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System Preferences

Concepts

System preferences are various settings which affect how you use VSys One. Some of these settings are global, meaning they affect all users and are stored in the database. Others are local, meaning they only affect the people using the same VSys.ini file.

Display

Various user interface settings.

Setting

Description

Display style

Changes the color scheme that VSys One uses.

Background image fade

On many lists, VSys displays a background image which helps you know where you are. This value edits how transparent that image is - 100 means it's invisible, 0 means it's visible and very colorful!

Logo

Adds a logo or an image of your choice to the lower left corner of your VSys screen.

Defaults

These values affect newly-created people, groups and addresses. All of these are global settings, meaning that they affect all users in VSys One.

State/province

Assigned to newly-created addresses.

Country

Assigned to newly-created addresses.

Language

Assigned to newly-created people and groups.

Default group for newly-created people

Assigned to newly-created people.

Hourly value for jobs which have no value assigned

For newly-created jobs and those without assigned hourly values, this is the monetary value will be used for each credited volunteer hour.

Default type for newly-created people

Assigned to newly-created people.

Default status for newly-created people

Assigned to newly-created people.

International

Various formatting and units settings.

Date format

All dates that VSys One displays will use this format. When importing, VSys will expect dates to be formatted like this.

Time format

All times that VSys One displays will use this format.

Duration format

How time durations, for example assignment lengths, are displayed. "hours:minutes (12:45)" or "Fractional hours (12.75)".

Phone format

Newly-entered phone numbers, if they have the required number of digits, will be formatted in this style. Those with too many or too few digits will not be changed, and existing phone numbers are not affected.

Hours distance units

The unit of measure for distance associated with hours records. Note: this only affects the display of the name of the field: "Miles" or "Kilometers". Changing this does not change any existing, saved data.

Edit/print units

When editing letter templates and printing documents, VSys will show margins, tabs, etc. in these units.

Use A4-sized paper

All reports which don't otherwise specify a paper size will use A4-sized paper if this is checked. Otherwise, US "Letter" format will be used.

Feature enabling

Enables/disables parts of VSys. When a feature is disabled, its options and tools will be hidden in most parts of VSys. No data is lost when a feature is disabled, but it is suppressed to simplify how VSys looks.

Enable tracing

Tracing is used to view when changes were made to various objects, especially people. It's also used for seeing when someone was last viewed or edited, and it must be enabled for the Recently viewed people link to be enabled in the person lookup tool. Tracing does take up a substantial amount of space: if it's turned on, you should clear out old trace records every few months using the Purge old trace records tool.

Enable VSys Web interface

Allows VSys to connect to the web interface where your volunteers can sign up online and view and update their information.

(This is VSys Web version 1, the non-live, synchronized system.)

Enable VSys Live interface

Enables VSys Live, the web interface which connects directly to your database in which web updates are made immediately, volunteers can search for jobs, enter hours, send messages, etc.

Note that you can't enable VSys Live unless you've entered a valid VSys Live registration code.

Enable mandates

Mandates represent a required term of service for a volunteer along with a fixed number of required hours.

Enable training

Training helps you track what classes your volunteers have taken.

Enable memberships

Memberships are used for all manner of things including clubs.

Enable background check processing

Background checks are used to verify the identity of your volunteers and that they don't have pasts which are incompatible with your organization.

Enable touchscreen/kiosk mode

Kiosk mode is the touchscreen interface and optional barcode/magnetic stripe scanners.

Enable projects

Projects are used for compartmentalizing special events from the rest of your assignments.

Enable job associations

Job associations connect people to jobs as active, substitute, etc. without using specific assignments.

Enable accounts

Accounts are used for tracking transactional data like donations, meals delivered, etc.

Enable SMS/Text messaging

Enables the built-in text messaging system.

Entrant images

When new portrait photos are imported for people, these rules will be applied. Existing photos are not affected. All of these are global settings, meaning that they affect all users in VSys One.

Preferred image width

The value that VSys will present as the preferred width for new photos. 600 is the recommended value.

Preferred image height

The value that VSys will present as the preferred height for new photos. 800 is the recommended value.

Maximum image width

The value that VSys will present as the maximum width for new photos. 768 is the recommended value.

Maximum image height

The value that VSys will present as the maximum height for new photos. 1024 is the recommended value.

JPEG image quality

When saving new photos internally, VSys uses the JPEG format. This is a "lossy" format which saves a lot of space, but does degrade the image slightly. Higher numbers represent a higher quality, lower numbers a lower quality. VSys only allows values between 60 and 95, inclusive.

Scanned images

Scanned images are those attached to comments and within certifications. If a new image is added via disk file, camera or scanner, and its size is larger than either dimension here, VSys will prompt you to optionally reduce its size.

Preferred image width, height

The values that VSys will present as the preferred width and height for new scanned images. 850 is the recommended value for width, 1100 for height.

JPEG image quality

VSys stores images in JPEG format, which is a lossy format, meaning that the image is reduced in quality slightly to tremendously reduce its stored size. A higher value here will store the image at a higher quality, with a consequent increase in its size on disk. The recommended value is 60, but you should scan, save, and then print some sample scanned forms to ensure that the reproduction quality is high enough that they are still legible.

