New purchase screen.

[Dale Harris]

The new "Stock table default" feature will work better if I make a slight change to the "Purchase" screen. The "Stock number" column and "Description" column are swapping places.

Here is a preview. http://keyhut.com/pos.jpg

You can all start complaining by posting replies to this post.

[lsunw]

The preview look same as what i'm using now with the POS 6.39...!!???
But I still like to remain as same like now...the stock number colum then description...

[Dale Harris]

I knew it. Release a new version of the POS program with a neat-o new feature, and ask for comments, and there will be no replies after 3 days, but a minor change to the purchase screen and there will be a complaint in less than an hour.

The graphic link above shows the description column to the left of the stock number column (if it doesn't hit the [Refresh] button on your browser) which is the opposite of the way it is in version 6.39.

It is a really tiny change and it is going to be that way unless someone can convince me that this change will lead to the demise of western civilization. Which I am sure that someone will attempt in order to make me put it back the old way.

[FormicaFun]

Dale, I like the new feature....and it is neat-o. I see your point about switching the colums around, and even if we don't use the new feature the impact of the change is minimal. I do, however, think that the sales screen is fine the way it is...but none the less this is your decision to make. My vote, leave the sales screen the way it is....I really don't see enough people using the new feature to justify the change.

-Ry )

PS Am I just slow to notice changes, but how long has the day of the week been including in the clock on the main screen?

[peewee3ie]

I like the new changes. It makes loking for an item the you have scanned easyer to find to see how many time you have scanned it. I am sorry that i have not replyed sooner, I was very busy the few days

[RollerBall]

Hmmm - don't need the new feature and prefer sales screen the way it is - so I guess I'll just stay with 6.39 for ever as it does everything I want

[brucef2112]

Dale,
I agree that the proposed change (Stock table default /column swap) makes sense to swap columns for this new feature. However I think
it would only benifit a very small segment of users. I think a larger number of users have more than just 10's of items in their stock table and are using scanners to ringup items. For those using scanners the new layout is a bit odd.
I prefer sales screen the way it was. However, I know there is at least one other person using DHPOS besides me. So....

Could the The new "Stock table default" feature with its column swap be a choice in the CONFIG setup? If not its own toggle in the POSCONFIG, then perhaps incorporated with the POSCONFIG SCANNER set up. Example, if the scanner config is 1"Program Chooses" or 3"All are scan" the column positions would display as in ver. 6.39. If the SCANNER was configured for 2"All are keyed" then the columns would shift for those using the stock table/group thingy (for those with short list of products).

just my 2cents, someone may have something better.....

Also note that the demise of Western Civilization started about 4 years ago but I think this latest modification may have accelerated it to the same rate that global warming is ending the entire world.

Bruce
<bruce has tight hold on his copy of 6.39>

[RollerBall]

I don't really get this at all. If a store only has 15 items in its stock table why not just hit F1 on the existing sales screen and select the product that way?

I may have missed something but I don't see what this 'update' is trying to achieve???? I doubt it'll be of any value to the very great majority of POS users who on the face of it so far don't like the screen changes.

Sorry Dale, gotta say it like it is...

[Dale Harris]

Rollerball,

It is true that you can press [F1] from the normal purchase screen and page #1 of the stock table screen will pop up, but then of course you have to press [F1], don't you?

It is also possible to just press the index letter key from the normal purchase screen (for example if you want to ring up the 3rd item from the first page of the stock table you would press [C] ) without displaying the stock table, but then you would have to memorize which letter goes with which item, wouldn't you?

The whole purpose of this feature is that you do not use the regular purchase screen to enter items into a sale, in fact you would rarely ever see it.

Here is an analogy. Most people in the U.S. hate the metric system because it is (to them) so complicated. If you tell them that something is 35 kilometers away they will have no idea how far that is until they convert that into miles by dividing 35 by 1.60934 to find that the distance is 21.7 miles. Doing that for every distance you want to know will really suck.

To everyone else on this planet the question is, "What is a mile?" Everyone else thinks that 35 kilometers is 35 kilometers, what could be simplier?

So the concept is to just forget the English system and use the metric system. And to just forget the regular purchase screen and just use the new feature if you have very few items in your stock table.

To most current users of the POS program you type in the stock number and press [ENTER] (or scan it) enter the quantity for the item, and go on to the next item. (I am ignoring the price.) You read the stock number printed on the item or look it up in the stock table. If you are selling 35 of something you easily enter "35" as the quantity. This is the "stock number" basis for ringing up items into a sale and it works fine. In fact it is what I used today at the mobile key shop.

Now picture a concession stand in a movie theater, which is actually what inspired this feature. They only have 14 items for sale (all candy is rung up under the same number.) Nothing has a stock number on it, they do not want to know the stock number, they don't care what the stock number is. They rarely have to ring up more that 2 of any one item into one sale.

What they want to do is to pick the items from a list printed on the screen. Do we want to make them press [F1] first for every item they ring up? Using the new feature the list is always up on the screen while you are entering items into a sale. To ring up 2 medium popcorn and 2 medium sodas all they have to do is look on the screen then press [B] twice, [G] twice, then [+] to total the sale. Or to ring up 2 sodas use the arrow key to scan down to that item and then press [ENTER] twice.

"Picking from a list" is what they want to do so the list should always be on the screen. That is what the new feature does.

So how does the new screen enhace the new feature? When the stock table is displayed over the regular purchase screen the upper left corner of the regular purchase screen is still visible. On the old screen you could see the "Pieces" and "Stock number" columns. http://keyhut.com/pos2.jpg But the folks who will be using the new feature do not have any concept of the stock numbers of what they are selling. They are selling hot dogs, not 25632's. So the new screen will show the "Pieces" and most of the descriptions of each item sold while the stock table is displayed.

To display even more of each description I had considered changing the column order to Pieces, Description, Line, Stock number, .... but then all current users would have attacked my house to hurt me.

The old column order was Line, Pieces, Stock number, Description, ....
The new column order is Line, Pieces, Description, Stock number, ....
I am just not seeing that big a deal.

To see a really big deal look here http://keyhut.com/newpos.htm

When I made that change to the screen I had to hide out in a 3rd world country for several months to save my hide. People hated it. Now that screen is the one that everyone does not want me to change, go figure.

One good thing that has come from this is that I now know that if traffic on the forum and in the chat room is sparse that all I have to do is to make some insignificant change to the purchase screen and traffic will spike.

Good to know.