Version 7 - Can you show me all the ways a Light can be programmed to work?

At this point, you may have a general framework of how you want your Light Panel to function, but need help knowing all the ways an individual Light can be programmed and how that programming will look.

System-Wide Options

The changes in this section affect every Light, at all workstations that are sharing communications on a network, and will need to be Published to all clients to take effect. You'll be making these changes from one workstation by choosing Menu>Preferences>Options>Advanced>System Wide Changes.

1. Single-click to activate a Light

This is the original way a Light was designed to work. It's also called an "immediate" light. Simply click on the Light to activate it. With a touchscreen, it's also a single touch to activate.

Set the Light to "Immediate" in a light editing window within System Wide Changes.

2. Adding a Color Tag

When a Light has a color tag chosen, that color will also be added to the Light's popup when it is activated. Lights with no color tag stay grey in the Color Tag area and their popups will be green when activated.

To add a Color Tag, choose the Light you want to edit and open its editing window in System Wide Changes>Light Panels. Then choose a color from the Drop-Down Menu and Save the Light to apply the color tag.

3. Adding a tone

Tones allow users to hear that a Light has been activated. When various tones are used, these become a code language of their own that can be heard in a stereo effect throughout the office. This minimizes the need for visual alerts.

4. Adding a prompt

Each light can be set to "prompt." This adds a colon to the light text and instead of immediately activating the light, opens up the Action Window so that more information can be added to the Light before posting it.

5. Adding a single BlueNote Tab

Notice that the Action Window in the moving image above is different from the Action window below:

 If you've programmed a light for a prompt to open up the Action Window, you may want to also add a deeper sub-menu inside of that Light. A set of 9 BlueNotes constitutes one tab. In a Light Editing window, choose any programmed tabs by toggling them Green before Saving the Light.

Once you've added the tab, you can then post different BlueNotes with its Light to give it many more functions. BlueNotes allow you to assemble Lights with different variables.

6. Adding multiple BlueNote Tabs

Lights may either have zero, one, two, three, or four sets of BlueNote tabs as sub-menus in an Action Window. You will select up to four BlueNote tabs when editing a Light:

If you don't add any BlueNote tabs to a Light, this is how the Action Window appears:

By choosing the BlueNotes when editing this Light, the four tabs now appear within the Light as demonstrated below. This allows for up to 36 possible BlueNotes that can be used with the Room 1 Light.

7. Changing the Light from Normal to High Alert to Urgent

A Normal light will only play its Tone a single time. To set a light to re-post itself automatically every 1 minute, you can change it to a High Alert. An Urgent alert is designed to re-post every 15 seconds as well as to add the Conversation/computer name to the Light when activated.

In a Light Editing Window, choose either Normal, High Alert, or Urgent.

Normal: Notifications will not automatically repeat

High Alert: Notifications will repeat every 1-5 minutes. 1 Minute is the default setting.

Urgent: Notifications will repeat every 15 seconds - 1 minute. Urgent lights will always display red with the Urgent tone. 15 seconds is the default setting.

You can adjust the repeat times for High Alert Lights and Urgent Lights in System Wide Changes under Timers.

8. Modifying or turning off Light Aging 

By default, all Lights start off green, then age to orange and finally to red. You can turn this feature off where the Light will stay green instead of aging. This will affect all Lights universally.

To turn off Light Aging, under System Wide Changes, choose the Advanced tab and then check the box that states "Disable Light Aging."

If you want to use Light Aging but simply would like to change the amount of time a light stays each aging color, this modification is made in System Wide Changes under the Timers tab as seen above.

9. Changing the Light's text display

The original Light text display is designed to alternate between the Light Name and the Last Comment (including BlueNotes), if one has been added. Here are the other options available:

• Show Light Name Only

• Show Last Comment Only

• Show First Comment Only

Once these options have been changed, all Lights will take on these characteristics.

10. Turning off the Blink feature

Active Lights normally will display a flashing effect on the Light button, but this can be turned off. This is a universal feature which is turned off in the Client Options Tab of System Wide Changes.

Blinking:

No Blinking:

11. Keeping the Light's text from changing colors

The text portion of a Light can be set to stay grey.  Check this option if you only want all Light buttons to display the aging color and not the entire light. This is turned off in the Client Options Tab of System Wide Changes.

Local Options

The following settings are made at each workstation, so will need to be set individually at each computer and will affect the appearance of all Lights as they are seen by that user only.

1. Right-clicking on a Light to clear

Instead of opening the Options window on an active Light to clear it, you may set all Lights to clear when using a Right-Click. This also allows the user to right-click on a Popup to clear the Light from the Light Panel. 

2. Viewing Elapsed time on the Light

Clicking on an active Light allows you to see the Elapsed Times of all active Lights on the panel. You can change this to stay on, and then update every minute if Elapsed Times has been turned on.

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3. Inserting the Conversation name/Panel name as a comment

Choosing this option to Insert Panel Name will cause the Conversation name to appear as a Comment every time that a Light is activated from this workstation.

4. Activating a  SmartWatch /Phone notification with a Light

If a user has turned Notifications on within this BlueNote client's Alert Manager and set the client to send notifications to the device of their choice, the activation of a Light can trigger a SMS text message, email, or push notification.

In the example above, the user has chosen to receive an SMS text message any time that the "Pt Arrived - Provider A" Light is activated from any computer on the network.  See more information about Text Notifications here.

Activation Options

The following settings change the way a Light works at the time of its use within that Light's Action WIndow.

1. Making the entire Light Flash - Escalation

Open up the Action Window on a Light and choose "Escalate" to cause the entire Light, including its text, to flash.

2. Adding multiple BlueNotes in a single Light activation

Left-clicking on a BlueNote within a Light adds it immediately. You can choose to add multiple modifiers to a Light in the Action window by right-clicking on each one. This will add the BlueNotes as Comments. Left-click on the final BlueNote to apply its tone and color to the active Light.

3. Delaying a Light activation

Any Light can be delayed from the Action window. Choose the Timer icon and then the amount of time to delay its posting. Add a Comment or a BlueNote then Post. The BlueNote Client will display a time icon on the Light indicating that a time-delayed Light is in progress.  The time-delay icon will only appear on the BlueNote Client where it is programmed. Once the amount of time has elapsed within the delay, the Light will activate normally.

4. Overriding the time stamp with a Priority button

Choosing P1, P2, or P3 makes a Light jump to the top of the sorting view. The highest priority is given to P1, then P2, followed by P3, which is higher than the time stamp of all non-Priority active lights. You can add a Priority to a new Light activation or to a Light already in progress.