TABLE OF CONTENTS

Undo/Redo Buttons:
Styles:
Snap:
Zoom:
Refresh Displays:
Share and View:
Screen Usage:
Block Layers:
Screen Settings:
Advanced Block Tools:
Other Useful Tools:
Helpful Articles:

With the Custom Screen Editor, you have a lot of tools you can use to make your screen exactly how you like. With these tools, you can improve the placement of your Blocks, add special effects, and even make editing and updating your Screens easier. Below is a list of these tools and the basics of how to use them

Undo/Redo Buttons:

At the top of your Custom Screen, you will see the following Undo/Redo Buttons:

This can be used to Undo or Redo the last block move, block resize, or block layer change you completed. This will only remain active on your Screen while you are currently editing the Screen so when you switch to another editor, the last recorded actions will be reset. You can also use the standard Keyboard shortcuts of CTRL+Z and CTRL+Y to complete the Undo and Redo commands as well.

Styles:

With the Styles block you can change the basics of how the entire screen looks. This tool is located in the upper left corner of your Custom Screen Editor and when opened looks like the image below:

Here you can add or remove the shadow behind the text on your Screen to change the visibility, change the color of the Background, or add Custom CSS to add special effects to your blocks. To learn more about Custom CSS see our articles Applying Custom Styles to Screens, Applying Scrolling Effect to a Block with Custom CSS, Font Selector and Custom Fonts, and Display Rotation for non-DAKboard OS Devices for some examples of uses.

Snap:

With the Snap feature enabled when you move your blocks on your screen, you will be able to snap them to an invisible grid. This grid is a 10 x 10-pixel grid and will make precision placing of your blocks much easier. The Snap feature is located in the upper left corner of your Custom Screen editor right next to the Styles tool. It is disabled by default and can be toggled on by clicking it. The Tool will let you know it is on when it is Orange in color as seen below:

Zoom:

With the Zoom feature, you can zoom in or out anywhere on your Custom Screen. This can help with the placement of your blocks or to get a feel of how the zoomed-in section will appear on your end product. This can be found in the upper right corner of your screen editor and looks like the image below:

By default the zoom is set to Fit everything on the space provided. You can use the Slider bar to zoom in or out, or click on the dropdown to zoon to a specific percentage. Because the Custom Screen editor is an approximation of the actual resolution you selected, the image of what is in the editor when set to fit, will differ from what your end product will look like. This tool can help you make the final adjustments when editing.

Refresh Displays:

Located to the right of the Add A Block button, the Refresh Displays button will allow you to push changes made on your Custom Screen to your assigned Displays right away. This button can be seen below:

Without using this button, your screen changes will be automatically applied once every 6 hours when we do our full-screen refresh and display connection tests. See our article Content and Screen Refresh Rates for more details on Refreshing your Screens.

The Share and View tool, located to the right of the Refresh Displays button, can be used to copy your Screen's URL to be shared with friends and family, used to link a non-DAKboard OS device as a display (see our article Using Private URLs on non-DAKboard OS Displays for details on this), to view your screen on your computer's browser and see what it will look like when connected to a Display, or to export a copy of the screen to your computer. You can see this tool below:

This will make it so you can quickly share or save your favorite screens as well as give you the ability to see your creation before you assign it.

Screen Usage:

This tool can be used to track how much usage your Screen is getting from all of its displays. It can be used to track how many displays you have connected to your Screen, how often a refresh is called by your Screen, and to help you get this usage down should your Screen be disabled for overuse. See our article High Screen Usage or Disabled Screen (error 429) for details on this. The usage screen can be seen below:

The screen usage can show you the last 24 hours or the past 7 days' worth of connections. It also shows a graphical representation of the usage.

Block Layers:

The Block Layer section is located to the right of the Main Editor block in your Custom Screen Editor and is a very powerful tool when designing and editing your page. See below:

Block layers allow you to position your blocks above or below other blocks on your Screen This is helpful so that you do not cover another block accidentally and helps when positioning blocks for use with your Touchscreens. See our article Block Layers and How to Use Them to learn more.

Screen Settings:

The Gear Icon in the upper right corner of your Screen Editor is the Screen Settings tool. When you click on this Icon you will open your Screen Setting page as seen below:

This page will allow you to do the following to customize your Screen:

Screen Name: This allows you to set a custom name for your Screen
Aspect Ratio: This allows you to choose between several Aspect Ratios to match your selected Monitor
Resolution: This allows you to pick the resolution on your screen
Orientation: This allows you to set your Screen in Landscape or Portrait orientation (This will not change your Display's orientation)
Font: This allows you to set the Default Font for your Screen. You can still change this per Block as desired
Language: This sets the default language for the Screen. This will be set automatically based on your Account Settings and can be overwritten here in the Screen Settings

NOTE: This only changes the language of words generated by DAKboard for the Screen, it will not modify the language of your Linked accounts like your Calendars. To change those you will need to change it in the link account itself

Timezone: As with the language settings this is set by your account Defaults and can be overwritten here in your Screen Settings.
Time Format: This allows you to set the time format between 12 and 24-hour settings.

Once you make your changes here, be sure to save them to apply them to your Screen. See the articles in the Helpful Articles section below for more details on using these settings.

Advanced Block Tools:

The blocks you place to make your Screen now come with some advanced tools to make building your Custom Screens easier. These tools can be found in the Formatting tab under the Advanced dropdown as seen below:

These tools are explained below:

Linked Blocks:

The Linked block can be used to make one block that can be placed on many screens. It allows you to make changes on a single screen that will then be applied to all the other screens containing this linked block. This way you can update multiple screens at once. When you link a block, this will allow you to select it from the Linked Blocks Selection in your Add A Block tool as seen below:

Simply select one of these blocks, position it on your Screen, and then you can edit it across all screens containing this block. To learn more see our article Linked Blocks and How to Use Them.

Block Size:

The Block Size tool allows you to enter the Height and Width of the block as a percentage of the entire screen. See below:

In the example above the block's Height is 41.4% of the entire Screen and its Width is 45.5%. This is helpful for the precision sizing of your blocks.

Block Position:

The Block Position tool allows you to enter the Horizontal (X position) and Vertical (Y position) of the block as a percentage of the entire screen. See below:

In the example above the block's X position is 50% across the screen from the Left-Hand side, while the Y position is 3.6% down from the top of the screen. This is helpful for the precision positioning of your blocks.

Other Useful Tools:

Some additional shortcuts and tools you may want to use will include the following:

Using Shift to Select Multiple Blocks:

Hold down the Shift key to select multiple blocks on your screen. Once selected, click and drag any one of the blocks to move the entire group. This is particularly useful if you have several blocks arranged on one side and want to reposition them to the other side of the screen. After completing the move, click anywhere outside the selected blocks to deselect them.

Using ALT to Retain Proportions While Resizing a Block:

Hold the ALT key and click on one side of the block to resize it. As you do this, the proportions of the materials inside the block will remain consistent, and the block will automatically expand to preserve them. This is similar to grabbing a corner and stretching the block, causing it to expand both vertically and horizontally to maintain the proper proportions.

Moving Your Selected Block with the Arrow Keys:

You can also use the Arrow Keys on your keyboard to move your selected block into position. With the Arrow Keys you will move the block one pixel at a time, or if you hold Shift and use the Arrow Keys you can move it 10 pixels at time.