Settings Area

The settings area is the region at the bottom of the application, containing several photographer, order, and application-wide settings.

"Help" contains items to help new users and troubleshoot problems. The "Help" item in the help menu overlays a series of steps on the main window to help new users through their first order:

Clear Caches displays a dialog allowing the user to remove the application files from their drive, in case these have become corrupted. This typically requires the application to be downloaded again from the lab web site.

About shows a dialog with credits and acknowledgements.

The "Location" button, if your lab has multiple configurations, allows easy switching between them. If a lab only has one configuration, this button doesn't appear. Since the product offerings could differ between labs, an order must be placed from a single location only. The user is prompted if the current order contains items and a new location is selected.

Preferences contains several items that affect the way the application behaves.

Search Enclosed: when checked, causes the thumbnail area "Folder..." control to search the selected folder and all subfolders for images. Show Image Thumbnails: when checked, shows a representative thumbnail of the image. When unchecked, a placeholder standard image is used. Hold crop between images: holds the crop when a new product or image is selected Hold options between images: when checked, holds the options when "Add to Order" is pressed. Otherwise, the options are removed from the working order item. Auto rotate: attempts to match aspect ratios on an image by applying a rotation when an image is dropped. Auto rotate counterclockwise: changes the direction of the rotation applied when auto rotating. Show prices (requires relaunch): when unchecked, all prices in the application will be hidden. Otherwise, lab pricing is shown. Use pro tool layout: rearranges the commonly used tools and preferences so that they are available in the layout area for quicker access.

"My Information" displays a dialog of information that a photographer should supply to place orders. This dialog allows the user to provide some basic information needed in order to create and send an order into the photo processing lab, and varies by lab.

"Open & Save" allows orders that have already been sent to be opened again for the purpose of starting a new order based on the previous one. To open a previously saved order, select "Open an Incomplete Order..." from this menu, then use the file dialog to browse to an incomplete order file, typically ending in ".xml.enc" or ".zip.enc". ".xml.enc" files don't have the images included in them, and are saved via the "Save this Incomplete Order..." menu item. These are intended for use when a user's order entry is interrupted and she wishes to continue ordering later. ".zip.enc" order files have the images in them and are ready for processing by a lab. Although these types of orders can be reopened, doing so simply starts a new order based on the previous one. This does not modify the order sent to the lab. If a ".zip.enc" order is opened and then sent to the lab, a duplicate order will be created.


"Show Queued Orders..." item in "Open & Save" will open a dialog of orders waiting to be sent, as well as past orders.

Select the queued orders you wish to send now in the top area, and press the "Send" button. While uploading queued orders, other orders can be created and manipulated. Queuing orders is covered in the Order Completion section.

"Review Order" shows the Order Review dialog and is covered in the Order Review section.

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