Menu, Toolbar, Shortcuts and Function Keys

You can select options from any of the following:

  • Menu bar
  • Toolbar icons
  • Patient Record
  • Keyboard.
Note - Most toolbar and menu options are greyed out and unusable, until you select a patient and start a consultation. You can however, view a patient's record or list existing data entries without starting a consultation.

The Consultation Manager Toolbar

To identify the options on the Consultation Manager toolbar, simply hover your mouse over the item required and a Tooltip displays the description.

It is not recommended, but you can switch off the toolbar, select View - Toolbar to remove the tick. If this happens in error, select View - Toolbar again to restore the tick.

The following options are available from the toolbar:

Training Tip - Alternative function keys, where available, are shown in square brackets.
  • Appointment List - Displays your appointment list, see The Appointments List or Selecting a Patient for details.
  • Select Patient [F3]- Select to find a patient's record, see Selecting a Patient for details.
  • Select a Patient Group - Select to find a predefined group of patients to work on, see Select a Patient Group for details.
  • Patient Details - Select to view patient demographic details and maintain:
    • Contact numbers
    • Preferred/Nominated pharmacy
    • Carer information
See Patient Details for details.

  • / Open/Close a Consultation [F7] - Select to open or close a consultation, this displays as depressed when a consultation is open. See Consultations for details.

  • Patient Record View [F10] - Select to display the patient record.

  • Chronic Disease Register - Select to view and maintain the key disease register entries of the selected patient, see Chronic Disease Management Plans for details.
  • Health Promotion - Select to view and maintain the health promotion entries of the selected patient, see Adding Health Promotion Intervention for details.
  • Immunisations - Select to view and maintain the immunisation status of the selected patient, see Adding an Immunisation for details.
  • Prevention Display - Select to view and maintain the prevention data of the selected patient.
  • Select Summary Form - Select to display all summary forms.
  • / Local Guideline Index
  • Local Reports Index
  • Patient Reports Index
  • Medical History Add - Select to add a medical history clinical term, see Adding a Medical History Entry for details.
  • Referral Add - Select to record a referral, Adding a Referral for details.
  • Add Therapy Advice - Select to open the Therapy Advice screen, record advice and print on the right hand side of a prescription form.
  • Therapy Acute [F4] - Select to display the patient's and issued therapy.
  • Therapy Repeat [F5] - Select to display and maintain the patient's repeat medication, see Therapy - List Repeat Masters for details.
  • Electronic Test Requesting - Select to access electronic testing services, see Electronic Test Requests for details.
  • / Show/Hide sensitive data (priority zero) - Select to hide or display priority zero Medical History entries on screen.
  • Alerts - Flashes to alert you if anything is due or overdue on the patient selected.
  • / Patient Warning - Select to view or maintain warnings for the patient selected, see Viewing a Patient Warning for details.
  • View Mail for Patient - Select to display, read and process any incoming mail messages for the patient selected, see Viewing Mail for Patient for details.
  • Future and Recent Appointments - displays any future booked appointments and any past appointments in the last month. If the patient has no previous or future appointments within this time period, you are prompted that "nnnnnnhas no future appointments".
  • or (if Combine Settings is ticked in Vision+ settings) - Show QOF Indicators/Show All Indicators - re-displays the Vision+ Alerts screen which highlights missing patient data for QOF or practice protocol templates.
  • Vision+ Menu - Gives access to the Vision+ menu, including: QOF Templates, Clinical Templates, Add to Register, Calculators, Warfarin Monitor (if purchased) and Settings.
  • Label Trace - Shortcut to the third party Label Trace Application (also accessible from Add - External Applications - Launch - Label Trace).
  • Close All (also on Window menu)

Menu, Keyboard users and Function keys

If you prefer to use the keyboard rather than the mouse, you can access menu options by first pressing the Alt key then type the underlined letter in the main menu heading, for example, Alt A to open the Add menu, or Alt - C to display the Consultation menu. Then type the underlined letter (not necessarily the first letter) of the option you want, for example, B for Blood Pressure, L for Medical History.

See Consultation Manager Setup - General for additional options when using the keyboard.

Following the usual convention, any menu option that has a bold right pointing arrow after it means there are further choices, for example, Chronic Disease Management.

The following function keys can also be used as short-cuts:

Key Action

F1

Help

F2

List Medical History

F3

Select a patient; OR F3 can also be used at the READ Term Add window to display the READ dictionary screen

F4

Lists Therapy Script. Then press F4 or Esc to display Acute Therapy Add

F5

Displays Therapy Repeats - then press F5 or Esc for Repeat Master Add

F7

Start Consultation

Shift-F7

Close Consultation

F8

New Therapy

F9

Print/Issue and Print Prescription - this can be used anywhere and does not require a Therapy window to be currently open

F10

(toggle) View Patient Record full screen (without navigation or topic panes) or normal view

Shift F12

Patient Reports

Spacebar

To select and asterisk from a Therapy Repeat list. Pressing again removes the asterisk.

Status Bar

To view the Status Bar, tick View - Status Bar. The status line at the bottom of the screen displays the following information:

  • While a consultation is open, the status bar shows the GP or user, consultation type, start time and the current time. If you double click on the status bar, the Consultation Update screen displays which allows you to change the type of consultation, and the start and end times:

  • A patient's drug check warnings of contra-indications, interactions or drug doubling.
  • Buttons displaying the current open Vision 3 screens so you can click quickly to view one of these.
  • At other times it may display the current status of the screen, for example, Displaying Deleted Records, No Open consultation.

If the Status Bar does not display, lift the whole window up by clicking on the title bar and dragging the screen upward.

See Consultation Manager Setup for further details.
Note - To print this topic select Print in the top right corner and follow the on-screen prompts.