transactions, but often we don’t find them as fast as we want. Here are some tips and tricks how to search more effectively in SAP and in SAP documentation:

Searching SAP for functions, transactions, programs, objects:

• Search using  star symbol ‘*’ in any field on a SAP screen. Just enter some part of the searched item name into the field in this way: *item* and press F4. This is very useful for searching ABAP programs in SE38 transaction or function modules in Se37 transaction. You can search also tables in Se16 transaction using this method.
• If You don’t know the needed transaction by heart you can search it in the SAP menu using the shortcut CTRL+F or by typing T-code: search_sap_menu. The SAP menu by default has no technical names of the transactions. To display them You need to check “Display Technical Names” in the panel Extras>>Settings from the main menu. One more option to search for transaction name is table TSTC and transaction Se16.
• In SAP BW transaction RSA1 there is a powerful search for all kind of objects in BW/BI system: info-cubes, data store objects, info-objects etc. You can choose between the detailed search and the simple search.
• Most fields in SAP have one very nice function – history. By pressing the backspace button You can see the list with the already used programs, tables or other objects which were entered in the field.

Searching SAP documentation:

• Use google: For almost all problems there is already a post somewhere and you can try to find it with search engines.
• Button F1 for HELP. On many places in SAP you can check the help documentation with pressing the button F1 on the keyboard. This can be very useful by ABAP coding or by using a fox formula in planning functions.