AS400 Training

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Sammons Trucking uses an old AS400 computer system. It looks like the old Microsoft DOS. It is neither user friendly nor attractive but it does function. Sammons has begun the process of upgrading to a new software system, but that will likely take some time so we are stuck with the AS400 for now.

Because the AS400 is not an intuitive computer system, we are going to make some videos showing you exactly how you perform certain tasks. It’s important to follow the steps and to watch the videos as you perform the tasks until you get familiar with the nuances of the AS400.

If the AS400 locks up on you, you can close the window and reopen and log back in which generally fixes the issue.

Before we get started I want to point out a few things about the keyboard you will need to know.

Tab – The tab key is the easiest way to navigate around the field on a page in the AS400. By pressing the Tab key you will jump to the next field on the page and you can keep pressing Tab until you reach the field you need. You can also use your mouse and click on the field you want to enter, but again the AS400 works a bit easier when using the tab key.

Shift-Tab – This works the same as Tab but reverses the direction. If you “pass” the field you need, you can press shift-tab to bring you back to the spot you wanted. It is a quick way to find the last field or so on a page as well since you don’t have to tab all the way through the other fields.

ESC – The escape key is necessary when the AS400 doesn’t like the command you entered, you will see a note on the bottom of the screen. You will need to hit the ESC key in order to remove the comment and choose the next command.

F1 – The F1 Function key is used to “go back” or “End Job” on the screen you are on. For example suppose you clicked the wrong function, you can click F1 to bring you back to where you were. Sometimes you have to click F1 more than once to bring you back to a new starting point.

F3 – Function key F3 is the ‘Exit’ button. This can be used throughout the AS400 and works similar to the F1 ‘End Job’. You will just have to use the available command prompts or Function keys listed in the bottom of the screen.

Function Keys (or CMD) – You have 12 function keys on your keyboard: F1, F2,…F12. These typically are the keys you press to perform tasks in the AS400. The AS400 can refer to these keys as CMD1, CMD2, …etc. they are the same thing.

Function Keys F13 – F22. If you see a selection like F22 in the AS400, you can use that by holding your ‘shift key’ then pressing F10. The way this works is Shift-F1 (F13), Shift-F2 (F14),… Shift-F10 (F22), etc.