The “Main Menu” screen will be the first thing you see when you log in to Artisan and holds a lot of information, which we will talk about here.
We will begin by breaking the screen displayed into sections and what can be accomplished in these sections.
Highlighted and directed to in red is the “Toolbar” that gives you quick access to the functions in “Artisan POS.”
These highlighted buttons are “Tool Bar Buttons.” These are configurable buttons designed for you to have some quickly accessible features usually reserved for the “Toolbar” menu. You can use “View“ -> “Tool Bar Buttons…“ – to configure these to display only the buttons that you would like to see. Or you can remove all of the buttons. If you would like the default view, select “Restore Defaults.”
This next highlighted section allows you to view the currently logged in “User.” You can also quickly log in and out by clicking on the blue icon. The “Station” name is displayed in this section. You’ll also find a drop-down button that allows “Users” to toggle between “Real Data” and “Practice (Sample Data).” “Sample Data” is a great way to try out new tasks and processes without causing any interruptions or issues with the actual data stored in Artisan. We’ll learn more about users and stations later, as well as switching to sample data and real data.
“Open Screens” provides a list of any screens you have open and allows you to switch between them efficiently for better multitasking. You’ll notice that the name of the screen that you’re currently on displays in “Open Screens,” and that will be the way it displays multiple screens. The screen you’re on will be highlighted a dark gray in the “Open Screens” section. You can also close open screens by “right clicking” with the mouse on the “Open Screens” box which will display the choice of “Close Screen” and “Close All Screens.” CerTek encourages using multiple screens but would also like to warn against maintaining too many open screens at one period of time due to resource management.
These buttons give you quick access to various integral parts of running your business. Unlike “Tool Bar Buttons,” the buttons located in this section cannot be modified or changed (ex. changing the order in which they display). Clicking on one of these buttons will take you directly to the menu or task associated with it.
Highlighted in this image is the visible shortcut indication. If the shortcut indicator shows a number key or “F5” for example, then you can hit those directly without needing to apply any other buttons to go directly to the directed menu or function. For example, pressing the “T” key on your keyboard will take you into the “Tools” menu.
Next, let’s learn about the different Artisan Menus.