Options vs User Preferences

How Do options and User Preferences Differ

User Preferences will only affect a particular user, this way one user can setup or change a default values without affecting any other users. The main use for user preferences is to allow each user to create a set of default values so that when a new item is created, many of the forms boxes can be filled in saving you time completing the form.

Options on the other hand will generally affect all users.

Why are options and preferences mixed

When you fist create an account, no user preferences will exist (since they are all new users), so each user must create their own set of preferences otherwise when a new item is configured all the required boxes will be empty and will be required to be completed manually until such time as a preference is created.

Rather than having new users with no preferences, PA creates a set of defaults values that belong to a global user, which are available from the options page and can be reconfigured to suit your needs. If PA cannot find any preferences for a user, it will automatically user these global preferences instead. When a user eventually creates a set of preferences, these will always be used and the global preferences will be ignored.

FOR-119: "Currently a user does not know if a user preference has been setup or if global user preference are being used", was raised because their was insufficient information provided by PA for a user to determine which preference was being used (the global or user preference).

User Preference Indication

To resolve FOR-119, a couple of changes have been made to help a user understand which preferences is currently being used. First of all "User Pref" and "Options" toolbar icons are now dynamic and will change to indicate your current setup. Also the options page is also dynamically modified such that the Global Preferences are removed from the setup page if a user preference is being used.

When Using "Global Preferences"

The "Options" button icon now includes a "User" icon when global preferences are being used

The "User Prefs" button icon now includes a "Configuration" icon indicating the user preferences are still to be configured.

The "Options" page also included's the "Register Defaults" menu on the navigation bar and the word "Global" will be added to the options page title.

When Using "User Preferences"

The "Options" button icon NO longer includes a "User" icon when global preferences are being used

The "User Prefs" button icon now includes a "Check" icon indicating the user preferences have been configured already.

The "Options" page NO longer included's the "Register Defaults" menu on the navigation bar.