I've been using TOAD for the best part of 30 years and I'm now working for a client who doesn't provide any development tools, so I need to purchase my own license.

Given that even the BASE version of TOAD is twice the price of PLSQL Developer I'm going to give the trial version a go, but I'm really struggling as there are so many things I've already come across that are just better in TOAD!

Is anyone aware of a blog or video etc. that can give a TOAD'Y like myself a really good introduction to PLSQL Developer and possibly explain how the simple TOAD functions are performed in PLSQL Developer?

I want to like and get on with PLSQL Developer, but 2 days into using it I'm really struggling to get to grips with how it works!

Thanks.

When I started using it, I spent an afternoon reading the manual and it was worth the time. It is really different than TOAD.

As I use PL/SQL developer I'm coming across things that I would like some help on, so I'm going to add them to this thread, rather than create a separate thread for every question.

First couple of questions:
1. Is it possible to redefine keys. Currently, I'm using F8 to run the current SQL Statement in a SQL Window. Can this key be changed?

2. After pressing F8 to run the current statement, the statement stays highlighted (in blue). Is there any way to easily remove the highlighting? If I make changes to the statement the highlighting disappears. I thought that maybe pressing ESC or some other key (like in Excel) might remove the highlighting, but no luck. It's a minor thing, but the blue highlighting makes it more difficult to read the SQL!

To answer my 2nd question, in Preferences under "User Interface -> Key Configuration" it is possible to change the key definitions associated with menu functions, so I've changed the definition of "Session / Action / Execute" from F8 to Ctrl+Enter, which is the equivalent of the keys used in TOAD to run the current statement.

Now I just need to find a way to easily remove the highlighting of the statement that has just been executed!

For others moving from TOAD to PL/SQL Developer that may find this thread useful, I was really struggling with the "tab" concept in PL/SQL Developer i.e. every window I opened was in a new tab and I could only view one tab at a time. A complete waste of space when using a huge widescreen monitor! The light bulb moment came when I realised that on the "View" menu, unchecking the "Single Document" allows MULTIPLE windows to be open and visible at the same time. I have no idea why this would be checked by default as it is very restricting! Viewing and editing multiple windows concurrently is more like the way in which TOAD is used and is much more productive.

For your second question. I changed the highlight color to a light grey. You could change it to be the same as your background color to make it "disappear", but the idea is to highlight the SQL statement you ran if there are multiple ones. The is in Preferences under "Program Window" then "Hot Track Highlighting".

One big difference back when I switched from TOAD is that TOAD has one editor for everything (or at least it used to) and PL/SQL Developer has different ones for different tasks.

Thanks Mike, that's a useful suggestion, I'll give that a try.

Not sure why PL/SQL Developer leaves the statement highlighted after it has been run and it's a different "type" of highlighting compared to using the mouse/cursor to highlight text. Ideally, this highlight should be removed when clicking anywhere in the window, just like "normal" highlighting done manually using the mouse.

Yes, I have found that they have different types of windows, for different tasks and that some, like the Explain Plan Window can only contain a single statement. This is where the ease of use of TOAD is far superior to PL/SQL Developer, but I will persevere!