Preferences window

Top  Previous  Next

The prefs_16Preferences window allows you to change the behaviour of the software according to your preferences. Changes apply to all plans edited by the current user henceforth, not just the current plan. To display this window select PerfectTablePlan>Preferences.

General

Check automatically capitalise names to automatically capitalise guests titles, first names and last names as they are typed (e.g. convert mr john smith automatically to Mr John Smith).

Check show tool tips to display helpful tool tips when you hover the mouse over controls and over tables and seats in the floorplan_16Floor plan pane and table_circular_16Table plan pane.

Check large toolbar icons to display tool bar icons as 32x32 pixels, otherwise they will be displayed 24x24 pixels.

Check toolbar text to show text under each tool bar icon.

Check export/copy image as large as possible to make floorplan_16Floor plan or table_circular_16Table plan images created by exporting or copying to the clipboard as large as possible (each seat up to 500 pixels across, depending on the amount of memory available). If this box is unchecked images will be exported/copied as standard size (each seat up to 100 pixels across, depending on the amount of memory available).

The At start-up drop-down list allows you to choose how to open plan files at start-up. If you wish to open the most recently accessed plan each time you start PerfectTablePlan, select Open last plan. If you wish to show the Most recently accessed window each time you start PerfectTablePlan, select Open 'Most recent' window. If you wish to start with a new empty plan, select Don't open anything.

Select User interface style according to whether you want to use the newer 'unified' style, with a merged toolbar and titlebar for the Main window. The 'unified' style is only available for MacOSX 10.4 and later.

style_standard_60

Standard style

style_unified_60

Unified style

Set New table name format according to how you would like new tables to be named. See below for examples. You can rename the tables at any point using the Table properties window.

Example table name format

Example table names

Table {next_table_num}

“Table 1”, “Table 2”, “Table 3”

{next_table_num}

“1”, “2” , “3”

table

“table” , “table”

Set export/copy image margin to the % margin you want around floorplan_16Floor plan or table_circular_16Table plan images created by exporting or copying to the clipboard.

Select Floor/Table Plan pane mouse wheel behaviour according to whether you want the mouse wheel to zoom in, zoom out or scroll down when you move the mouse wheel backwards in the floorplan_16Floor plan pane and table_circular_16Table plan pane . Hold down the command_key2 key while moving the mouse wheel to get the opposite (zoom->scroll, scroll->zoom) behaviour.

Select Guest/group search according to whether you want to hide non-matching guests/group or select the first matching guest/group. See unknown_adult_16Guests pane and couple_16Groups pane for more details.

Select Allow seat assignment with RSVP according to which RSVP statuses you wish to allow guests to be assigned with. Changing this the selection can cause guests to be unassigned from their seats if their RSVP status is incompatible with the new setting.

Auto assignment

Select according to guest proximity if you want to the auto seating to assign guests according to the proximities set in the heart_16Proximity pane. Select randomly to assign guests to seats completely randomly (this may be useful for some types of events).

Select seconds if you wish the automatic assignment to stop after the specified number of seconds. We recommend at least 30 seconds. If you have a lot of guests or a very slow PC you may have to increase this time considerably.

Select attempts without improvement if you wish the automatic assignment to stop after a specified number of attempts without improvement. We recommend you allow at least 10 attempts. If you set this number very high and have a lot of guests or a very slow PC the automatic assignment may run for a long time.

Select whichever happens first to stop when either of the above criteria is met, e.g. the automatic assignment has run for x seconds or y attempts without an improvement.

Note You can stop the automatic assignment at any time by pressing the Stop button or the Esc key. This will keep the best assignment so far.

See automatic assignment for a discussion of automatic assignment times.

Check Alternate males and females if you want the automatic assignment to try to alternate males and females around each table (e.g. M-F-M-F-M-F...).

Titles

Titles that you add here will be available in the guest Title field for all plans. Add titles appropriate to your usage, for example military ranks, Masonic ranks or non-English titles.

Note This is intended for titles that come before the name, e.g. Dr, Herr, Colonel etc. It is not intended for titles that come after the name (post-nominal). These are best handled by adding them individually to the Display name field in the unknown_adult_16Guest properties window.

You can also specify a default gender, age and VIP status. This is used when inserting new guests. It is also used when importing to set guest gender, age and VIP status (if not supplied) from their title.

Click add_16Add to add a new title.

Click delete_16Delete to delete the selected title(s).

Click up_arrow_16Up to move the selected title(s) up one row.

Click down_arrow_16Down to move the selected title(s) down one row.

Click sort_16Sort to sort the titles alphabetically.

Click Import from plan to import titles from the current plan into the preferences.

Set Default couple to the titles you wish to use as the default when adding a couple or family.

Back-ups

Check when saved to create a back-up file each time you save a plan.

Check on auto-assignment to create a back-up file each time you run an auto-assignment.

Check automatically every to create a back-up file at the specified time interval. The plan will only be backed-up if it has been changed during this time.

Warnings

Check warn on delete guest or group to confirm each guest or group deletion.

Check warn on delete table to confirm each table deletion.

Check warn if auto assignment will re-assign guests to confirm each time the automatic assignment will re-assign unlocked guests to new seats.

Check warn if guests have duplicate names to confirm adding a guest with the same title, first name and last name as an existing guest.

Check warn if printing stationery to wrong page & size/orientation to warn when printing stationery if the stationery page size or orientation does not match the printer settings.

Buttons

Click OK to accept the changes. Click Cancel to discard the changes. Changes to this window affect all plans.