threadcount-community/docs/manual/reference/keyboard-and-scanner.md

title, section, order, summary, screen, role, keywords

title	section	order	summary	screen	role	keywords
Keyboard and scanner	reference	3	Setting up a USB barcode scanner, where a scan goes on each screen, the formats ThreadCount reads and prints, the keys the screens answer to, and how printing works.	Search or scan, Counter, Stock › Count	Admin or Issuer	usb scanner, keyboard wedge, enter, suffix, barcode, badge, ean-13, code 128, keyboard, shortcut, slash, ctrl k, search, escape, tab, print, labels, slip, pop-up

Setting up a USB scanner

ThreadCount has no scanner driver. A USB scanner in keyboard mode (keyboard wedge) types the code and ends it with Enter.

1. Set the scanner to keyboard mode. Most are out of the box; the scanner's own manual has the setup barcode.
2. Set the suffix to Enter (carriage return). With a Tab suffix nothing is recorded.
3. Scan a staff badge from Today. Counter opens with that person chosen.

With no field selected, the portal treats at least 4 characters, each within 35 milliseconds of the last and ending in Enter, as a scan. While a field is selected, a dialog is open or the search panel is open, the portal does not watch for scans: the keys go wherever the cursor already is.

Where a scan goes

With no field selected:

What was scanned	Where you are	What happens
A staff number	Any screen	Counter opens with that person
A garment barcode	Counter, with a person chosen	That size is added to the pickup, in Issue mode
A garment barcode	Stock › Count	1 is added to that size's count
A garment barcode	Anywhere else	The garment's page opens at that size
A code nobody has	Any screen	Search opens with No person or garment has <code>.

Admins also get Bind it to a garment in that search panel. Scan fields that act on Enter:

• Counter, Find a person: an exact staff number, or else the first match.
• Counter, Scan a garment, or type a name: adds the size to the pickup.
• Stock › Count, Scan to count +1: selected when the tab opens.
• Scan to add on Stock (Admin): finds the garment, or offers to add it.
• Scan sizes on a garment's page (Admin): binds the code to the size it asks for.

An unknown code in the Counter box opens Unknown barcode for an Admin; an Issuer sees No garment has <code>. On Stock › Count the dialog opens for everyone, but only an Admin can bind. See barcodes.

Formats

Where	Formats
USB scanner	Whatever the scanner types. A binding keeps up to 64 characters.
Camera, in the browser and the counter app	EAN-13, EAN-8, UPC-A, UPC-E, Code 128, Code 39, Code 93
Printed labels	EAN-13 for a valid 13-digit code, Code 128 for anything else

Generate barcodes on a garment's page gives each size with no code an EAN-13 starting 29, the GS1 range for use inside one organisation.

At a window 780 pixels wide or narrower, a SCAN button sits at the bottom right. On Counter and Stock › Count it opens that screen's camera; anywhere else it opens search with the camera running. Which browsers can use the camera is on scanning and browsers.

Keys the screens answer to

Key	Where	Does
/ or Ctrl+K (Cmd+K on a Mac)	Any portal screen, outside a field or dialog	Opens search
Up and Down arrows, Enter	Search panel	Move through results; open the highlighted one
Shift+Enter	Search panel, on a person	Opens their record instead of Counter
Escape	Search panel, any dialog	Closes it
Tab, Shift+Tab	Search panel, any dialog	Moves round its controls without leaving it
Escape	Counter, with a person chosen	Changes person, unless the pickup has lines or a match list is open
Ctrl+Enter (Cmd+Enter)	Counter, Issue mode	Records the issue
Down arrow	Counter scan box, Manager search	Moves to the first match
Alt+Left, Alt+Right	Settings › Issuing rules, a group's menu button	Moves the group one route back; one route on
Enter, Escape	Renaming a group	Saves; cancels
Enter	New group name, New supplier, Add a size, a size's barcode field	Adds or saves

Keys in this manual

The manual has its own keys, on the website at /docs and in the app at /app/help.

Key	Where	Does
/	A manual page, when you are not typing in a field	Puts the cursor in the manual's search box
Up and Down arrows	The search results	Move between results
Enter	The search results	Opens the highlighted page
Escape	The search box	Closes the results

Manual pages also carry Print and Copy link buttons.

Printing

Printing uses the browser's own print dialog. Two routes lead there.

• A print page opens the dialog after half a second and keeps a Print button for another try. The order form (Order form on Counter, Print order form on a request, Print the form on a person's History tab), the supplier order sheet (Print after ordering, Order sheet on an order) and labels (Print labels (N) in a garment page's menu) open in a new tab. Collection and delivery slips open in a pop-up window: Collection slip on Counter, Slip under Call to collect on Today, and Collection slip or Delivery slip on a request.
• A print window carries the document itself: Print on each Reports panel, Month-end pack, Sheet on a supplier's To order panel, Print order on an order, Print count sheet on Stock › Count, Credit slip, and the hand-in Receipt. If the browser blocks it, ThreadCount says Pop-up blocked — allow pop-ups for ThreadCount to print.

The label sheet holds 6 labels to an A4 page. From a garment's page it prints one label per garment on hand for each size with a code, after you confirm the number. From the counter app, a single code prints 1 to 24 copies, 6 unless changed.

Careful The counter app cannot print. A print page opened there says This app can't print. Open this page in a browser — on the computer at the counter — to print it.