Every software uses certain terminology to name masks, areas, dialogs or menus. As a user, you will always come across these terms when reading the user manual, we highly recommend that you read this article before starting with the user manual.
In this section we will cover:
- The name of various User Interface Elements
- Which functions and more specifically which tasks are covered
- Which Settings are offered
1. General Information
Good knowledge of the user interface and display customizations will empower you to develop a fluid and efficient way of working. The user interface is composed of the following elements/areas:
Menu Bar [8] (yellow) – Central navigation, switching between functional areas.
Action Bar [9] (magenta) – Content is context sensitive, depending on the menu item selected
Breadcrumb [2] (green) – »path« to the current page
Filter Bar [3] (orange) – Displayed for lists and is used to filter entries in the list
Central Area [4] (cyan) – Where the actual work with the Workflow takes place. Content is displayed using lists, overview pages and selection areas.
Footer [6] (red) – Additional information about the currently selected area, information about the license and the version number of the Workflow.
Figure 1: The view with the Job menu item selected.
2. Menu Bar
The menu bar [8] is located on the left edge of the screen and contains central menu items such as Articles, Order, Jobs, Automation, Color and Administration, as well as the user picture/avatar [1] of the person logged in.
Some menu items are marked with a down arrow [5]. They do not perform any action, but only serve to group other menu items. Clicking on the icon shows the commands available in it [10] (Figure 2). The yellow line at the edge indicates that the menu item is selected. Whether one or more groups are displayed open in the menu bar can be selected under the user preferences (Administration > Settings).
The menu bar is available in two different views, which can be switched between by clicking on the arrow [9] at the bottom of the left corner of the footer. These views are:
- Standard view (figure below left)
- Thumbnail view (figure below right)
If the thumbnail view is active, no pop-up arrows are available for the main group icons. The menu items are then displayed by moving the cursor over the group icon [11].
Figure 2: The standard as well as the thumbnail view of the menu bar.
3. Action Bar
The Action Bar is located at the top of the screen. It provides access to Status [12], Actions [13], Logout [14], Language selection [15] and access to the User Manual [16].
Depending on the menu item you are in, the type and number of actions offered may vary.
Figure 3: The Action Bar with the functions it contains.
3.1. Status
In the action bar you will find a clearly visible overview of the status and utilization of the workflow server. The Activites and System Status overview is described below. Yellow and red numbers attached to the icons indicate problems or warnings that have occurred even without showing the respective windows.
3.1.1. Activities
Running, Queued, Successful as well as Errors in the Workflow are displayed in the Activities [17] option, across all processes of the Workflow.
Figure 4: The Activities area of the action bar.
You can find information about the progress of all running processes in the system by clicking the Activities icon [17]. It is always visible and opens the Activities window when clicked:
Figure 5: The Success tab in the Activities window.
The Activities window has four tabs:
- Running: All running processes as well as the progress of individual processes are displayed here. The number in the yellow circle (above the symbol [17] on the left) shows how many processes are currently being executed by the system.
- Queued: Here processes are displayed that are waiting to be processed. The reason why a process is in the queue can be due to prioritization of a process on the one hand and overload of the system on the other hand.
- Success: You can see all successfully executed processes. If you click on an entry, [20] the start and end time as well as the resulting duration will be displayed.
- Error: This lists all failed as well as aborted processes including causal error messages. The number in the red circle (right above the symbol [17]) indicates how many processes failed.
Only the last seven entries are displayed in the respective tabs. As soon as more than seven entries are available, the option to scroll [18] to the next seven entries is offered below the tab.
Deleting Entries in the Activity Window
If you want to delete all entries from the list, click Clear List [21]. Individual entries can be removed from the list by clicking on the trash can icon [22] shown on the right. Please note that these entries will be irrevocably deleted!
Number of entries in Activities
The number of entries displayed in Activities depends on the number of processes that have run within a specified time period. All activities beyond this time window are automatically deleted by the Workflow. The time period used to automatically delete the activities can be set globally under Administration > Settings > General under the option Show activities for XX hours.
Displaying Activity Details
If you want more information about one of the listed processes, click on the entry in the list. The following details about a process are displayed in the Detail View:
- Which content (Print Item, Order, Production Jobs, RIP, etc.) is involved.
- Which Process Step was executed.
- The Start and End time of the process.
- The Process Duration.
For the entries in the Error tab, you will also see a corresponding error message that indicates the possible cause of the problem.
Figure 6: The Detailed View of the process.
Hiding the »Activities« Window
The Activities Window overlays all open dialogs, menus and the central area. To close it, click the Activities icon again.
3.1.2. System Status
In System Status [23] you can find out the runtime states and the License status your system has, including whether you have a maintenance contract or not.
Figure 7: The System Status icon visible in the action bar.
Information about the current System Status can be seen via the System Status icon [23]. This icon is always displayed regardless of which area is active in the Workflow. Clicking the icon opens the System Status window, which is divided into four tabs: Info, Configuration, File Management and License:
Number of Warnings and Errors
The number in the circle to the right above the System Status icon always indicates the sum of all status messages in these four tabs.
Information
Here you will find version information about the central software components (Backend, Frontend and ZuniComm, the DW build as well as the Masterdata build) [24], also External Services (Zuni Extract, Zunicomm, Analytics Collector) [25] as well as the database (Version, Driver, Version, Path [26]).
If services need to be restarted, this can be done via the Restart Service buttons [27] for both PMS and ZuniComm via the interface.
Figure 8: The Information tab of the System Status window.
Configuration
As an example we see that the Configuration tab includes a list of all items that are missing various defaults. These include:
- Substrate Categories without default Substrate defined [28]
- Substrates without default Substrate Shapes [29]
- Substrates without default Color Policy [30]
Figure 9: The Configuration tab of the System Status window.
