Time. I finally have some ‘free’ time. I have chosen to spend this time wisely. Instead of being reactive to e-mails, phone calls, IMs, tweets, pokes, etc, I am going to get serious about my book.

The book has been inside my head for several years now, and I feel comfortable enough with the story to put it into words.

My goal is to have it available freely to any and all people who need help getting started using Toad for Oracle. Below is my proposed outline. I hope to have this ready for Oracle Open World 2010, so it’s time to see just how fast I can download this from my brain to paper!

I. Introduction
	a. Toad Story
	b. Toad Resources
	c. Intent of this Book

II. Getting Started
	a. Setting key options
	b. Connecting to Oracle
	c. Toolbar/Docked Panel Behavior

III. Schema Browser
	a. Setup
	b. Filtering
	c. Left Hand Side
	d. Right Hand Side
	e. Multi-Select
	f.  Navigation

IV. Editor
	a. Writing SQL from Scratch
	b. Getting help from the IDE (IntelliSense)
	c. Query Execution
	d. Working with PL/SQL
		1. PROC Templates
		2. Syntax Errors (KXpert)
		3. Profiler
		4. Debugger
		5. CodeXpert
	e. Source Control
V. Data Grids
	a. Exporting Results
	b. Filtering
	c. Grid Setup, hiding columns, moving columns, fix fields
	d. Formal Reports
VI. Get More Help with SQL
	a. ER Diagrams
	b. Query Builder
VII. Performance Tuning
	a. Explain Plans
		1. Customize Content
		2. Customize Display
		3. Actual vs Theoretical Plans
	b. Session Browser
		1. Trace Session
		2. Trace File Browser
	c. SGA Trace
	d. Quest SQL Optimizer
VIII. Appendices
	a. Toad for Data Analysts
		1. Connect to any database
		2. Write Cross-Platform Queries
		3. Compare and Sync Data
	b. Toad Data Modeler
		1. Build your new physical & logical models from scratch
		2. RE an entire instance
		3. Publish Reports to HTML or PDF
Author

I'm a Distinguished Product Manager at Oracle. My mission is to help you and your company be more efficient with our database tools.

4 Comments

  1. Jeff, if it’s anything like your 2 hour presentations this is going to be a wealth of information. Pretty cool and kudos to you.

    • JeffS

      Thanks Doug! I hope for it to be EXACTLY like my presentations. Good Toad info and a little bit of fun and personality sprinkled in. I wish I could just record myself doing it and have that ‘magically’ transformed into book format. Alas, that technology isn’t available yet.

  2. No need to buy Norm, it will be free. It will be electronic only, and that will make it easier to keep up to date.

    Also, I plan on concentrating on features that hopefully won’t be too version dependent/specific.

    It’s basically going to be my 2hr presentation in long-form 🙂

  3. Hey Jeff, like the outline for the Toad book. Not to put you off or anything, but the problem with a book like that is the fact that Toad moves faster than, well, a greased toad! I’ve got the latest Toad Handbook and it’s already out of date since Toad 10.

    However, as I said, don’t let me put you off (as if you would) and get writing. Put me down for a signed copy when it’s ready please – I’m buying!

    Cheers,
    Norm.

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