Menus and Navigation

Overview

Software menus are graphical user interface (GUI) elements that allow users to access various features and functions of an application. Menus typically consist of a list of options that are organised into categories or sub-menus and are accessed by clicking a button.

Navigation refers to the process of moving around within a software application to locate and access the desired content or functionality. Navigation can involve using menus, buttons, links, or other GUI elements to move between different sections of an application.

Main Menu

• The main menu is at the top of the window, above the navigational menu.

• It contains all the features of the software.

• It is referred to as the Main Menu throughout these documents.

• Entries can be removed from the main menu by clicking the small arrow on the top right and unchecking the entries to remove.

Navigation Bar

• The Navigation Bar is placed below the Main menu.

• This navigational menu is a colour-coded icon menu which links related modules such as green for customers and red for suppliers.

• The name of the icon is displayed if the mouse is held over the button. 

• Key function: The grey arrow provides quick navigation to the last 20 opened modules. This feature is reset when BOS Pro is restarted.

Tile Menu

• The tile menu is the Home menu and provides links to frequently used modules such as Office, Workflows, Accounting, and Reports.

• The colour tiles correspond to those used in the Navigation Bar. 

• In Version 25, tile menus have been updated to show status information for the modules (e.g. how many Pending or Active transactions). 

• The display on the tile menus is refreshed by clicking the menu button which is the first button on the navigation bar.

Button Bar

• When opening a module, there are navigational, search and menu buttons. 

• All the modules contain a button bar at the top right of the window.     

• The buttons and their functions vary between modules and views within modules.

• In most cases there is a Menu button that controls the views and saves or restores the layout.

• For most transactions, there is an Actions button that typically contains commands to copy the transaction, or to Batch Update the records.

Context Menus

• A context menu is a sub-menu which is activated by right clicking an entry.

• Each context menu is item-specific and varies between modules.

Side Panel

• Certain features open as a panel on the right-hand side of the screen.

• These panels contain tabs which can be opened or closed by double clicking the tab.

• Once opened tabs remain on the right until BOS Pro is restarted.

• The side panel defaults to a width of 472 pixels. However, it can be dragged to increase or decrease its width and that change is saved in an INI file in the Temp folder which is in the application folder.

• A sub-component module is a context-sensitive module which opens in the docked position and provides detailed information on the selected item. For example, right clicking an item on a list of quotations, and clicking View Material Summary on the context menu opens a summary that is docked on the right.

Workspace Navigation

Module Navigation

• The back button < returns to the previous screen.

• For example, Edit View's back button returns to the List View. The back button on List View returns to the Tile Menu.

Window Navigation

• The Menu button (three horizontal stripes) is the first icon on the icon row.

• Clicking it displays the Tile Menu irrespective of the current Workspace window.

• It is a quick way to obscure a display.