Using the Screen
Everything staff do on a kitchen display, whether the screen is touched, driven from a keyboard, or driven from a remote.
Bumping by Touch
Tapping is how work is recorded.
| Gesture | Effect |
|---|---|
| Tap an item | Moves that item, and anything indented under it, forward one state |
| Tap the card | Moves the whole order forward one state |
| Press and hold an item | Moves that item back one state |
| Press and hold the card | Moves the whole order back one state |
Forward from Ready means served: the line leaves the display.
Tip
Press and hold is the undo. A dish bumped by accident is put back where it was without anyone having to go to the register.
Zooming In and Out
The kitchen display has its own zoom, separate from anything on the device. Use it when the screen is read from further away, or when a busy service needs more orders visible at once.
From a keyboard, at any time, with nothing to open first:
| Key | Effect |
|---|---|
+ (or =) |
Zoom in |
- |
Zoom out |
The + and - keys of a numeric keypad do the same when Num Lock is on.
From the touchscreen, open the panel at the bottom of the Ready column and use the − and + buttons on it. To open the panel:
- on a screen you can touch, tap the faint settings icon in the bottom-right corner
- on a screen driven by a keyboard or remote, press and hold the back button
Tap the icon again, or press back, to close the panel.
Each press changes the scale by one step. The screen goes down to a tenth of the standard size and up to double it, and everything scales together: text, chips, the timer and the spacing between cards.
Tip
Zooming out does more than shrink the cards. Below roughly four fifths of the standard size the orders stop being one per row and are laid out two to a row, and smaller still three to a row. That is how a busy pass fits a whole service on one screen.
Note
The zoom is remembered per screen, and survives switching the display off. Each screen in the kitchen keeps its own setting, so a wall-mounted display and a bench-top one do not have to agree.
Driving the Screen from a Keyboard or Remote
A kitchen display does not have to be touched at all, which matters where staff wear gloves or the screen is mounted out of reach. A highlight marks the card or item in hand.
| Key | Effect |
|---|---|
| Arrow keys | Move the highlight between orders |
Enter or OK |
Step into the highlighted order, to work item by item |
| Arrow up, on the first item | Step back out to the order |
Space or numpad + |
Bump the highlighted order or item forward |
Numpad - |
Bump it back one state |
+ - = |
Zoom in and out |
C |
Switch call mode on or off |
Escape or Menu |
Open the options menu |
Hold Back |
Show or hide the settings panel |
After a bump the highlight moves on by itself, to the next item in the order, or out of the order when the last one is done. Staff can clear a whole ticket without looking away from the food.
Call Mode
C on a keyboard switches the screen between the item-by-item view and the one-card-per-order call screen view, without going near the Posbel Admin panel. It is the quickest way to try both, or to turn a station into a pass for one service.
Note
The setting on the user in the Posbel Admin panel is what the screen starts with each time it signs in, so a change made with C lasts until the next sign-in. To make it permanent, set KDS Call Screen Mode on the user — see Users → KDS Settings.
The Settings Panel
The panel that carries the zoom buttons also shows which user the screen is signed in as, and a button that opens the options menu. From there staff can check for an app update or sign the screen out.
Note
A kitchen display's options menu is deliberately short. Shifts, worker shifts, the table plan and the support chat are not offered on a KDS screen, because they belong to a register.
Leaving the Screen
Pressing back with the panel open closes the panel. Pressing it again on a screen whose user is in KDS mode closes the app rather than dropping into the register, so a kitchen display cannot be nudged out of its job by a stray press.
Tip
To see the kitchen display on a normal register, without a dedicated screen, open the options menu and choose Kitchen Display. The register keeps its own user and returns to the till when the display is closed. The option appears once the kitchen display is enabled for your establishment.