Custom Screens are used to design customised data entry windows that can be attached to various parts of the EXACT program.

Custom screens are usually attached to Chart service items, although they can also be used to record medical history and create extra tabs in the Patient File window to record specialised information. When applied to treatment services, custom screens remain editable after the treatment is charged, up until midnight on the day of charging - see Editing and Viewing Custom Screens and Clinical Notes

Any information that is entered into a custom screen can be reported on. Custom screens can help to reduce time in the surgery when entering clinical notes; for example a custom screen designed for root canal therapy can immensely reduce the amount of typing required.

Some custom screens will have been set up for you when EXACT was installed, or as part of an upgrade process. If you wish to add a new custom screen, but are unsure of what to do even after reading the following instructions, please contact SOE Support.

Create a Custom Screen

Create custom screens and link them to services so that they pop up as required during charting.

TIPS:

Build custom screens on the practice computer that has the lowest screen resolution. The reason for this is that if you build it on a wide screen PC and then try and use it on a smaller screen part of the custom screen may be cut off.

When building a combo box add a combo entry with a blank title, so that you can set the default as blank rather than already having an entry.

To create a Custom Screen

1. Select Configure > Custom Screens… to open the List Custom Screens window, which lists all custom screens that are currently in your database:

   

2. Click the +1 button on the tool bar at the bottom of the screen to add a new Custom Screen.

   

3. Create the custom screen from this window:

   Code - Click in the Code field and enter a brief name for the custom screen (no more than 10 characters, and it must be unique, as it will be used to identify this screen).

Title - Click in the Title field and enter a brief title for the custom screen that indicates the purpose of the screen, such as "Instructions to Hygienist", "Medical History Update", "Prescription background details". etc.

You can use the e|d, +1 and delete option below to build the contact list

1. Configure custom screens to pop up as required during charting:

   Three mutually exclusive choices are available in the service record.

   Go to Configure > Services > double-click a service to display the Edit Service Item window.

   
   

   

   The choices are displayed alongside the selected Custom Screen field:

   

   • Popup disabled (don't pop-up). Use this option to create a new screen that you don't want to use just yet. When you are ready to use it, select either of the next two options.

   • Popup when planned (when charting). This will display the custom screen when the charting details are entered.

   • Popup when completed (when the patient chart is saved).
     

Add a Custom Screen Entry Field

When you create a custom screen, you need to add the entry fields to it, as defined below.

The Medical Alert Trigger is only intended for use with Medical History, and does not trigger in other system areas such as Charting.

1. In the "Add Custom Screen" window, click the

   

   button to display the Add Form Field window:

   

   

2. Complete the fields in this window as follows (note that any attributes that are inapplicable for a particular type, or that are set by the system, or that cannot be set at this point, will be greyed out)

3. As you enter each field, click the OK button to save it.

Example 1 - Simple Custom Screens

The following example creates a simple custom screen for ‘Monitoring Lab Work’. This custom screen will have:

• A drop-down selection for the laboratory used, with two lab names created.

• Another drop-down for the shade of crown, with several values for this.

• A date field for the date an order was sent.

• Another date field for when the completed order was received.

• A drop-down for the checked status of the delivered order ('satisfactory', 'unsatisfactory')

• A text field for the person who received the order to enter their initials.

1. From the Configure menu, select Custom Screens….

2. Click the

   

   button at the top of the window to add a new Custom Screen.

3. Enter LABS as the unique code.

4. Enter Monitoring Laboratory Work as the title.

   

   NOTE: The Set Default Entries button is inactive at this point in the process. As fields are added to the Custom Screen, you will use this button to view the way the screen will look.

5. Click the

   

   button to add a field to the Custom Screen.

6. Select Combo Box as the field type from the drop down list (this is the field type for drop-down menus).

7. Enter Lab Used as the Title. The remaining fields should be completed as in the example window below:

   

8. Click OK to save the field entry information. This will return you to the Add Custom Screen window and display the entry as shown below:

   

   NOTES:
   The Set Default Entries button will display the custom screen being created, provided that at least one field has been added.
   To view and/or modify the settings for a field, click on it to highlight it, then click the Edit button.
   Highlight a field and click on the Delete button (bin) to delete it.

