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Light Blue’s Home Screen: a detailed look
Light Blue’s Home Screen gives you the flexibility to show the information about your business that is most helpful and important to you.
Information is displayed on the Home screen in Widgets. Widgets are arranged in layouts that can be customised to show you exactly what you need. You can set up as many Home Screen layouts as you want and quickly swap between them when you need to see different information or have it presented in a different way.
Widgets
You can find more details about all of the Home Screen Widgets in this article. The list includes:
- Charts
- Current events
- Enquiries
- Inbox
- Quick query
- Quick query totals
- Task manager
- Web view
Home Screen layouts
Widgets are grouped together into layouts. You can have as many different layouts as you want, which allows you to show different information depending on the sorts of work that you’re doing. For example, you could have a layout that you use for your day-to-day work and another that gives an overview of your business performance.
Changing between layouts
Changing between layouts is quick and easy. Click on the options cog in the top right corner of the Home screen and select a different layout.
Default layouts
Within the options menu in the top right corner of the home screen, you can also choose which layout you would like to use as your default. This is the layout that will appear whenever you launch Light Blue, so it makes sense to choose the layout you use the most.
The default layout can also be set from the “General” section of the Preferences window.
Defaults for different staff members
If you’re using Light Blue’s staff login feature, each member of staff can have their own default layout. For example, in a high street portrait studio, the photographer, admin person, and manager will probably have different needs. A staff member will load their default layout when they log into Light Blue if you’ve set one for them, or your global default layout if you haven’t.
If a staff member’s login has restrictions on it (e.g. they don’t have access to financial records) then any restricted information will not be displayed on their Home screen.
A staff member’s default layout can also be set from their record in the “Resources” section of the Preferences window.
Customising layouts
Layouts can be customised to show exactly the information you need.
Adding or removing rows and columns
Widgets are arranged in a grid of rows and columns. New rows and columns are added by clicking on the options cog in the top right corner of the Home screen, then choosing to add (or remove) rows and columns within the “Home Screen Layout Editing” menu.
Adding widgets
A new widget can be added into an empty space by clicking on the gear icon in the middle of the empty widget, then choosing “Widget Options” to choose which type of widget you’d like to add.
Changing widgets
An existing widget can by changed by clicking on the options cog in the top right hand corner of the widget and then selecting “Widget Options”. Here the settings for that widget can be altered, or the widget can be replaced with a different type of widget.
Widget titles and colours
You can customise the background and text colours of individual widgets, and change the title. Click on the options cog in the top right corner of the widget and select “Widget Options” to access these settings.
Rearranging and resizing widgets
You can move widgets around your Home screen or resize them to fill more than one row or column. To do this, click on the options menu in the top right corner of the Home screen or any widget and choose the “Rearrange & Resize Widgets” option.
In “Rearrange & Resize Widgets” mode, you can drag widgets to different positions or use the arrow icons to expand or shrink them.
Once you’re done rearranging your Home screen layout, click on the link at the top of the screen to exit the “Rearrange & Resize Widgets” mode.
Saving layouts
When you’ve finished making changes to a layout, you can save it so that you can use it again in the future. Click on the link at the top right of the Home screen to save your changes. If you give the layout a new name then it will be saved as a new layout, but if you use the same name as an existing layout then that layout will be updated with your new settings.
Importing and exporting layouts
Layouts can be exported and shared with other businesses who use Light Blue. The export includes the arrangement and types of widgets, plus any custom colours used for widget headings. It’s important to understand that the export does not include any of the data or records that appear within the widget, so the privacy of your data is maintained.
To export a layout, click on the options cog in the top right corner of the Home screen, go to the “Home Screen Layout Editing” menu and choose to export the Home screen layout. Light Blue will save a file that can be imported in to other Light Blue accounts (running Light Blue 2021.2 or later).
To import a layout into Light Blue 2021.2 or later, click on the options cog in the top right corner of the Home screen, go to the “Home Screen Layout Editing” menu, choose to import a home screen layout, and select the layout file that you’ve been given.
Colour themes
You can customise Light Blue’s colour scheme to suit your branding, or simply changed to a colour that you like the look of. We’ve provided a selection of colour themes as well as an option to set your own custom colours.
To change the colour theme, click on the options button in the top right corner of the Home screen and then go into the “Select Colour Theme” menu.
Announcements
Announcements will appear at the top of the Home screen whenever there’s important news or information about your account.