Person lookup

Default person lookup method

When opening the person lookup tool, by default, show it with this lookup method selected: "Personal information", "See everyone in system", "See everyone in groups", "Address, phone, e-mail", "People on lists", "Distance from a postal code" or "Touchscreen/kiosk info".

When looking up people...

If VSys security is enabled, and the current user does not have "view" or "edit" rights to a person, in the person lookup tool, don't show any fields other than the ones selected here.

Fields to show in the person lookup tool

When opening the person lookup tool, if the user hasn't changed the list of columns to show, then show these.

Statuses

Mark inactive people as active...

When posting volunteer hours, if the volunteer is currently marked as any of the eligible statuses selected, VSys will change them to Active if the hours are not more than the given distance in the past.

Jobs

When assigning hours credit for teams...

Tells VSys what rules to use when crediting hours, miles and values when the assignment or hours record is for a team of people.

Allow extension of job assignments how far into the future

When creating or extending recurring assignments, allow them to be extended this many days into the future.

Hours per year to make a full-time employee

How many hours make one employee year. When VSys calculates FTEs (full-time employee equivalents), it will divide the number of hours by this value.

When entering hours, allow crediting to mandates

If you are using mandates, this will allow you to credit hours to complete the mandates.

Availability

Enable availability

Lets you track when volunteers and staff are available or not available.

Retain availability details how far into the past

VSys will delete the searchable availability detail records if they're at least this many days old. (Availability detail records can take up a lot of space.)

When the "Finish date" is left blank...

When entering availability, if no Finish date is provided, make availability for that person searchable how far into the future

Don't show a warning message...

When giving someone an assignment, if they don't have availability specified for that date, should VSys complain? (This option does not affect VSys warning you if the volunteer is specifically marked as "not available".)

Volunteer availability is location-independent

If checked, VSys won't prompt for locations when creating availability records, and when checking if someone is available, the location of the job is not relevant.

Next time the index rebuilder is run for availability...

Forces VSys to completely rebuild the availability detail records. If you've changed the Retain availability, When a "finish date is left blank" or Volunteer availability is location-independent boxes above, check this. The rebuild operation, using the standard index rebuild tools, will be time-consuming, but will ensure that all lookup records are stored correctly, old records are removed, and future lookup records are created when applicable.

Advanced

Options:

Don't use sports

Check this if sports are not relevant to your organization, VSys will remove all references to them.

Use only non-slot assignments

If you don't ever use job slots for your needs and volunteer assignments, check this and VSys will not offer to create them.

By default, don't warn when 12 or more hours are posted at one time

In the various hours entry tools, if this is checked, VSys will not show a warning if more than twelve hours are posted at one time for a person.

Disable spell checker in letters/mail merges

Turns off the automatic spell checker in the letter and letter template editor.

When checking for online updates, include non-released builds in the search

When this is enabled, if you manually check for online updates, VSys will show you the non-released versions. You will need your client-specific password to download these updates.

When creating an assignment, prevent saving if the location is invalid

If checked, VSys will require that any new, manually-created assignment have a valid location for the selected job.

When manually entering hours, require that a location be selected

If checked, when hours are entered manually (that is, not via assignments, or the touchscreen/kiosk), VSys will require that a location be selected before the hours can be posted.

Enable MAPI E-mail Robot to send messages via Outlook

Enables the MAPI variant of the E-mail Robot.

Enable the SMTP E-mail Robot

Enables the SMTP variant of the E-mail Robot.

Don't use bonus hours

Prevents new bonus hours from being entered, removes these fields from most reports and filters.

Disable "People as teams"

Disables the concept of people as teams, preventing new people from having this value set, and removing filters based on it. Does not affect this status for people who already have this value set.

For required trainings, a training with a status of "Pending" is sufficient.

If checked, jobs which require trainings are valid for a person who has that training with a status of "Pending", otherwise that status must be "Completed" to prevent VSys locking the person out of that job.

Enable formatted (RTF) comments

If checked, comments associated with people and other objects can be formatted with font sizes, colors and other attributes.

Only people designated as supervisors in a job's definition may be used as supervisors for hours, assignments, job associations and job slots.

This limits you to the supervisors that can used in hours and jobs to the ones that are preset in the job definition.

Hide nationality, place of birth and passport fields

Suppresses these fields in the profile editor.

Hide additional types for people

In the profile editor, prevents a person from getting types other than their primary types.

Hide additional groups for people

In the profile editor, hides the fields for giving a person more than his primary group.

Don't include a "comments" area for why people are banned

Use this to prevent your staff from entering comments or reasons about a volunteer's banning beyond selecting from the list of banned reasons you've provided.

When creating a new person, don't check to see if he/she already exists

Used when creating new people. Not recommended unless you're manually entering a new database from scratch.

Make all italic text in reports into non-italic

If checked, all reports which contain text formatted in italics will have that text changed to non-italics when printing.

Keep splash (startup) screen long enough to be read

As VSys One starts up, it shows its progress on the splash screen. When done, it closes that screen unless you check this box, which keeps the screen up long enough for you to read its quotes. (Local setting - only affects those using the same VSys.ini file.)

