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MainBoss lets you specify preferences for a number of other types of information used by the program. In particular, you can specify the format you prefer for dates and times.
To specify such preferences, select Administration —> Preferences —> Other from the menu. MainBoss displays a window containing the following:
- Date Format: This area lets you specify the format of dates and times used in MainBoss.
Settings in the On Screen group let you specify the format of dates and times when MainBoss displays information on your computer screen.
Settings in the In Reports group let you specify the format of dates and times when MainBoss prints information in reports.
Both groups have an accompanying "sample display" showing a date and time in the current format. When you change one of the settings, MainBoss changes the display to show you how dates and times will be displayed in the new format.
| Note: These settings tell MainBoss how to display dates and times. When you are typing in dates and times you can use a much wider variety of formats. For more information, see Using Editors. |
- Time Format: Settings in this area specify how MainBoss displays times on your computer screen.
- 12 Hour Clock: Times are measured on a 12-hour clock, often with an added AM or PM designation, as in 01:30 PM.
- 24 Hour Clock: Times are measured on a 24-hour clock, as in 13:30.
- Field Delimiter: Settings in this area specify how MainBoss will break up dates into separate parts.
- No Date Delimiter: Dates are not broken up into separate parts. For example, if you are using all numeric dates in MDY format, December 25, 2001 would be displayed as 122501.
- Slashes: Dates are broken into parts separated by slash characters. For example, if you are using all numeric dates in MDY format, December 25, 2001 would be displayed as 12/25/01.
- Blank and Comma: Dates are broken into parts separated by spaces; a comma may also be used to separate parts of the date. For example, if you are using all numeric dates in MDY format, December 25, 2001 would be displayed as 12 25, 2001.
- Field Order: Settings in this area specify the order of the parts of the date.
- YMD Order: Dates consist of the year followed by the month followed by the day.
- MDY Order: Dates consist of the month followed by the day followed by the year.
- DMY Order: Dates consist of the day followed by the month followed by the year.
- Month Format: Settings in this area specify how months are represented.
- Numeric Month: Months are written as numbers from 01 to 12.
- Abbreviated Month: Months are written with three-letter abbreviations (for example, Nov for November).
- Full Month: Months are written out with their full names (for example, January).
- In Reports: Specifies a format for displaying dates in reports. The field can contain any of the following:
mm The month as two digits.
mmm The month as a three-digit abbreviation (e.g. Nov)
mmmm The full name of the month (e.g. January)
dd The day as two digits (e.g. 03 or 25)
d The day written as one or two digits (e.g. 3 or 25)
yyyy The year written as four digits (e.g. 2001)
yy The year written as two digits (e.g. 01)
In addition, you can add other characters, such as spaces or punctuation characters between different parts of the date. For example, if you specify the format mmm/dd/yyyy, MainBoss would display dates as in Dec/25/2001.
- Currency Format: The options in this area specify defaults for representing currencies throughout MainBoss (including in reports). Also in this area, MainBoss displays sample positive and negative currency values to show what such values look like. If you change one of the options, the display will also change to show the result.
- Currency Symbol: One or more characters to be used to represent currency units. Examples are $ for the dollar or ¥ for the yen.
- Decimal Symbol: A single character to be used to separate the fractional part of a currency value from the rest of the value. For example, the dot "." is typically used as a decimal point in dollar values, as in $23.99.
- Digit Grouping Symbol: A single character to be used to group digits in the non-fractional part of a currency value. For example, the comma "," is typically used as a grouping symbol in dollar values, as in $1,000,000.00.
- Digit Grouping: Lists possible ways in which digits may be grouped. You should pick your preferred grouping format from this list.
- Positive Currency: Lists possible ways in which positive currency values may be displayed. For example, the currency symbol may appear at the beginning of the value (as in $23.99) or at the end (as in 23.99$).
- Negative Currency: Lists possible ways in which negative currency values may be displayed. For example, some organizations prefer to use a minus sign in front, as in -$23.99, while other organizations prefer to put such values in parentheses, as in ($23.99).
- PM Generation: The options in this section specify defaults for generating preventive maintenance work orders. For further information on generating such work orders, see Generating Preventive Maintenance Work Orders.
- Viewing Program: Specifies the default viewing program used with attachment files. For more information, see Attachments.
- Telephone Prefix: Specifies a default string of digits that you want to put at the beginning of all new telephone numbers. For example, if most of your telephone calls are made to your local area code, you would set "Telephone Prefix" to that area code. This saves you the time of typing the area code whenever you type in a new phone number. (For phone numbers not in that area code, you can simply delete the default prefix and start typing the number from the beginning.)
- Save: Saves the settings currently shown in the window, then closes the window.
- Cancel: Closes the window without saving any changes.
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