A primary element of the Ares client interface is the Ribbon. The Ribbon sits at the top of the page, below the Ribbon Tab Bar. Stored on the Ribbon are the controls: buttons to perform actions, drop down menus to choose options, or toggle buttons to activate or deactivate options. Related controls are organized on the Ribbon in groups. The advantage of using the Ribbon is that all of your menu selections are located on the Home form in one convenient location and are always visible from the Ribbon. Many of the forms in Ares now open within the Home form. When a form is opened within the Home form, the Ribbon remains visible for you to use.
Home Ribbon
From the Home tab on the Main page, staff can conduct a quick search to find a particular list of users, requests or institutions. View which database fields are being searched for each type of search by hovering over the search boxes. You can expand or narrow the scope of a search by using multiple search criteria. Results for searches appear in separate tabs on the Main page so staff can easily flip between results without opening several forms.
| Add New User | Creates a new User. |
|---|---|
| Add New Course | Creates a new Course. |
| Search Items, Courses, and Users |
Allows you to conduct a search for request items, specific courses, or users. |
The Process Ribbon
The Process Ribbon holds icons for all of the main Borrowing processing functions so that you can reach them quickly and easily from the Main page.
- Create users
- Process copyright
- Print requests
- Check in and Check Out materials
- Import requests from other systems
- Contact your customers
- Send overdue notices
| Print Stacks Search Items | Prints Items for stacks retrieval. |
|---|---|
| Scan Items Later | Routes Items to Awaiting Scanning. |
| Item Available At Desk | Routes Items to Item Available at Desk. |
| In Transit to Pickup Site | Routes Items to In Transit. |
| Batch Item Upload | Performs batch uploading of files to the server. |
| Update Stacks Search Results | Processes Items currently in stacks searching. |
| Process Copyright | Opens the Copyright Processing form. |
| ACL Survey | Generates the annual Copyright license report. |
The System Ribbon
The System Ribbon holds icons for all of the main System processing functions so that you can reach them quickly and easily from the Main page.
- Manage Addons
- Outgoing Email
- Link Checker
- Rightholder Maintenance
- Shared Lists
- Web Alerts
- Clear Users
| Manage Addons | Open the Addon Configuration form. |
|---|---|
| Outgoing Email | Shows all pending and failed outgoing emails. |
| Link Checker | View and manage Items whose links could not be resolved. |
| Rightsholder Maintenance | Add or edit rightsholders and their journals. |
| Shared Lists | View and edit Shared Lists of course items. |
| Web Alerts | Add or edit web alerts. |
| Clear Users | Verifies user registration information for clearance and permissions. |
Context-Sensitive Ribbons
In addition to the standard ribbons, Ares offers context-sensitive ribbons that appear dependent on the status of the request or user. These ribbons come to the foreground automatically and help prompt staff toward the next step in processing. Staff can always choose another ribbon to override those processes. See the figure, Content-Sensitive Ribbon, for an example of the content-sensitive ribbon displayed for a request transaction in the Awaiting Request Processing queue. Note the highlighted ribbon tab at the top of the page, (in this case, Borrowing Processing) informing you exactly where you are within the processing system.
The Ares ribbons are a default design and are not customizable.
Toggle Buttons
Some of the icons on the Ares ribbons are Toggle Buttons that work to limit results of a search or action. These buttons will not perform a function when clicked, but they will make performing the function easier.
Toggle buttons turn orange when they are activated. Two examples of toggle buttons are shown here: the Search Ribbons icons toggle buttons, and the In Stacks Searching Only toggle button used in Document Delivery.