Correcting Errors
Incomplete Substrate Shapes can be opened and edited or completed by clicking on the respective entry. This should keep the list of incorrectly created Substrates as short as possible.
File Management
This indicates whether the paths to the central data storage location and the database are accessible to the Workflow.
Figure 10: The File Management tab of the System Status window.
System Instability
If one of these drives or directories is not available, this can lead to a partial or complete failure of the Workflow system. These problems should be corrected as soon as possible.
License
this tab displays the information about the currently loaded license:
- Licensed Package [31]. You can see additional options that have been activated for the package by clicking the icon [36].
- Workflow Version [32] Indicates which functionality is covered by the current license. For example, version 1.12.0 could be installed, but only the functionality of the Workflow license 1.11.2 may be accessible. Therefore, always check whether the Workflow version of the license is the same as the installed version of the Workflow.
- OEM, Licensee, Contact Person and Contact E-mail of the license holder [33].
- Maintenance Contract ID as well as the Maintenance Contract Expiry Date for the currently activated license [34]. If there are any questions about a license, always use the maintenance contract ID when communicating with your contacts, as this allows all license information to be located quickly.
- Number of licensed HHR instances as well as licensed multiline printing systems [35].
Figure 11: The License tab of the System Status window.
3.2. Actions
In the second area, the Action Bar, displays all actions that can be used or are available at the moment. Depending on the selected menu item, the number of actions as well as the name of these actions can change.
Figure 12: The Action Bar for a selected item in the Job list.
In general, actions are executed by clicking on their entries/symbols. If several options are available for an action, these are displayed in a drop-down menu. So that the user can be sure for which element (e.g. Order, Order Item or Print Item) an action is executed, the corresponding designations are also displayed in these menus.
Figure 13: The Edit menu for a selected Print Item in an Order.
The main actions are:
- New: Create a new item: Article, Order, Order Item, Print Item, Production Jobs, Color, Templates, etc.
- Edit: This allows editing of a selected element: Article, Order, Order Item, Print Items, Production Job, Color, Templates, etc. As long as no element is selected, this action is inactive.
- Duplicate: This allows duplicating a selected element: Article, Profiling, etc.
- Delete: With this function you can delete selected elements: Article, Order, Order Item, Print Item, Production Job, Color, Template, etc.
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Action: This entry can contain various actions that go beyond the normal actions such as: new, edit and delete. You can execute various processes in the Workflow, depending on the menu item. Examples of such processes are:
- Create a Production Job from an Article or Order
- Create an Order from an Article
- Split a multi-page document into single Print Item
- Create Color Setup variations: CMYK, CMYK-O, CMYK-OV, K only, etc., from a large color space, e.g. CMYK-OVG
- Import a color library of Pantone, HKS or RAL colors
- Jump back to a previous version of an Print Item
- Restore deleted data etc.
- Empty recycle bin
- Create Approval Reports for multiple selected Print Items/Articles
- Create Ink Cost Reports for multiple selected Print Items/Articles
- Apply Fixups for multiple selected Print Items/Articles
- Apply FIxup Chains for multiple selected Print Items/Articles
- Duplicate Routines
- Send to Printer: Production Jobs can be sent to the printer, the current RIP process as well as applying color management will be executed.
- Export: This function allows you to export entire Orders, Production Jobs, Profiling, etc.
3.3. Logout
Pressing Logout disconnects the logged-in user from the system. The login window appears and a new session can be opened under a different user if desired. For further information, please refer to the article Login to the Workflow.
Figure 14: The Logout icon in the action bar
What happens to running processes?
Note that running processes are not terminated by logging off. However, an upload process might not complete correctly.
3.4. Languages
The Language selection option is available in the user interface.
Figure 15: The display or selection of the language in the action bar.
For more information on the availability of languages and how to change languages, see the article Choose your display language.
3.5. User Manual
The user manual can be opened up in the respective selected system language. Currently, the manual is available in German and English and some parts in Italian.
Figure 16: The User Manual icon of the action bar.
4. Breadcrumb Navigation
Below the Action Bar is the Breadcrumb Navigation. Breadcrumbs specify the "path" to the current element in the Workflow – and show the user in which functional area or hierarchal level of the Workflow they are located.
You can also use Breadcrumb Navigation to jump to higher hierarchy levels. To do this, click on a name within the "path", which will take you to the corresponding hierarchy level. The figure below, for example, shows that you are viewing the Print Item of an Order named »DW-7066«. To acces the Order List overview for example, you can click on Orders.
Figure 17: Use breadcrumbs to quickly navigate between options in the Workflow.
5. Filter Bar
Filtering content can be done in many ways. The filter bar is shown in most of the displayed lists and is explained in detail in the article »How Filters Work«.
6. Central Area
All interaction with data (print, order, customer data, etc.) takes place in the central area. According to the requirements of the work to be done, different display formats are used:
- Lists – Article, Order, Production Job lists, etc.
- Dialogs – Force Print, Send to Printer dialog, input dialogs, etc.
- Step-by-step instructions – Profiling, creating Approval Reports and Ink Cost Reports.
- Settings areas – Adding the Printer, adding a Substrate, adding a measurement device, creating Fixup Chains, etc.
- Overview Pages – Print Item detail view, lightbox, before and after comparison, etc.
You will find a detailed description of the different display formats in the following articles.
7. Footer
The footer is located at the bottom of the screen and contains only one active element: an arrow [37] for switching the menu between standard and thumbnail view.
On the right, you will find the workflow's copyright notice and information on the installed version [38] as well as the license information [39].
Figure 18: The footer of the Workflow.
Article Update: Version 1.11.1 01/2022