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Personal Desktop

As well as being able to connect files, notes or records to any record in HansaWorld Enterprise (as described here), you can also attach them to your Master Control panel. They will be listed in the area on the right of the Master Control panel, known as the "Personal Desktop". You can also list important reports, documents, Maintenance functions, settings and registers in the Personal Desktop. You can therefore configure your Personal Desktop so that it gives you immediate access to the areas of HansaWorld Enterprise that are most important to you (i.e. removing the need to change modules, find records in browse windows and find reports in list windows). The Personal Desktop is therefore similar to a list of Bookmarks in a browser.

If you want to use the Personal Desktop, you must first set up a Mailbox for yourself. To do this, open the Persons register in the System module, highlight your record in the 'Persons: Browse' window and choose 'Create Mailbox' from the Operations menu. This process is described in full here. In a multi-user system, each user that will be using the Personal Desktop should have their own Mailbox.

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You must have a Mailbox if you want to use the Personal Desktop.


Once you have a Mailbox, your name will be shown in the title bar of the Master Control panel, and the contents of your Personal Desktop will be listed in the area on the right:

The contents of your Personal Desktop cannot be viewed by another user. So. if someone else logs in to HansaWorld Enterprise on your machine using the [Login] button in the Master Control panel, your Personal Desktop will disappear, to be replaced with theirs.

Records in your Personal Desktop

You can place records in your Personal Desktop using the following methods:
  1. By dragging the record from its browse window and dropping it on the Personal Desktop. For example, to place a Contact record in the Personal Desktop, open the 'Contacts: Browse' window and find the correct Contact in the list. Click on the Contact Number and drag it to the Personal Desktop. You can also select a range of Contact records in the browse window by clicking while holding down the Shift key, and then drag them all to the Personal Desktop.

  2. By opening the record and dragging its [Attachments] button onto the Personal Desktop.

  3. By opening the record and selecting 'Send to Desktop' from the Record menu. The record should have been saved at least once before you use this function (i.e. the title of the window should be 'Inspect' or 'Update', not 'New').
Records are shown in the Personal Desktop with the name of the register followed by the record identifier. In the illustration above, the penultimate item ("Invoice: 960008") is an example (960008 is the Invoice Number).

The illustration also shows that the Personal Desktop can contain records from different Companies. In the illustration, the current Company is Company H (shown in the title bar of the Master Control panel, next to the name of the current user). "H" is short for Holding Company in the example database. The final item in the Personal Desktop in the illustration ("S: Invoice: 2016") is an Invoice that belongs to Company S (a Subsidiary Company). Any record that does not belong to the current Company will be shown in the Personal Desktop with its Company Short Code before the name of the register. So, in this example, if the current user were to quit HansaWorld Enterprise and restart, selecting Company S, then Invoice 960008 would appear in the Personal Desktop as "H: Invoice: 960008" and Invoice 2016 would appear simply as "Invoice: 2016".

You can open a record in the Personal Desktop in one of three ways:

  1. By clicking on the record in the Personal Desktop and selecting 'Open Record' from the Operations menu;

  2. By double-clicking on the record in the Personal Desktop; and

  3. By clicking on the record in the Personal Desktop and selecting 'Save' from the Record menu (or pressing the Enter key); and.
Whichever method you use, the record is opened in its own window where you can read or edit it in the usual manner. If you choose to open a record that is not in the current Company, you will be asked to log in to the relevant Company before the record is opened.

Settings, Reports, Documents and Maintenance functions in your Personal Desktop

To place a setting, report, document, import or export function or Maintenance function in your Personal Desktop, simply open the appropriate list window and then drag an item from the list to the Personal Desktop.

For example, to place the Open Invoice Customer Statement in your Personal Desktop (as shown in the example illustration above), first use the [Module] button in the Master Control panel to enter the Sales Ledger and then click the [Reports] button, also in the Master Control panel. Click on 'Open Invoice Customer Statement' in the list and drag this text to your Personal Desktop.

To work with a setting, report, document or Maintenance function, use one of these methods:

  1. Click on the item in the Personal Desktop and select 'Open Record' from the Operations menu;

  2. Double-click on the item in the Personal Desktop; and

  3. Click on the item in the Personal Desktop and select 'Save' from the Record menu (or press the Enter key).
Whichever method you use, the setting or the specification window for the report, document or Maintenance function will open. You can also attach a report itself to your Personal Desktop: please refer to the 'Reports in your Personal Desktop' section below.

Registers in your Personal Desktop

To place a register in your Personal Desktop, simply drag it from the Master Control panel to the Personal Desktop. For example, to place the Invoice register in your Personal Desktop (as shown in the example illustration above), first use the [Module] button in the Master Control panel to enter the Sales Ledger. Click on the [Invoices] button in the Master Control panel and drag it to your Personal Desktop.

