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Kaaren's Corner
By Kaaren Linton, Librarian/Alexandria Trainer
Preferences, Preferences, Preferences
With Alexandria v6 preferences, the Preferences module not only has a totally new look, but gone are those confusing terms — Global, Local and Default Local. There is now a fabulous new look and an ease of understanding and use!
As before, you will find the preferences options under Edit on the menu bar, but, now, you will notice that there are three different preferences groups — System, User, and Machine. If you have not logged in as an operator, User Preferences will be grayed out so that you cannot access those preferences. You must also have a security level that gives you rights to set Machine Preferences in order to access that preference group. You will also notice that all preference groups are represented in the window which is an improvement on the old drop-down menu. They have also been divided into categories to make locating the proper preference group much easier.
Let's start with Machine Preferences. Machine Preferences are computer-specific. For instance, you may want the language on just that one computer to be Spanish. This would be a time to use Machine Preferences to make this setting.
User Preferences would be your personal preference settings and would be those shown when you log in to Alexandria. Your favorite color for the Alexandria Circulation window might be sage green, but another member of the library staff might prefer blue. If you select sage green in your User Preferences, then, whenever you login, the Circulation window will automatically be sage green. For those of you in a central union system, you may enter the beginning item barcode in your Item Management User Preferences so that whenever you are logged in and catalog an item, Alexandria will assign the barcode based upon what you have set in your User Preferences.
If you compare User Preferences to System Preferences, you will notice that there are less User Preferences than there are System Preferences, but there are System Preferences for those same User Preferences areas. For this reason, System Preferences may be compared to both the Global and Default Local Preferences in version 5. Some of the same preference options are found in both User Preferences and System Preferences. If you are not logged in with your personal login, then System Preference settings will be applied to the session as opposed to your User Preferences.
Now, for the best new feature of Preferences. If you need to get to a preference setting and just have one of those brain-dead moments and don't know where to click to find it, the answer is in the upper-right corner of the Preferences window. The Search field allows you to type a term or terms that represent the preference setting that you are trying to locate. For instance, let's say you can't remember where you find the disable expiration dates preference. If you start typing "expiration", various preference icons will be grayed out. Those remaining have something with the word or a word beginning with the letters that you have typed. It certainly makes locating the desired preference setting a lot easier.
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