Escape, Back and closing forms

In SeroBooks Esc always means one step back. Each press undoes one level of whatever you opened last: a drop-down list first, then a pop-up, then a step inside the screen, then the window itself, until you are back on the Home Page, where it stops. It never throws away typed work without asking.

What each press of Esc does

SeroBooks looks at what is in front of you and takes the first of these steps that applies:

1. A menu is open — the menu closes.
2. A drop-down list is open under a search field (a customer, vendor, item or account list) — the list closes and the field keeps what you typed.
3. A pop-up window is open (a dialog such as a confirmation or a picker) — it closes, as its Cancel button would. A pop-up that must not be interrupted, such as one waiting for a card terminal or for a job to finish, stays open.
4. The cursor is in a search box with something typed in it — the box is emptied. The next Esc carries on down this list.
5. The cursor is in another filled box (a memo, an amount, a date) on a screen that does not ask before closing — the cursor leaves the box. Nothing you typed is removed. On a form that asks before closing, Esc goes straight on to the next step and the form asks.
6. The screen has a step of its own to go back — it goes back one step: a report shown as a monthly summary returns to its lines, a page you drilled into from a list returns to the list.
7. The window in front was opened from another window — the window closes and you return to the window you came from (for example, an invoice opened from a report returns you to the report).
8. Any other window — it closes. If it holds changes you have not saved, SeroBooks asks first (see below).
9. Only the Home Page is left — nothing happens. The Home Page is the bottom of the stack.

So from anywhere, pressing Esc a few times always brings you home.

Pages the menu opens over the Home Page

As in QuickBooks, every page and form you choose from the menu bar, from a Home Page icon, or with a shortcut that stands for a menu choice (Ctrl+H, Ctrl+Y, Ctrl+W) opens in front, over the Home Page, not over a list. For example: Bill Tracker, Prepare Letters, Terms List, Preferences, Back Up Company, Create Credit Memos/Refunds, Enter Vendor Credits, Make General Journal Entries, the Company pages (Company Snapshot, Calendar, To Do List, Reminders, Company Information), reports chosen from the Reports menu, the Banking forms (Write Cheques, Make Deposits, Transfer Funds, Reconcile) and the Knowledgebase. Esc or closing one takes you straight back to the Home Page, where you came from.

Such a page still needs your role's permission for the screen it belongs to (for example, Bill Tracker needs permission for the Bills list), but that screen is not opened underneath it.

Screens with a window of their own, such as Create Invoices, Create Estimates, Enter Bills, the Customer Centre and the lists (Invoices, Bills, Chart of Accounts and so on), keep their own window. A form opened from a list's own New button still goes back to that list.

• Chosen from the menu bar, such a page replaces the one the menu opened there before. Esc from it goes straight back to the Home Page, never to the page you opened before it. Company ▸ Home Page does the same: it shows the Home Page itself.
• Opened from inside one of these pages (for example Restore Company from the link on Back Up Company, the To Do List from the Calendar, Templates from Print Forms, or a screen opened from a Knowledgebase article), the new page goes on top, and Esc returns one step, to the page you opened it from.
• A form with changes you have not saved is never replaced. The new page opens on top of it, and Esc from the new page brings you back to the form with everything still there.

View ▸ One Window works the same way: the page shows over the Home Page, and Esc returns to the Home Page.

When SeroBooks asks before closing

If the window you are closing holds a form with changes you have not saved, SeroBooks asks:

You have changed the transaction. "Leaving it now discards the changes."

The same question appears when you click a window's Close button or its cross in the window strip, when you start a new form over one that is half written, when you switch company, and when you update SeroBooks.

Going back from a document you opened from a report

When you click a line in a report and it opens an invoice or bill, the form shows a Back to *report name* button (or Go Back). Click it to return to the report exactly as you left it, with the same dates and filters. Esc takes you to the same place.

The way back is remembered for one step only. If you then go somewhere else of your own accord, the button disappears.

Other ways back

• Alt+← steps back out of a page you drilled into.
• The window strip at the bottom lists every open window: click the one you want.
• Ctrl+Tab moves between open windows.

One Window view

In View ▸ One Window, Esc still goes back one step. A page or form chosen from the menu bar or a Home Page icon shows over the Home Page, so Esc returns to the Home Page; a page you opened from inside another page returns to that page, up to the last ten pages you visited. See Windows.

Common problems

Esc does nothing. You are on the Home Page, where there is nothing left to go back to, or a pop-up is waiting for something to finish.

Esc emptied my search instead of closing the window. That is the first step. Press Esc again.

Esc from a page took me to a different page, not Home. The page underneath is the one you opened it from (for example a Knowledgebase article, or Back Up Company for Restore Company), or a form with unsaved changes that was kept for you. Press Esc again, or save or discard the form.

Esc from Bill Tracker (or Prepare Letters, Terms List, Preferences…) did not take me to the Bills list (or the Customer Centre, Accounting Setup…). Pages chosen from the menu open over the Home Page, as in QuickBooks, so Esc goes back Home. Open the list itself from its menu (for example Vendors ▸ Bills) if you want it.

I pressed Esc and lost a form. A form with unsaved changes always asks before it closes with Esc. If it did not ask, it had been saved, or had nothing typed in it. Find a saved document in its list (for example Customers ▸ Invoices).

Related

• Windows: One Window, Multiple Windows and arranging them
• Keyboard shortcuts
• Drilling down from a report