9. Repeat the above steps, selecting the appropriate Type and other variables, to add the following fields according to the examples shown below:

a) Add a laboratory name:	b) Add a second laboratory name:
c) Add the 'Shade' drop-down field:	d) Add a value for 'Shade':
e) Add a second value for 'Shade'	f) Add a third value for 'Shade'
g) Add 'Date Sent' field	h) Add 'Date Received' field
i) Add a 'Checked' status drop-down	j) Add a 'Checked' status code
k) Add a second 'Checked' status code	l) Add a Text field for a user's initials

1. The ‘Add Custom Screen’ window will now look similar to the following:

   

2. Click the Set Default Entries button to view the completed custom screen and set any default entries.
   Setting default entries means that the selected options will be displayed each time the custom screen is used, minimising the amount of data entry for instances where a particular value is more commonly used than the other options. For instance, in this worked example, the checked status 'Satisfactory' is much more likely to be used than 'Unsatisfactory', so you would set that as the default.

   

   To set a default, click a drop-down, or enter a value in a field, as appropriate.

3. If any of the fields are incorrect - for instance, there is a spelling mistake, two fields have been assigned to the same line and overlap, or a field is too short to allow the necessary data to be entered, click the Cancel button, and return to the 'Edit Custom Screen' window.
   Click on the field that needs editing, and click the Edit button to open the 'Edit Form Field' window for that field.
   Use the Set Default Entries button again to check the results.

4. After setting the defaults, click ‘OK’ to save the selected defaults and close the window, then click the Save button save the custom screen and make it available for use throughout EXACT.

Example 2 - Complex Custom Screens

The following example is a more complex Custom Screen, which incorporates more than one field on the same line, and a mixture of check boxes, option buttons, and drop-down (combo box) fields, as shown in the example below:

1. From the ‘Configure’ menu, select ‘Custom Screens’ (if this window is not already displayed).

2. Click on the

   

   button to add a new Custom Screen.

3. Enter ‘HYGDET’ as the unique Code.

4. Enter ‘Hygiene Details’ as the Title.

5. Click on the

   

   button to add the required fields. The first one will look similar to this example:

   

   
   Note that it is a 'Label' type field, and that the 'Bold' checkbox is ticked, as we want it to stand out from the other labels on the screen.

6. Click the 'OK' button to save the field.

7. Following the same steps as outlined in Example One (steps 5-8) add the following fields to create the ‘Hygiene’ Custom Screen.
   Note that for each checkbox, we need to add an offset from the previous one on the same line.
   To keep them nicely lined up, we'll make this an even increment of 75.

To work out the 'Field left offset' for even spacing with no overlap, take the number of characters plus spaces for the longest field (apart from the right-most one), multiply this by 7, and add 15. So for our example, this is 'Dark Red', with 8 characters (including the space). This comes to (8 x 7) +15 = 71. To make the increment easier to calculate, this could be rounded off to 75 or even 80 (if we wanted a bit more space between fields).
So, the label has an offset of 5 (to space it out from the edge of the window, and subsequent fields have offsets of 75, 150, 225, and so on.

a) Add a check box for 'Firm'	b) Add a second check box for 'Boggy'
The first two fields will look like this:

Rather than show each window, below is a summary of the settings for each field for the first three lines of the table. (Note that inapplicable fields have been omitted from the table).

The next group of fields are slightly different, in that they are Option Groups and Option Buttons.
They are also arranged in two columns, on five lines each. They are set up as summarised in the following table:

The last group of fields insert the last line which contains a label and two combo boxes regarding Bleeding.

Click on the

button to view your completed custom screen and select the required default entries.

