Navigating the Graphical Interfaces
The majority of Circulation modules use graphical interfaces, which can be navigated by using menus and menu options or by clicking buttons at the top of the window. A few accounting and utility options, as well as some setup options, are available only in the older character interface—see the Introduction to the Circulation Setup manual for information on navigating the character interface.
Buttons that are displayed in full color may be selected, while those that are greyed-out are currently inactive. For example, the Stop button in Customer Service will be inactive unless the subscriber displayed in the window has a current subscription.
To select an option, click on the button with your mouse or use the keypress alternative. For example, to initiate a New Start transaction, you could click the New Start button or press Alt-N. You can discover the Alt key combination for each option by placing the mouse pointer over it until the description appears.
The Alt key combinations for Customer Service are shown below.
Field | Function |
Alt-A | Add Address |
Alt-B | Billing Change |
Alt-C | Complaint or Cancel |
Alt-D | Delivery Schedule Change |
Alt-E | End Temporary Address |
Alt-F | Find |
Alt-G | Grace Write Off |
Alt-H | Help or Contact |
Alt-I | Add Subscription Note |
Alt-J | Reroute |
Alt-K | Add Message |
Alt-L | Placement Change |
Alt-M | Move Subscriber |
Alt-N | New Start |
Alt-O | Add Occupant or OK |
Alt-P | Payment |
Alt-Q | My Tasks |
Alt-R | Restart |
Alt-S | Stop |
Alt-T | Temporary Address |
Alt-U | Refund |
Alt-W | Refund Write-off |
Alt-X | Transfer |
Alt-Y | Cancel Payment |
Alt-+ | Combo Change |
The Alt key combinations for Route Service are shown below.
Field | Function |
Alt-B | Batch Draw Change |
Alt-C | Carrier Inquiry or Cancel |
Alt-F | Find Route |
Alt-G | Group Draw Change |
Alt-H | Help |
Alt-M | Add Message |
Alt-O | OK |
Alt-S | Draw Change |
After selecting an option, you can begin entering information in the window that appears. You can advance from field to field by pointing and clicking with the mouse or by pressing the Tab key. You can navigate backward through the fields by pressing Shift-Tab. After entering information in the fields, click OK to save the information.
If you just want to view information, click the appropriate tab in the lower part of the window.
Types of Input Fields
You will use five basic types of input fields when working with Graphical Circulation:
Checkboxes. These are simple “yes/no” controls. Check the box to answer “yes”; deselect it to answer “no”.
Text-entry fields. These fields can be open (you can enter anything), integer (you must enter a whole number), or decimal (you must enter a decimal). When these fields are described in the documentation, the length of the field is also included. For example, Last Name is “open (30)”, because you can enter anything in the field, up to 30 characters.
Combo boxes, such as Product. These are similar to lookup fields, except you only need to click on the field to open the list of valid entries. You can either click on the field and choose from the list of valid items that appears, or enter one or more unique characters to identify the item. The latter method is much more economical. For example, when entering a street type, rather than clicking on the combo box and scrolling to “St”, it is easier to just type “st”.
Field and Window-Level Validation
As you move from field to field in Circulation, most of your entries are validated. This means they are checked to ensure they meet certain criteria (for example, that phone numbers conform to the proper format or that new subscriptions start on a future date). If an entry fails validation, you will receive a message when you attempt to navigate out of the field. In some cases, you will be unable continue until you make a valid entry. For example, if you enter an invalid credit card number for an auto-pay subscriber, you will be unable to continue the transaction until you obtain a valid credit card number or select a different means of payment.
When you click OK to submit the information in a window, Circulation validates all of the entries again. If an invalid entry is found, you will again receive a message.
Note: If you want to skip field validation temporarily, you can press Ctrl-Tab to move to the next field without validation. When you click OK to submit the information, however, all entries will be validated.
About Help Buttons
Some windows have Help buttons. When you click a Help button, online documentation is displayed in a browser (either the browser you have open, or your computer’s default browser). The online documentation is context-sensitive, which means that if you click the Help button when doing a start, for example, documentation for starts will be displayed in the browser.
You can access general online documentation from the Help menu at the top of the application window.
Sign-On Defaults
You can specify some default settings for your Customer Service or Route Service session by selecting Sign-On Defaults from the File menu. These defaults are good for the current session only. If you log out and then log back in, the defaults will no longer be active.
