General reference concerns

This section documents CaptureDent’s™ overall interface and other general matters.

The main window

CaptureDent’s main window is where most program operations take place. Like most Windows application windows, you can move it by dragging the caption bar, resize it by dragging any edge or corner of the window’s border.

Caption bar

Like most Windows applications, across the top of CaptureDent’s main window is a caption bar. Here you’ll find…

• A control-menu icon, at the left;
• a caption containing
  • the name of the program,
  • the name and ID code of the active patient (or “no patient”), and
  • the name and ID code of the active provider;
• a “Minimize” button;
• a “Maximize/Restore” button; and
• a “Close program” button.

The control-menu icon and the three window control buttons all behave identically to those in other Windows applications.

Tip: You can also maximize the window (make it fill the entire screen) by double-clicking the title bar. If it’s already full-screen, double-clicking will restore it to its previous size. This works for nearly any Windows program that can be maximized and restored, not just CaptureDent.

Main menu

Just under the caption bar is the main menu. This provides an alternate way to access some of the functions in CaptureDent. You can do the same things using toolbar buttons or other controls. However, the menus can be operated via the computer keyboard. This provides several benefits to advanced users.

The descriptions that follow document all the items on the main menu, and the sub-items under them.

File

The only item under the “File” sub-menu is…

• Exit — Quits the CaptureDent program and returns to Windows.

Patients

When you’re on the “Patients” page, the main menu will display an item marked “Patients”. The functions in its sub-menu duplicate the functions of the buttons in the “Selected Patient” information box.

Tip: Highly skilled typists, and others who are better at typing than using a mouse, might find it easier to enter records using the keyboard menu shortcuts instead of the “Selected Patient” buttons. With a little practice, a keyboard-only data entry technique can become very efficient.

These are the items in the “Patients” sub-menu…

• New — Prepares to create a new patient record; clears all patient information text entry boxes, places cursor in “Patient ID” box, ready for you to begin filling in patient info.
• Find — Prepares to conduct a search for specified patient record or records; clears all patient information text boxes, enables just those boxes representing data fields on which you can search, places cursor in “Last Name” field, ready to type in the most common search criterion.
• Erase — Clears all patient information text boxes so you can make a clean start re-entering a patient record.
• Edit — Makes patient information text boxes editable so you can update them; places cursor in “First Name” field.
• Cancel — Abandons any changes you’ve made on the record currently being entered or edited. If you are entering a new patient record, this will leave the data entry task without saving the record you were entering. If you were editing an existing record, cancelling will leave the record as it was before you began this edit.
• OK — Accepts all changes you’ve made to this record. If you are entering a new record, it will be stored in CaptureDent’s database and made available to the program immediately. If you’re editing an existing record, it will be updated in the database to reflect any alterations you made.

Capture

The choices on the “Capture” menu, which is shown only on the “Capture” page, duplicate the picture-taking functions that are also available via mouse clicks in the preview area, toolbar buttons, and optional external controller devices.

Due to the nature of menus as opposed to the other control mechanisms for picture-taking, the form in which the menu items appear is slightly different from the corresponding buttons. However, their operation is logical and easy to understand. These items are available in the sub-menu…

• Freeze/Keep — Operates the Toggle picture-taking function. That is, if the live preview is showing, this menu item will display “Freeze”. Clicking it will freeze the frame so you can inspect the photo and accept or reject it. If you have already frozen a frame, the item will display “Keep” and clicking it will store the image and return to live preview.
• Cancel — If you have frozen a frame and decide you don’t want to keep it, choosing this item will return you to live preview without saving the photograph.
• Capture — Combines the freeze and keep operations into one. Clicking this item will capture an image and save it, then return immediately to live preview. You won’t get a chance to reject the photo, but you can later delete unwanted images on the “Review” page. (This must be done on the same calendar day the photos to be deleted were taken. After that they become permanent.

Review

This menu item is shown only when you’re on the “Review” page. In CaptureDent 3.0 it serves as a place-holder for future menu options, and has no sub-menu items.

Process

When you are on the “Process” page, this sub-menu is displayed. It provides an alternative way to access several important image processing functions that you can also control using the toolbar buttons.

Here are the functions available from the “Process” sub-menu…

• Revert — Same as the red X-marked “Revert” button; removes any changes you’ve made during this processing run, reverting to the state the image was in when you most recently entered the “Process” page.
• Rotate 90° clockwise — Spins the image (and any annotations you may have placed on it) ninety degrees clockwise. If your image was in landscape orientation, after rotation it will be in portrait orientation, and vice versa.
• Rotate 90° counter-clockwise — The same, but in the opposite direction.
• Rotate 180° — Turns the image around its center until it is upside down and backwards. The image’s orientation will be the same after rotation as before.
• Flip horizontally — Reflects the image across an imaginary centerline, exchanging left for right and vice versa. Up and down remain unchanged.
• Flip vertically — Reflects the image by switching top for bottom and vice versa. Left and right remain unchanged.
• Place annotation — Prepares you to place a floating annotation marker and/or text caption on the image.

More functions will be added to this menu, and to the toolbar controls, in upcoming versions of CaptureDent.

Notes, Practice, Options

Like the “Review” menu item, these serve as place-holders and contain no sub-menu items you can select. Enhanced editions of CaptureDent will use these sub-menus to give you another route to accessing the functionality of the corresponding pages, in much the same way the other pages’s sub-menus do.

Help

This sub-menu contains the following items related to learning CaptureDent and making the program more self-explanatory…

• Hints — Turns pop-up hints on or off. These are small yellow boxes which describe the functions of most controls in CaptureDent; leaving the mouse pointer stationary for a few seconds over a controll will cause the hint to pop up if this menu choice has been checked.
• Manual — Brings up the CaptureDent 3.0 manual (the document you’re now reading) in your favorite web browser.
• Upgrade — Brings up the registration dialog box. This describes how to register your copy of CaptureDent, turning your demonstration program into the full edition. Along with the instructions, this box displays your serial number and provides a box into which you must type your registration number when you receive it.
• Start-up Wizard — Starts up the CaptureDent Start-up Wizard, an interactive tutorial that runs along with CaptureDent. This leads you step by step through the basics of configuring the program to work on your system, for your practice.

Status bar

At the bottom of the main window is CaptureDent’s status bar. This shows messages and informational items during certain operations.

Picture-taking state indicator

At the left of the status bar is a box that ordinarily contains an indication of the picture-taking state. Depending the picture-taking function you most recently invoked, this will read “Ready,” “Frozen,” or “Cancelled.”

Printout slot selection indicator

While you’re picking images to fill the slots in a print layout, the leftmost segment of the status bar will present messages describing your progress. These messages will list which image slot your next selection will fill, how many slots are in the chosen layout, the layout’s name, and the orientation — landscape (wide) or portrait (tall). Each time you pick an image to fill a slot, the message will be updated accordingly.

When all slots have been filled with images, the status bar will show a message reflecting this.

Reserved areas

The remaining areas on the status bar are reserved for display of status information for advanced functionality that will be introduced in upcoming enhanced editions of CaptureDent.