SeroBooks works the way QuickBooks Desktop does: every form, list and report opens in a window of its own, over the Home Page. You can have an invoice, a customer's ledger and a report open side by side, move between them, and come back to each exactly where you left it. If you prefer to see one page at a time, switch to One Window view.
Multiple Windows (the usual way)
View ▸ Multiple Windows is the setting SeroBooks starts with.
- Each screen you open from a menu, the Home Page or a shortcut opens in its own window with a title bar.
- Opening a screen that is already open brings its window to the front rather than opening a second copy. Each invoice or bill you open for editing has a window of its own, so you can have two invoices open at once.
- The Home Page is always underneath. Closing the last window, or choosing Window ▸ Close All, brings it back rather than leaving an empty screen.
- Every open window is listed in the window strip at the bottom of the work area, and at the end of the Window menu, numbered, with a tick beside the one in front.
A window's title bar
| Part | What it does |
|---|---|
| Icon and title | What the window holds. Some windows have a second line (for example the customer's name). |
| Title area | Drag to move the window. Double-click to fill the work area, and double-click again to restore it. |
| Open on another monitor (square with arrow) | Opens this list or report in a separate Windows window that you can drag onto another monitor. Not offered on forms being written (invoices, bills, estimates, purchase orders, expenses, transfers). |
| Minimise | Hides the window to the window strip. |
| Maximise / Restore down | Fills the work area with the window, or returns it to its size. |
| Close | Closes the window. If it has changes you have not saved, SeroBooks asks first (see below). |
Drag any edge or corner of a window to resize it. SeroBooks remembers where you last put each kind of window, and opens the next one of that kind in the same place; a new window of the same kind opens a little down and to the right so it does not hide the first.
Moving between windows
- Click a window to bring it to the front. The window in front has a darker title bar, and the keyboard works in it.
- Click its tab in the window strip.
- Press Ctrl+Tab for the next window and Ctrl+Shift+Tab for the previous one.
- Choose it from the list at the bottom of the Window menu.
Clicking the tab of the window already in front minimises it; clicking a minimised window's tab (shown in italics) brings it back.
Arranging windows
The Window menu arranges every window that is not minimised:
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
| Tile Vertically | Side by side in columns: up to three in one row, more in a grid. |
| Tile Horizontally | Stacked in rows: up to three, more in a grid. |
| Cascade | Overlapping, each one a step down and to the right of the one before. |
| Close All | Closes every window and shows the Home Page. Each window with unsaved changes is brought to the front first and SeroBooks asks You have changed the transaction. — Discard changes closes it, Keep editing leaves it open. |
These commands are shown only in Multiple Windows view.
Closing a window with unsaved changes
When you close a window whose form has changes you have not saved (with its Close button, its cross in the window strip, or Esc), SeroBooks asks:
You have changed the transaction. "Leaving it now discards the changes."
- Keep editing — returns you to the form, with everything still there.
- Discard changes — closes the window without saving.
One Window view
Choose View ▸ One Window to see one page at a time. Each page then fills the work area, as it would in a web browser, and opening another page replaces it. A page or form chosen from the menu bar or a Home Page icon (Bill Tracker, Preferences, a report from the Reports menu, Write Cheques and so on) shows over the Home Page, so Esc returns to the Home Page, as it does in Multiple Windows. The Window arrangement commands are hidden in this view.
To go back, choose View ▸ Multiple Windows, or click the One window button at the right of the window strip (it is always there, even when no window is open). The same button reads Multiple windows in Multiple Windows view.
The choice is remembered on this computer, for your Windows user: it is about the screen you are sitting at, not your company's books.
Using two monitors
There are two ways to put SeroBooks on a second monitor.
Extend Across All Monitors
Choose View ▸ Extend Across All Monitors. The SeroBooks window grows to cover every monitor connected to the computer, as one large window, and you can drag any window (a form, a ledger, a look-up) onto the other screen. Choose it again to turn it off; the menu shows a tick while it is on. The item appears only on a computer that can span monitors.
Open on another monitor
Click the Open on another monitor button in a list or report window's title bar. SeroBooks opens that page in a separate Windows window that you drag wherever you like, and closes it in the main window. It shows the same books; refresh it to see what was saved in the main window. Closing SeroBooks closes these windows too.
Common problems
I closed a window by accident. Open it again from the menu or the Home Page. Closing one window asks before throwing away unsaved changes, so nothing typed is lost that way without a warning.
All my windows are gone and I only see the Home Page. They may be minimised: look at the window strip at the bottom. If the strip shows no tabs, the windows were closed.
The Tile and Cascade commands are missing. You are in One Window view. Choose View ▸ Multiple Windows.
"This build cannot open a second window." This computer cannot open a separate window. Use View ▸ Extend Across All Monitors instead.