Several releases ago, eSignal created the concept of Pages, which makes managing your eSignal workspace easier than Layouts do. While most users have probably switched to page management from layout management, if you haven’t, this may be the right time to make the switch. Here’s how it’s done.

Creating a Page

1. Bring up the Page Toolbar icon set by selecting View from the Main Menu and checking the Page Toolbar option. (See Figure 1.)
2. Select the New Page icon on the Page Toolbar to clear your desktop and create a blank page.
3. Select File, then New and choose Quote Window or any window of your choice and continue to add other windows, positioning the windows where you want them with the information you want to follow.
4. If you wish to lock this page, click on Page from the menu and select Lock Page. If you have Layout as the menu heading to the right of File, select Layout to find the Page menu.
5. Once your workstation is as you like it, click the Save As icon on the Page Toolbar to name your page and save it.

Figure 1: Page Toolbar

Converting Layouts to Pages

You can take an existing layout and easily turn it into a page by following these steps:

1. Bring up your favorite layout by selecting Layout, then Open, or by choosing the Layout from the list in the Layout menu. If you have Page as the menu heading to the right of File, select Page to find the Layout menu. (See Figure 2 for the Layout sub-menu location.)
2. If you wish to lock this page, click on Page from the menu and select Lock Page. If you have Layout as the menu heading to the right of File, select Layout to find the Page menu. (See Figure 3 for the Page sub-menu location.)
3. Click the Save As icon on the Page Toolbar and give your page a name. The page will be saved, and you can still go back to your layout at any time.

Figure 2: Layout Sub-Menu under Page Menu

Figure 3: Page Sub-Menu under Layout Menu

The Page Lock and Page Reload features are helpful features that will make using pages even easier.

Page Lock -- This setting, which can be found under the Page menu, will allow you to secure your page, so you don't accidentally lose a component by closing it. Because you only have a single file for the entire page, you may not be able to recover a lost window within a page. The lock function holds each window within a page and remembers its position and size. If you make changes to the position or size of your windows, the page will be back to its originally saved configuration the next time you load the page.

If you want to save a new configuration, you need to unlock the page first and then save it as normal. If you want to lock down the new configuration, just lock the page again after saving it. This lock only relates to the windows themselves and not to the data within them. You still have the ability to change symbols and the settings of each window while the page is locked, and the page will retain those changes when it's saved.

Page Reload -- This is a very valuable feature to the user who opens a lot of windows throughout the trading day but wants to be able to go back to his or her starting point at times as the clutter builds. Under the Page menu is a choice for Page Reload. When selected, the page will revert to the last saved configuration whether it's a locked page or not.

This menu choice is also part of the Keyboard Customization feature, so you can assign a key combination to this feature. New users of this function should know that we assigned it to the Esc key although you can reassign it to any key combination of your choice.

 For further assistance with managing pages, refer to our Knowledge Base article.