Customizing Layouts

What is it?

Each staff user of the client can modify the layout by expanding and contracting various screens of the client, moving screens, and rename field labels to more appropriate terms. Students could have customized layouts that only show those areas of the Main Page and/or form that pertain to them. Administrators can give more real estate to the reports or system information. At any time, staff can always choose to restore the default layout. Customizations are automatically saved for individual users, and can also be saved to a file, shared and adapted by other users. Staff can customize the layout of the Client Main Page, Request form, User Information Form, and other forms using the Customization form and accompanying Customization popup window.

How does it help?

Spending a little time customizing your layouts, or those seen by your student help, can reduce eye strain, reorganize information according to what you want to see, and improve processing time.

Getting started

Main tab

Whenever you launch ILLiad, you start by viewing the Main tab. Here you find the Borrowing, Lending, and Document Delivery groups, with each displaying the list of available queues. By default, these queues are listed in alphabetical order -- including terminal queues such as Cancelled by ILL Staff.

This default arrangement can be difficult to navigate over time, especially when temporary queues come and go (such as Awaiting Direct Request Sending or Awaiting Renewal OK Processing). To make these easier to browse, you should consider categorizing your queues into groups and hiding terminal queues that just take up space. These small changes can go a long way towards making your daily workflow more efficient.

To create a category, right click on a queue and select Add to New Category. Then simply give the category a name and click OK. To add other queues to this category, simply drag and drop them under the category name. You can rearrange your categories by dragging and dropping the category names one above the other.

For example, consider the following groups for Borrowing:

• Requests (Note: this is the default category for all queues)

  • Awaiting Request Processing

  • Awaiting Conditional Processing

  • Awaiting Unfilled Processing

  • Awaiting Extensive Searching

  • Request Sent

• Renewals, Recalls, & Cancellations

  • Awaiting Renewal OK Processing

  • Awaiting Renewal Denied Processing

  • Awaiting Recalled Processing

• Received

  • Awaiting Post Receipt Processing

  • Awaiting Customer Contact

  • Customer Notified via E-Mail

  • Customer Notified via Phone

  • Odyssey Document Received

  • Checked Out to Customer

You can create similar groups for Lending and Document Delivery, as well, organizing the highest priority queues in one or two categories. You can then drag and drop these categories to the top of each module, while collapsing the others so you can easily find what you need to work on.

To hide a queue, simply right click on it and select Hide Queue. It will then disappear from view. For all three modules, consider hiding the following queues:

• Cancelled by ILL Staff

• Request Finished

• Delivered to Web (Borrowing & Document Delivery only)

• Request Conditionalized (Lending only)

If you make a mistake while customizing your Main tab layout, you can start over by right clicking anywhere in the Main tab area and selecting Reset to Default View. Note, however, that this will remove all customizations you previously made.

Request Queues

ILLiad provides a lot of flexibility for viewing request queues, such as Awaiting Request Processing. Although it’s recommended that you still sort all of your requests ascending by Transaction Number (First In, First Out), you can clear out the clutter by rearranging and hiding column headings. Because each queue has its own layout, what you change in Awaiting Request Processing won’t affect how you view Awaiting Unfilled Processing.

For example, by default ILLiad makes each column the same width. This works for things like the Transaction Number and Request Type, but not for Loan Title, Photo Article Title, etc. You can drag the edges of columns to adjust their width (just like Microsoft Excel), or you can automatically adjust all of the columns by right-clicking on a heading and selecting “Best Fit (all columns).” This should make it easier to read while you’re browsing the queue.

In addition, you can rearrange columns into whichever order best suits you. Simply drag and drop a column into the desired position. For example, drag and drop the Not Wanted After column next to the Transaction Number column. That way you can see how soon your patron needs an item in relation to its order in the queue. This is especially helpful for requests in Awaiting Unfilled Processing.

Request Layouts

Perhaps the most powerful customization you can make is at the request level. Borrowing, Lending, and Document Delivery each has its own layout so you can create a unique custom layout for each module.

To begin, just right-click anywhere in the Detail group and select Customize Layout. The Detail group becomes shaded and the Customization menu appears. You can now do the following to customize your layouts:

• Rename field, group, and tab labels -- right-click on a label and select Rename.

• Hide field labels -- right-click on a label and select Hide Text.

• Hide fields -- right click on a field and select Hide Item.

• Group fields -- CTRL+Click on multiple adjacent fields to select them, then right-click the selection and select Group.

• Create tabbed groups -- CTRL+Click on two or more adjacent groups to select them, then right-click the selection and select Create Tabbed Group. You can rearrange and add additional groups by dragging and dropping them into the tabbed group.

• Insert empty space items -- placing these can add space between elements, which can add balance when you have an uneven number of fields next to each other.

• Insert separator -- this separates items with a solid line (good for creating a column effect).

• Insert splitter -- works like a separator, but it can be moved back and forth to increase/decrease the viewable area on each side (like a window shade).

• Rearrange fields, groups, and tabbed groups -- simply drag and drop items where you would like them to appear.

Staff Manager

One of the best ways to unclutter the ILLiad client is by restricting access to the Borrowing, Lending, or Document Delivery modules entirely. This is helpful if you have Circulation staff, for example, that only need to see the Lending and/or Document Delivery modules. By removing “Read” privileges, staff will no longer see that module’s Main tab group or its ribbon.

Another essential feature of the Staff Manager allows you to share your own customized layouts with other staff. This is great because it allows you to completely customize your client from top to bottom and then push those same changes out to your staff. There are no files to save and share -- simply click the Copy Layout & Grid Settings button, set the From and To usernames, and you’re done.

From the Staff Manager, you can also control whether or not your staff can further customize their own layouts. Because their individual changes will not affect other staff users, there is little harm in allowing them to make their own customizations. Plus, it gives them the flexibility to tailor the client to meet their individual needs. (The most common exception to this would likely be your student assistants, since they may accidentally stumble upon this feature without understanding how to use it or close it.)

More information

Customizing the Client Layout – Atlas Systems (atlas-sys.com)

Displaying Custom Queue Categories on the ILLiad Home Page – Atlas Systems (atlas-sys.com)