Back to Basics 5 – Using the Go To Button in Oracle Policy Modeler

Alright so this one is a bit strange, but I wanted to point out a piece of screen Real-Estate that in my humble opinion does not get used enough. The Go To Button in Oracle Policy Modeler in the Microsoft Word Ribbon that you see when you are editing Word Documents using Oracle Policy Modeler. Let me demonstrate by showing you a screenshot, as this will hopefully make things clear.

To be honest, the name on the button bugs me. It is not really a “Go To” button at all. For me, luddite that I am, “Go To” means go somewhere in my document. And while the Go To button in Oracle Policy Modeler does indicate location, it does not go anywhere. In fact you have to put your mouse on the relevant item to get it to work. It is more a “what’s here?” button if you ask me. And yes, it tells me of the different properties of the item I have put the cursor on. Like this:

As you can see in the screenshot above, the mouse was clicked on the conclusion. Then the Go To button was clicked. The dialog that was displayed reveals the text and any locations it appears in the Project (for example if you have your logic in two separate Word files, they will both appear here). In addition there are shortcut buttons to edit the Attribute or jump into the Oracle Policy Modeler Debugger. But the best part, if you ask me, is the ability to pin the window and open one, or many, more at the same time. Sometimes when debugging a document written by someone else it can be useful to have these all displayed as reference points – or just because you are trying to keep track of several things at once. If you pin a window, you can go right ahead and “Go To” again on another Attribute or whatever takes your fancy.

This picture is too big to display immediately so you can click it to go to full size. These simple things can be the source of saved time and heartache – for finding misspellings and so on – and I’m happy to be talking about them here on the ODE OPA Blog. Oh, and I did a little dance just now as we passed the 100 post landmark. Woohoo!