The following table explains the sign-on fields.
| Field | Type | What to enter: |
|---|---|---|
PRODUCT | setup | Enter the publication that should be the default product in Customer or Route Service. For example, when adding a new start, this product will default in the Product field. |
WINDOW PREFERENCE | predefined | Indicate whether the Transaction window or the Subscription window should be displayed in the upper-right corner of the Customer Service window. “Transaction” is typically entered here. Even if your window preference is “Subscription”, the Subscription window will be displayed only if a subscriber has multiple subscriptions. |
SEARCH MODE | predefined | In Customer Service, the first step in almost any activity is to find an occupant or address. Indicate the field in which you want to begin entering search criteria when you use Find. For example, if you ask for a customer’s name first at your newspaper, select Name here. |
SEARCH TYPE | predefined | When performing a Find in Customer Service, you need to indicate the type of person you are looking for. This field allows you to set a default search type. Select All Subscribers , Active Subscribers , Non Subscribers , or All Households . |
Save and Find
Select Save and Find to save certain field entries for a report, and to saves time during data entry. This is also required if you run several options at once in a batch mode.
To illustrate these options, let’s say we want to save the field values for the Route Delivery List report. We enter the fields as normal, but instead of clicking Continue, we click Save. The Find/Save/Delete dialog box appears, and we enter a file name, such as “Delivery” for these settings.
Note: If the input file name is already being used, you will be prompted whether or not to replace the file with the new defaults. Be very careful about replacing input files.
The next time we run the report, we click Find (rather than Add) and enter the file name. Our previous entries default in the fields. We can override these entries, if we choose, or we just click OK and then Continue to print the report—a much faster process now that the fields are defaulted.
Using Input Parameters
An added feature in Save is the ability to prompt for certain fields. To continue with the example above, let’s say that we want to prompt for the product whenever we run the Route Delivery List report (the rest of the fields should be defaulted). With the Product field active, we press Ctrl-P to display the Input (Parameter Name) dialog box and enter a parameter name for this field, such as “Which product?”.
The next time we select Find and retrieve these parameters, all the fields will default as usual, but we will be prompted for Product. Click Modify, enter a value, and then click OK to populate the field.
Note:
When entering a prompt for a field that has multi-select capacity (i.e., a field in which “*” can be entered), do not enter “*”. You cannot multi-select items in the prompt.
Validation is not currently available when entering specific values for parameters. Be sure to enter data that is both valid and in the correct format. If you do not, the system will prompt you for valid data when you try to run the report.
If you enter TODAY as the parameter name in a date field, the current date will default. You can also enter
TODAY + xorTODAY - xto set a default of the current date plus or minus the specified number of days (enter spaces before and after the plus or minus symbol). See the additional date parameters listed below.
Additional Date Parameters
In addition to TODAY +/- x, the following date parameters can also be used:
FIRST DAY THIS WEEK +/- X DAY/WEEK +/- Y DAY/WEEKLAST DAY THIS WEEK +/- X DAY/WEEK +/- Y DAY/WEEKFIRST DAY LAST WEEK +/- X DAY/WEEK +/- Y DAY/WEEKLAST DAY LAST WEEK +/- X DAY/WEEK +/- Y DAY/WEEKFIRST DAY THIS MONTH +/- X DAY/WEEK +/- Y DAY/WEEKLAST DAY THIS MONTH +/- X DAY/WEEK +/- Y DAY/WEEKFIRST DAY LAST MONTH +/- X DAY/WEEK +/- Y DAY/WEEKLAST DAY LAST MONTH +/- X DAY/WEEK +/- Y DAY/WEEK
(where X and Y are numbers; both are optional), and
FIRST DAY THIS FISCAL PERIOD-<CompanyID>LAST DAY THIS FISCAL PERIOD-<CompanyID>FIRST DAY LAST FISCAL PERIOD-<CompanyID>LAST DAY LAST FISCAL PERIOD-<CompanyID>
(The actual CompanyID is passed in after the dash. CompanyGLCompany setup is used to locate the GL Company.)
Exiting a Graphical Interface
To exit a graphical interface, select Exit from the File menu or click on the “X” in the top-right corner of the window.
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