Prevent [Back] button from becoming [Close]

Normally when you hit the Back button and return to the VSys One main screen, Back becomes Close, and you can click that to exit the program. Checking this box makes the Back button disappear, and you need to click the X button in the upper-right to close VSys.

Show a confirmation prompt when closing

If checked, when you exit VSys, VSys will prompt you to ensure that you're exiting intentionally.

Don't show cool quotes on the splash/about screen

On the startup and About screens, VSys One shows quotes and sayings that the developers found interesting. Check this to make them not appear. (Local setting - only affects those using the same VSys.ini file.)

Open and close panels instantly instead of gradually

The various panels in VSys, including the one this option is on (Advanced), VSys normally opens them gradually over a period of about 1/2 second. Checking this box will cause them to "pop" open instantly or "slam" closed without any delays. This may be useful when using Terminal Services or Citrix over a slower connection.

Don't show hint balloons

This prevents all of the yellow hints from popping up automatically on any VSys screen. Note: this setting affects all users.

Redisplay suppressed hints

On many screens, VSys shows yellow hint windows in the lower right corner, and gives you the option to hide them forever. Checking this box will bring all of them back to life. (Local setting - only affects those using the same VSys.ini file.)

Show database status bar and debugging info at bottom of screen

Shows some text on screen which indicates which database you're using, resource allocation, and some other debugging information. This is useful if you commonly connect to multiple databases - VSys will show you which database each window is associated with. (Local setting - only affects those using the same VSys.ini file.)

Allow single-character family names for people

By default, VSys considers a family/last name with only one character to be incomplete, if this is checked, a single-character name will be allowed.

Disable the popup hints in the person lookup tool

Hides these yellow hover-over hint windows in the various person lookup tools.

Don't show photos in hints in the person lookup tool

In the hints which pop up over people in the various person lookup tools, if this box is checked, the person's photo will not be included.

In the Profile Editor, show projects

Show the Past projects tab for people registered in one or more projects.

Send exceptions reports via the web instead of e-mail

Uses the web-based submission tool for exceptions reports instead of trying to send them by e-mail. This option is most helpful in environments where no e-mail client is installed.

Shared addresses don't share phone numbers or e-mails.

Checking this means that when addresses are shared, phone numbers and e-mails are not. If this is not checked, a change to a phone number or e-mail address on a shared address changes the other person's phone number and e-mail address; if it's not checked, each address maintains its own phone numbers and e-mail addresses.

Disable right-click reports on lists on people.

This will turn off the option of getting to reports by right-clicking on a person.

Disable right-click credentials on lists on people.

This will turn off the option of printing credentials by right-clicking on a person.

Disable right-click add/remove to/from lists on lists of people.

This will turn off the option of adding people to or removing people from lists by right-clicking on a person.

Remove medical and diet alert fields in the Profile Editor as well as the old "Emergency Contact" field

If a person has no values in the Diet alert, Medical alert or old Emergency contact fields, the Alerts panel will not be shown.

Don't use the Company field in the Profile Editor

Hides the Company field in the Profile Editor.

Retrieve IntelliCorp background checks via XML rather than e-mail

If checked, when using IntelliCorp as for sending/retrieving background checks, VSys will now retrieve them directly from IntelliCorp's server using HTTP instead of expecting them to be sent by e-mail.

Other items

These types of relationships aren't relevant

Checking relationship types here suppresses them from relationship editors and filter. Check the ones that aren't relevant to your organization.

Suppress these types of quotes

If "cool quotes" are being displayed, suppresses quotes of these types.

When printing labels, use this order

Defines how VSys will print labels: "Rows first: left to right across, then down" or "Columns first: top to bottom, then across".

Hide these built-in reports

When right-clicking on a person you can run many of the built-in reports, check any reports here to hide them, usually in favor of having your staff use the ones you've defined.

Fiscal year starts

Setting the month here defines the starting month for your fiscal year, which then affects how VSys reports hours and account records when the reported fields refer to the fiscal year rather than the calendar year.

When entering hours manually, default to this start time

The changes the default start time when entering hours. The setup is midnight, but if you don't have any shifts starting before 8am, you might want to change it to later.

Maximum attachment size

Limits the size of the files which can be attached to someone.

Text to show in title bar

This shows the text you enter on the top title bar of your VSys window. This requires that you shut down and restart VSys to take effect.

Address

This represents the address of your organization. Values entered here are available in custom reports and in mail merges as well.

See Also

Setup

Accounts

Archived Reasons

Awards Types

Banned Reasons

Bonus Hours

Certification/Background Check Hints

Certifications

Comment Types

Contact Flags

Custom Fields

Custom Sports

Groups

Group Types

Holidays

Inactive Reasons

Interview Types

Job Associations

Job Preferences

Job and Job Groups

Locations

Mandate Types

Membership Types

Name Prefixes

Name Setup Options

Object Renaming

People Types

Placeholder People

Project Groups

Special Requests/Needs

Supervisors Setup

Training

Skills

Volunteer Sources

Volunteer Types

Walkup Checkin Jobs