HOME PAGE

Overview
The Home page is the first page to open when BackStage is loaded from the Start menu.  The left hand side of the screen shows a list of all PROJECTS that have been created.  These can be navigated to by their chosen date and opened by clicking on them.  PROJECTS that show in red have items in their to-do list that need attention (see below.)

When a PROJECT is opened, the right hand side of the screen shows one of two views depending on which tab is selected.

• PROJECT SUMMARY tag shows the key items that summarise the PROJECT.
• PROJECT TO-DO LIST tag shows items that need to be attended to for completion of the PROJECT.

Summary of numbered items

1. ENSEMBLE LABEL:  Visible from all pages.  Displays the name of the ensemble that is being used by the chosen PROJECT.  There is no limit to how many ensembles can be added to BackStage from the ADD/EDIT | ENSEMBLE DETAILS menu item.  However they all read from the same data files and default set up files.  (i.e. they all read from the same address book etc.)
2. SEASON LABEL:  Visible from all pages.  An optional field that displays the name of the season that the PROJECT is a member of.  Including PROJECTS in a series within a season allows current and future BackStage tools to analyse PROJECT data based on series and season.  Season names can be added from the ADD/EDIT | SEASONS menu item.
3. SERIES LABEL:  Visible from all pages.  An optional field that displays the name of the series within the season that the PROJECT is a member of.  Including PROJECTS in a series within a season allows current and future BackStage tools to analyse PROJECT data based on series and season.  Series names can be added from the ADD/EDIT | SERIES menu item.
4. TITLE/CODE LABEL:  Visible from all pages.  Displays the title or code that an orchestra has specified to identify the PROJECT.  A PROJECT must be uniquely titled by a combination of it's chosen date and title/code.
5. PAGE NAVIGATION BUTTONS:  Visible from all pages.  The eight buttons that allow the user to navigate to the eight main pages BackStage uses to edit PROJECT details.  The buttons only become active once a specific PROJECT has been selected and only edit the data within that PROJECT.  The pages are as follows.
   • HOME - for selecting and displaying a summary of a PROJECT and it's to-do list.
   • SCHEDULE - for adding sessions to a PROJECT including key personnel such as conductors and repertoire.
   • INSTRUMENTS - for editing the instrumentation and seating for each of the chosen repertoire.
   • ATTENDANCE - for editing the attendance (i.e. sick) and position (if different from default) of a player on the selected session.
   • RANKS (BackStage Professional and BackStage Enterprise only) - for allocating a rank to any player.
   • PAYMENTS (BackStage Professional and BackStage Enterprise only) - to set payments against each rank.
   • PERSONNEL - for selecting of players in the address book to add to the PROJECT.
   • OUTPUT - for printing contracts, schedules and seating lists, sending messages, updating the web schedule, updating any Google Calendars owned by the orchestra and outputting accounts.
6. PROJECTS TREEVIEW:  Displays the title or code of all PROJECTS in the location of their chosen date.
7. NEW/EDIT/DELETE BUTTON:  A Button for creating new PROJECTS or editing or deleting existing ones.  The following dialog box is displayed when clicked.

   

   1. Select NEW to create a new PROJECT or else select the title or code of an existing one from the drop-down list.
   2. Select the ensemble for the PROJECT.  Ensembles can be added from the ADD/EDIT | ENSEMBLE DETAILS menu item.
   3. (Optional)  Select the Season and Series that the PROJECT will be a member of.  Seasons can be added from the ADD/EDIT | SEASONS menu item.  Series can be added from the ADD/EDIT | SERIES menu item.
   4. Specify a title or code for your PROJECT.
   5. Select a date from the date-picker control.  The date will decide where in the PROJECTS treeview the project will display but is otherwise arbitrary and need not relate to any particular session within the PROJECT.
8. BACK-UP BUTTON:  A button that backs up data from all PROJECTS to our web servers provided an internet connection is available.  We strongly recommend that users use this facility regularly since, if for any reason your computer should become corrupted (possibly by a virus) or stolen, all your data on our web servers can be simply recovered by selecting the HELP | RESTORE menu item.  Please note, if for any reason your computer has trouble loading or updating BackStage our support staff will simply advice you to uninstall BackStage and then reinstall from our website and then RESTORE your data from our web servers.  We will not get involved in sorting out specifically local problems that your computer might be suffering from that affect the installation or updating of BackStage.
9. PROJECT SUMMARY TAG:  Shows key personnel (conductor(s), soloist(s), compére(s)) and repertoire as well as summary of all sessions (date, type, time and venue.)
10. PROJECT TO-DO LIST TAG:  Contains three types of to-do items (see below.)

    

    1. PERSONNEL to-do items (automatically generated) show players that are currently not fully confirmed for the PROJECT.  BackStage defines five 'status' levels for players to be categorised as that are set on the PERSONNEL page.
       • VACANCY/DEFAULT PLAYER
       • LEFT MESSAGE
       • AGREED
       • SENT CONTRACT
       • CONFIRMED
    2. REMINDERS to-do items (automatically generated) shows players that need to be contacted because they are either now needed on a session or alternatively no longer required due to the repertoire being changed for a particular session.  BackStage gives users the option of automatically adding relevant players to this to-do list for all players that have been allocated the status of AGREED, SENT CONTRACT or CONFIRMED when repertoire is changed.  They can be removed from this list by selecting them and pressing the DONE button.
    3. GENERAL to-do items shows items that need to be done.  These can be added or deleting by selecting them and pressing the DONE button.
11. SAVE BUTTON:  Saves changed data in selected PROJECT to a local file on your machine (not our web server which you back-up to using the BACK-UP BUTTON.)  You will be prompted to save or discard the data every time you try to change to a different page.  This allows the double benefit of saving your data to file as well as giving you the option to discard and role back to where you were.
12. ? BUTTON:  Displays quick summary of the currently selected page functionality as well as link to relevant page on our website.
13. MENU BAR:  Displays all menus.  Menus add 'global' BackStage data.  This is data that can be seen by all PROJECTS such as player details, venues etc..