On the tab Characteristics you can associate characteristics, which are defined on project level, with an object. You can add characteristics by clicking the tab Define Characteristics. You cannot define characteristics from this window. Here, you can only associate them with the object you are configuring.
First listed in this tab are the Characteristics that are not part of a group in the project. The groups with their characteristics are listed below them. You can choose to associate as many, or none, of the loose characteristics to the selected item as you want by checking the check box in front of them. How many characteristics you can choose within a group depends on the settings for that group, as set on project level.
Characteristics can be used in a search operation. See also the chapter on characteristics in the ITP/MDK Repository Manual.