To work with a register, use one of these methods:

  1. Click on the item in the Personal Desktop and select 'Open Record' from the Operations menu;

  2. Double-click on the item in the Personal Desktop;

  3. Click on the item in the Personal Desktop and select 'Save' from the Record menu (or press the Enter key).
Whichever method you use, the normal browse window for the register in question will be opened. If, as in the example illustrated above, the database contains more than one Company, the browse window will list the records in the register in the current Company.

Notes and Comments in your Personal Desktop

You can place notes or comments in your Personal Desktop. To do this, bring the Master Control panel to the front and select 'Create Note' from the Operations menu. A window will open, where you can type in your note.

Enter a Comment (text that will identify the note in the Personal Desktop) and click [Save] to save. The note will appear in your Personal Desktop with the prefix "Note:". You can place as many notes as you like in your Personal Desktop.

You can read a note or comment in your Personal Desktop in one of three ways:

  1. By clicking on the note in the Personal Desktop and selecting 'Open Record' from the Operations menu;

  2. By double-clicking on the note in the Personal Desktop; and

  3. By clicking on the note in the Personal Desktop and selecting 'Save' from the Record menu.
Whichever method you use, the note is opened in its own window where you can read or edit it.

Changing the Names of Items in your Personal Desktop

If you want to change the name of a file or note as it appears in your Personal Desktop, highlight it and select 'Edit Link Comment' from the Operations menu. A window opens where you can type in a new name.

Click [Save] to save and close the window, or [Cancel] if you don't want to save changes.

You can also change the name of a note by double-clicking it and editing the Comment in the 'Note: Inspect' window.

Reports in your Personal Desktop

To place a report in your Personal Desktop, first print the report to screen. The Button Bar of the report window contains an [Attachments] button: simply drag this button to the Personal Desktop.

To work with a report, use one of these methods:

  1. Click on the item in the Personal Desktop and select 'Open Record' from the Operations menu;

  2. Double-click on the item in the Personal Desktop;

  3. Click on the item in the Personal Desktop and select 'Save' from the Record menu (or press the Enter key).
Whichever method you use, the report will be opened in a standard report window.

When you attach a report to your Personal Desktop, it will appear in the Personal Desktop with the name "File: report". Please refer to the 'Changing the Names of Items in your Personal Desktop' section immediately above for details about changing this name.

When you attach a report to the Personal Desktop, the report is first printed to file and that file is then attached to the Personal Desktop. The report file is stored in the "Attach" folder that is in the same folder as your HansaWorld Enterprise application. In multi-user systems, the "Attach" folder should be on the server. If you need to read the report later, you will effectively be reading the file, not producing the report again. The information it contains will be correct for the moment when it was originally produced, not for the moment when you are reading it. The report will be opened in a standard report window, so you can select 'Recalculate' from the Operations menu if you need to update the report to include the latest information in the database.

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The "Attach" folder must be present in the folder containing your HansaWorld Enterprise application if you want to attach reports to records. Do not rename any of the files in the "Attach" folder.

Removing Items from your Personal Desktop

To remove an item of any kind from your Personal Desktop, highlight it and select 'Clear' from the Edit menu.

Organising Items in your Personal Desktop: Archives

When you have many items in your Personal Desktop, you can organise them into Archives. An Archive is a folder that can contain Attachments of all kinds, including other Archives.
  1. Bring the Master Control Panel to the front by clicking on it, by using the Ctrl-M/⌘-M keyboard shortcut or by selecting 'Master Control' from the File menu.

  2. Select 'Create Archive' from the Operations menu. The 'Create Archive' window opens, where you can give the new Archive a name:

    When you click the [Save] button, the new Archive will appear towards the top of the Personal Desktop.

  3. Move the relevant items into the Archive by dragging and dropping onto it.

  4. If you want to work with an item that is in an Archive, double-click the Archive. A new window is opened, listing the items that are in the Archive. This window has the same properties, features and functions as a list of Attachments, so you can work with it in the manner described in the 'Organising Attachments' section towards the bottom of the Attachments page.

    If the Archive contains another Archive, double-click the second Archive to open it. The contents and title of the window will change to those of the second Archive. To go back to the top level Archive, click the button with the arrow icon:

  5. If you want to rename the Archive, first open it as described in step 4 above and then select 'Rename Archive' from the Operations menu.

    Enter the new Name of the Archive and click [Save].

  6. You can remove an item from an Archive in one of two ways. First, you can drag it to the Personal Desktop or to another Archive. Otherwise, to remove the item altogether, click on it and select 'Clear' from the Edit menu.

  7. To remove an Archive, click on it in the Personal Desktop and select 'Clear' from the Edit menu. You can only remove empty Archives. To empty an Archive, you must remove its contents item by item as described in step 6 above.