Preferences window

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Preferences window

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.

The Window has 8 tabs:

Edition

General

Auto assign

Names

Titles

Terms

Backups

Warnings

Edition

There are 3 different PerfectTablePlan products (editions). Each edition is aimed at a different type of user. When you enter your licence key in the Licence window this will set PerfectTablePlan to the edition you have purchased. But, if you are using the trial version of PerfectTablePlan, you can choose any of the 3 editions to try. You can also try a different edition to the one you have purchased (for example you can try the Advanced edition, even if you have only purchased the Home edition) but your licence key will be invalid until you revert to the correct edition.

Note You may lose data if you change the edition. For example, if you change from Advanced edition to Home edition any custom fields will be deleted. You may therefore wish to save your plan before changing edition.

Click Compare editions to find out more about the different editions of PerfectTablePlan.

General

Check show tool tips to display helpful tool tips when you hover the mouse over controls and over tables and seats in the floor_plan_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 tool bar text to show text under each tool bar icon.

Check hide new/open/recent/save tool bar icons to hide the tool bar buttons for basic actions. Even if this box is unchecked the buttons will only be shown in some contexts, depending on the View>User interface and Task bar settings.

Check export image as large as possible to make floor_plan_16Floor Plan or table_circular_16Table Plan images created by exporting as large as possible (each seat up to 300 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 maximum size of image exported is 4096x4096 pixels, regardless of whether this box is checked. Export to PDF format if you want higher resolution.

Check use native file open/save windows to use the native Mac file Open and Save windows. We only recommend unchecking this if you have problems with the native file open/save windows (they caused crashes on Mac 10.8 in a previous release).

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.

Set Export/copy image margin to the % margin you want around floor_plan_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 when you move the mouse wheel backwards in the floor_plan_16Floor Plan pane and table_circular_16Table Plan pane . Hold down the command_key2 key while moving the mouse wheel to get the alternate (zoom->scroll, scroll->zoom) behaviour.

Note The scroll direction will be reversed if Mac System Preferences Mouse>Point and click>Scroll direct natural is unchecked.

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.

Select Automatically check for software updates depending on how frequently you wish to check online for updates to PerfectTablePlan.

Auto assign

Select in any order if you want the auto seating to assign to tables in any order. This is recommended if according to guest proximity is checked, to get the best (highest scoring) seating. Select in the order shown in the schematic pane to assign guests to tables in the order in which the tables are displayed in the schematic_16Schematic pane (top to bottom).

Note If you are assigning guests to tables in the order shown in the schematic pane, you should unassign guests and remove VIP status from tables later in theschematic_16Schematic pane order to get it work correctly.

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 (generations) 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...).

Select from On narrow tables prefer near to/next to guests seated depending on whether you prefer to seat guests opposite or left/right of each other on narrow (e.g. banquet and E-shaped) tables. Seats are considered opposite if they are less than 2 metres (approx 6 feet) apart and there are the same number of seats on each side.

Names

Check automatically capitalise guest 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).

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”

{next_table_letter}

"A", "B", "C"

table

“table” , “table”

Use New seat row name format to set the default name for rows of seats. Similar to above, but using {next_row_num} or {next_row_letter} to substitute in the number or letter of the next row.

Use Anonymous guest name format to set the name format for anonymous guests.

Use Default display name format to change the default display name for new guests. The guest title, first name, first name initials, last name, last name initials and suffix are substituted into {title}, {first}, {f}, {last}, {l} and {suffix}, respectively. For example:

Default display name format

Default display name for Mr John Smith Phd

{title} {first} {last} {suffix}

Mr John Smith Phd

{last}, {title} {first}

Smith, Mr John

{last}, {title} {f}

Smith, Mr J.

{first} {last}**{suffix}

John Smith**Phd

If you change the Default display name format you will be given the option to update display names for existing guests.

Use Display group members as to set how group member names are displayed in the follow situations:

listing by group in the tablechart_16Table chart or guestchart_16Guest chart panes

substituting into {group_members} in the stationery_16Stationery pane

exporting members (formal) in the export_16Export Data window

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.

Terms

You can change words that appear in the Table Plan pane, Guest Chart pane and Report pane here. For example, you might want to use the German "Tisch" instead of the English "Table":

terms_item_m

To change which terms are shown, select from the Show terms for drop-down list. To change a term just click on the appropriate term in the Change to column and edit it. To restore all the terms to the default settings click the Reset defaults button.

Note These changes only affect words inside panes. The user interface is currently only available in English.

Backups

Check when saved to create a backup file each time you save a plan.

Check on auto assign to create a backup file each time you run an auto assignment.

Check on export to create a backup file each time you export.

Check on print to create a backup file each time you print.

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

Check at startup check for unsaved changes in backup files if you wish to check whether backup files may contain unsaved changes at startup.

Warnings

You can turn various warnings on and off here.

Buttons

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