General Settings Tab

The General Settings Tab is used for setting preferences that affect the behavior of the user interface. There are three sections visible on this tab:

• User Interface options - Affect the visibility of certain application messages.
• Reporting options - Affects how the application will print reports.
• File Locations options - Affects the location of certain portions of the file repository.

User Interface:

• Show tool tips: Enables or disables the presence of descriptive messages that appear when you hover your mouse over fields and other objects that are visible on the main user interface. These message will give you specific information about what to enter in a field.
• Show status bar tips: Enables or disables the presence of instructional messages that appear on the status bar of the main user interface. Consider these messages as being "quick help".
• Generate thumbnails: Enables or disables the generation of thumbnail versions of your photos and receipts. Generating thumbnails is a resource intensive activity that may impact the performance of HomeStuff when scrolling through the item list when the item view is expanded to show thumbnails. Disabling thumbnails will greatly improve performance.

Notes: These three user interface options can also be accessed through the "View" menu

Reporting:

• Preview before printing: When set, this option will intercept all printing operations and provide you with a report viewer that carries its own printing features. When reset, HomeStuff will print the report directly to your printer using the usual print dialogues.
• Suppress Graphics: When set, the "Item Detail" report will not print the photo associated with the item targeted by the report. When reset, this option will allow the graphic to appear on the report. This feature was added for users who do not have a printed capable of supporting high resolution graphics. This option would also be useful when you just want a quick report.
• Use Filters: When set and running reports, the reporting function will scan the filters to set their reporting criteria. This is a good way to create a report that targets a specific group of personal inventory items. For example, you could set the Location filter to "RV" and generate an "All Items by Description" report that would only target personal inventory items located at the RV.

Notes: These three user interface options can also be accessed through the "Reports" menu.

File Locations:

• Item Pictures: Location of the folder where the photos associated with your personal inventory items are stored. The select button will help you navigate to the folder of your choice should you wish to use a different location than the default. Please see what considerations you take into account when changing the defaults (below).
• Receipt Scans: Location of the folder where the scans of your receipts are stored. The select button will help you navigate to the folder of your choice should you wish to use a different location than the default. Please see what considerations you take into account when changing the defaults (below).
• Reset Repository Defaults button: This button will reset the file repository folder paths to point to the root of the application folder. This button should only be used when you move the application folder. This .NET application can be moved anywhere on the same machine without being affected because it does not use the Windows registry. It is not usually recommended to do so because it may affect the application installer when performing a product removal however, there are circumstances that could probably cause you to want to move the application after it has been installed. For example, backups are much more effective if you locate all of your critical data in one place. In such an instance, you could move the entire HomeStuff application folder from the Program Files folder to any other folder without any immediate adverse effect but you would want to come to the Generals Settings tab to reset the Repository Defaults to gain access to your photos and receipts after having moved the application to its new location.