It's easy to use Postcode Anywhere within your applications using the recogniser. Simply type a postcode into your application and press the spacebar to initiate the address lookup. Select the address from the search results and it is inserted into your application. Of course, this doesn't work by magic - you have to tell the recogniser what you want it to do first.
The above screenshot shows a basic database application in Microsoft Access® with 3 address line fields followed by town, county and postcode fields. To start we'll assume the postcode is to be typed into the Line1 field to initiate the lookup. Once the postcode has been typed press the spacebar.
The first time you initiate the recogniser within an application you will be asked how you want it to work if no appropriate rule exists already. You can then create a new rule, exclude Postcode Anywhere from this application, use a rule offered by other Postcode Anywhere users (see Publishing Rules) or use a rule that you have set up for another application. To start from the very beginning we'll choose to create a new rule.
Next the rule needs a name. This is for your reference so you know what the rule is to be used for. Names like Peter, Clark or Storm are acceptable (and may be useful in a way) but something like "Rule for new companies in Act!" would be of more use to you and your colleagues. You may also want to put in a description to explain your ideas behind the rule.
The other option here is the priority. Where more than one rule exists for an application the rule with the highest priority will be used.
Postcode Anywhere Client now needs to know how the address is to be formatted within your application. You have 3 main formatting options: like writing a letter; a database application with separate fields for everything; or a database with address lines. Since our application here has Line1, Line2 and Line3 fields we will choose the last option with the number of address lines as 3.
Below this are further formatting options where we can separate the company name, town, county and postcode from the main address lines. This means that when you choose which elements of the address to use you will have these elements separated from lines 1-5. When these options are not checked the company name, town, county and postcode elements will be incorporated into the main address lines and presented as lines 1-5.
With the formatting sorted out you need to choose a key press that lets you move between the fields within your application. Typically this is the Tab key but sometimes you may press Enter or the down arrow or another key combination that we don't know of. For our application pressing Tab moves us between fields so we'll choose this and move on.
The final option before the rule steps are created for you is to choose any extra data sets that you may wish to make use of. If you have the space in your application you may want to store some of the following:
The New Rule wizard (OK, it is magic) then creates the rule steps for you. The steps will be executed in order from the top down once the desired address has been selected. Reading through this list should give you an idea of what will happen when you've chosen an address.
These steps can be edited here if needed but the Rule Editor will let you change these later on should you need to. For our purposes however these steps are perfect.
Nearly finished! Now you need to choose which application the rule will work with. Your application will be selected by default but you can select more applications if necessary. Alternatively you can the name (or part of a name) of a window in the box provided. The window name is the bit displayed in the blue bar of the application window e.g. GoldMine 6.7, Sage Line 50.
The final step is to decide who will have access to this rule. The rule can be set up for everyone using your account to use or, if you're not in a generous mood, just yourself.
Now to test the rule. Type a postcode into your application again as you did at the start and press the spacebar. The Postcode Anywhere Client window will pop up and the list of addresses in the given postcode will be listed. Select the desired address using the mouse (double-click) or the keyboard in the usual way and...
Hey presto! The address is inserted into your application.
If the address isn't inserted into the correct fields or you need to do some tweaking then you need to use the Rule Editor.