Book excerpt: Toad is an enormously popular interactive environment tool for Oracle development and administration. It allows developers to build, test, debug, and format their code via an easy-to-use graphical user interface, available in both freeware and commercial versions. Toad makes developers far more productive; using Toad, you'll find that program changes that once took hours can now be completed in minutes. Toad allows developers to browse their database tables, procedures, and object types; use code templates; and show errors. It also simplifies database administration by providing a way for DBAs to graphically browse and change database characteristics. Updated for Toad Versions 8.0 and 8.5, this pocket book is packed with quick-reference material: Toad feature and menu summaries, shortcut keys, suggested changes to Toad defaults, productivity tips and tricks, and more. The book includes concise discussions of all the basic Toad components: the SQL Editor, Procedure Editor, SQL Modeler, Schema Browser, Project Manager, and Debugger. The second edition includes coverage of new SQL Editor features, improvements in usability, and new tools such as CodeXpert (a robust code analyzer and advisor) and Script Debugger (the only tool available that provides real-time debugging of SQL*Plus scripts). It also provides helpful hints on using Toad to perform database administration and SQL tuning and optimization. Whether you're a new or experienced Toad user, you'll find this quick reference an indispensable companion to the product and its online help files.