The options in the General page are:

• Display real table and field names: if you are familiar with the name of your application's tables and fields, you might find it easier to locate the tables and fields you want by their real names. If you turn this option on, Stonefield Query displays the real name followed by the descriptive name in parentheses.

• Create and display report snapshots: the Sample page of the Reports Explorer shows a snapshot of what the report looked like the last time it was run. Storing snapshots for each report makes your reports file much larger, which may be an issue if you're short on disk space. In that case, turn this option off to prevent snapshots from being created.

• Warning if no filter when a report is run: if you run a report without creating a filter for it and there are a lot of records in the tables in that report, it can take a long time to run the report. To prevent this, Stonefield Query warns you that there is no filter for the report and gives you the option of running the report anyway or canceling. If your tables don't contain a lot of records and you don't want to see this warning message when you run a report without a filter, turn the Warning if no filter when a report is run setting off.

• Send summary queries to database engine: some types of reports, such as quick reports with the Summary report option turned on, cross-tab reports, and charts, summarize the raw data in your database to produce the final results. Some database engines have no problem doing the summarization, in which case you should turn this option on. However, other database engines do not perform summarization very quickly, and in fact it can be significantly faster to have Stonefield Query retrieve the raw data and do the summarization itself. If you find those types of reports running slowly, try changing the setting of this option, either turning it off or on, to see if that improves the performance.

  Note that if you turn this on, your reports cannot have fields that don't appear in the report in the Selected Fields list in Step 2 of the report wizard. For example, if you have a quick report with Country, City, and Amount, the report groups on Country and sums on Amount, and has Summary report turned on, the City field doesn't appear in the report because it's neither grouped nor summed. In that case, if you select this report when Send summary queries to database engine is turned on, you will get a warning message that City has to be removed from the report.

• Preview reports in tabbed pages: if you turn this option on and then preview several reports (or even the same report more than once), Stonefield Query puts each report into a separate tab in a single Preview window. With this option off, each report appears in its own Preview window.

• Display progress during report runs: turn this option if you want to see a window displaying the progress of a report run. This window includes a Cancel button you can click to cancel the report if you wish. Turning this option on dims the Reports Explorer and any open report wizards and slows down report runs slightly but in our opinion is worth it.

• Check for news items at startup: turn this option on to automatically check once a day at program startup to see if there is any news about Stonefield Query, and if so, display the latest news item. Even with this option turned off, you can still check for news with the News from Stonefield Software Inc. function in the Help menu.

• Remind me when my software maintenance is about to expire: if this option is turned on, Stonefield
  Query reminds you before your software maintenance is about to expire. This is helpful, because your software maintenance must be current to receive updates and technical support.

• Retrieve records from database in batches (asynchronously): if this option is turned off, Stonefield Query retrieves the entire set of records it needs for a report from the database at one time. While this is great for performance, it also means that you cannot stop a report run while the records are being retrieved. If there are a lot of records, you may have to wait a while before pressing Esc or clicking the Cancel button stop the report run. Turning this option on tells Stonefield Query to retrieve records in batches and check for Esc or Cancel between each batch. This gives you the ability to stop the report sooner. If you turn this on, you can set the batch size, which is the number of records to retrieve at one time. Larger values give better performance but also mean you have to wait longer between pressing Esc or clicking the Cancel button and Stonefield Query stopping the report run.

• Week starts on: this determines what date is displayed when dates are formatted to display as weeks. For example, December 3, 2008, which is a Wednesday, displays as follows:

  Week Starts On	Display
  Sunday	Week of 11/30/2008 (the preceding Sunday)
  Monday	Week of 12/01/2008 (the preceding Monday)
  Tuesday	Week of 12/02/2008 (the preceding Tuesday)
  Wednesday	Week of 12/03/2008 (today, since it's the first day of the week)
  Thursday	Week of 11/27/2008 (the preceding Thursday)
  Friday	Week of 11/28/2008 (the preceding Friday)
  Saturday	Week of 11/29/2008 (the preceding Saturday)

• Date format: this determines how dates are displayed in Stonefield Query. The default is "Use Windows Setting," which means Stonefield Query uses the format defined in the Regional Settings applet of your Windows Control Panel. Select a different choice (MM/DD/YYYY, DD/MM/YYYY, or YYYY/MM/DD) to use that specific setting.

• Default template: this setting determines the default template used for new reports.
  

The options in the Email page are used when you want to email a report to someone or if an unexpected error occurs in Stonefield Query, in which case you have an option of emailing an error report to us so we can resolve the problem. The options are:

• I use Outlook or a similar program for email (MAPI): choose this option if you use a MAPI-based email client such as Outlook. If you don't use Outlook and you're not sure if your email client uses MAPI or not, ask your system administrator.

• I use Outlook Express or a similar program for email (SMTP): choose this option if you use an SMTP-based email client such as Outlook Express. If you don't use Outlook Express and you're not sure if your email client uses SMTP or not, ask your system administrator.

• Your name: your email descriptive name (SMTP only)

• Your email address: the email address to use as the "reply to" address (SMTP only).

• Mail server address: the address for your SMTP mail server. If this isn't filled in by default, check your email client to see how it's set up. For example, if you use Outlook Express, choose the Accounts function from the Tools menu, select the appropriate account and click Properties, then look at the Outgoing mail (SMTP) option on the Servers page for the address of the mail server.

• SMTP port: the port for your SMTP mail server. This defaults to 25, but can be changed if necessary. As with Mail server address, check your email program's account settings and use the same port number here.

• My email server requires authentication for outgoing messages: turn this option on if applicable. To determine if you should turn this on or not, check your email client setup. For example, if you use Outlook Express, choose the Accounts function from the Tools menu, select the appropriate account and click Properties, then look at the My server requires authentication option on the Servers page.

• User name: the user name to use if the My email server requires authentication for outgoing messages option is turned on.

• Password: the password to use if the My email server requires authentication for outgoing messages option is turned on.

• Test: once the email options are set, click this button to send a test message to yourself. This allows you to ensure the email settings are correct.
  

The options in the Contact page are used as contact information when you email or fax an error report to us. The options are self-explanatory, except that choosing a country from the drop-down list updates the State/Prov. drop-down list. If you choose United States, the State/Prov. list contains U.S. state names. If you choose Canada, the list contains Canadian province names. Otherwise, the list is empty and you can type whatever you wish for State/Prov.

The options in the Updates page configure how Stonefield Query checks for updated versions. Turn off the Automatically check for updates option if you do not want to automatically check for updates. If you turn this option on, specify how often, in days, it should check. With this option turned on, Stonefield Query checks our server for the availability of a newer version when it starts. If a newer version is found, a dialog showing some of the new features displays. If your software maintenance is current, you have the option of downloading and installing this version. If your software maintenance has lapsed, you do not have this ability.

The first time you run Stonefield Query, you are asked where Stonefield Query puts its files. The Locations page allows you to change this location.

You can specify any directory for the Stonefield Query files, but we recommend a directory on a server; that way, you can share reports with other users.

If you change this location, Stonefield Query must restart to use the new location. You are informed of this when you choose OK to close the dialog and after you confirm this message, Stonefield Query restarts automatically and uses the new location.