Tips and Tricks With Custom Screen Layout

Our finished screen in the example above has lots of fields, and looks a little 'busy' as a result. If we add some blank lines between blocks of fields, by skipping line numbers 4 and 10 (and adding one to the line number of the fields that were on lines 4 to 8, and make what was line 8 line 11 instead), it gives us a screen that is still compact, but easier on the eye.

Another problem is that the drop-down items (Combo Boxes) for 'Bleeding' drop down to obscure the 'OK' and 'Cancel' buttons. One way to get around this, is to add another field on line 12 which adds an extra line between the other fields and the buttons. (We could also add it on line 13 to add two extra lines, if required). If we add a 'Label' field on line 12, and save it with a blank 'Title', space is allocated in the window for it, moving the 'OK' and 'Cancel' buttons down, but it is effectively invisible, with a width of 0. The resultant screen looks like this:

Field Order and Default Values

Another trick for usability is considering the order of fields, and what default values (if any) you assign. With our example above, you will note that for each data entry field, the most commonly chosen (or 'most healthy') options are positioned next to the prompt or label for the field, and the 'least healthy' are furthest away. This consistency makes it more logical for the user. If for example, the order of the 'Oral Hygiene' options were reversed, it would be not unlikely that the user would select the wrong option first, then correct it.

Whether you set default entries for each field, and what defaults you choose, is up to you. On the one hand, if you set the defaults to the most common options, it minimises data entry. On the other hand, leaving fields blank forces the user to enter a value, which tends to make them check the defaulted values are correct. However, unlike other screens in EXACT, custom screens do not force mandatory data entry for fields. If there is a label on the window instructing users that particular fields should not be left blank, it will help minimise missing data.

Custom Screen Field Placement Guides

To become proficient at creating custom screens, a good eye for field placement and sizing is useful.

Maximum positioning co-ordinates will depend on the screen size of the monitor and the resolution it is running. If computers with different display settings are in use, custom screens should be designed to be viewable from any computer.

The following tables can also be used as a guide.

Field Position

These are fields with a width of 50 spaced every 50 units. Each field below displays within it the field starting position.

Field Width

In general, a guide for calculating field size is to multiply the number of characters by 7, then add 15.

So a field that has a list of parameters where the longest parameter title is 10 characters will need to be 85 units wide.

This shows Field widths ranging from 10 units to 400. Numbers have been entered into the fields to give you an idea of the amount of text different size fields can contain. The letters ‘M’ and ‘W’ are wider than most characters, and therefore have more of an effect on the overall amount of text a field can display.

Tips when Creating Custom Screens

Design

Always create a design on paper first. Decide on the information to record, what Field Type would best achieve this and where this will be positioned on your Custom Screen.

Consider future requirements, e.g. Labs; while only two may be used now there may have more in the future. Therefore it would be wise to use a Combo Box (not an Option Group) as this can easily accommodate additional entries without the need to redesign the Custom Screen field placement.

Tab Order

Add fields in the order they should be tabbed through, since the tab order is set to the order the fields were created and cannot be altered. If additional fields will be added in future, add Label fields while building the screen but do not enter any label text. These will be blank fields not displayed when the Custom Screen is used. These can be changed into the appropriate field type in the future to accommodate changes. These blank fields can also be used to enter blank lines into a custom screen to space the fields and avoid it looking crowded. Another trick for doing this is to skip line numbers; for example, if you had a block of fields in lines 0 to 6, and wanted a gap to separate the next block of fields, start the numbering again at line 8.

Treatment Planning

It can be difficult to manipulate treatment plans when large custom screens are attached to services. Consider creating a set of services specifically to hold the custom screens. These can be added to the Course of Treatment when it is time to complete the custom screen and not before. To easily locate and recognise a custom screen service, create a separate Service Category ‘-Custom Screens’ to list these.

Bulky Custom Screens

There is a limit to the number of fields allowed on a custom screen. Split large custom screen designs into two or more parts and attach these to separate Services.

Tabbed Custom Screens

As of EXACT vxx.xx you can also use Tabs for Custom Screens:

For a list of downloadable Custom Screens See EXACT Custom Screen Archive - UK & EIRE