How to Edit a Terminal Order Screen Layout #2

The order screen on the terminal can now be edited right where it lives — tabs, sections, speed rails, and buttons — and you see the real screen change as you edit it. There’s no separate preview and no trip through the back office.

A manager can add and arrange tabs, sections, speed rails, and buttons, rename them, recolour them, give them icons, and drag them into order. Button sizes can be tuned and saved for the whole store or for just one terminal.

Where to find it

Open an order, tap Tools, and Edit Layout is at the bottom left of the Tools panel, beside No Sale.

Careful with the other “Edit Layout.” The launcher’s Tools screen has a different button also called Edit Layout — that one opens the table/floor plan editor, not this screen editor. If you land in a floor plan instead of your buttons, you tapped the wrong one.

If you don’t see it, you might need permissions. Edit Layout only appears for job roles with the Manage Terminal Screens permission — the same permission that already controls the back office’s Terminal Setup page. There’s nothing to turn on beyond that; the permission is the whole gate. If your job role doesn’t have it, the button simply isn’t there — it hides itself rather than showing an error.

Getting in and what you see when it opens

1. On the order screen, tap Tools, then Edit Layout.
2. The order screen stays where it is — the sidebar switches to the editor, prompting “Tap a tab, section, or button to edit it.”
3. Make your changes. Nothing is saved until you tap Save.

[NEW SCREENSHOT NEEDED HERE — an annotated shot of the editor open, pointing out each button along the bottom toolbar (Exit, New Tab, Adjust Sizing, Show Filtered, Show Inactive, Snap, Save) and the “what you can add” options in the sidebar]

What you’ll see:

• A sidebar on the left — a SCREEN picker naming the screen you’re editing, a + to start a new one, the selected item’s properties below that, and the prompt “Tap a tab, section, or button to edit it.”
• The real screen in the middle — live and editable, at its real size.
• A toolbar along the bottom, with a button for each of these:
  • Exit — leave the editor.
  • New Tab — add a tab to the screen you’re editing.
  • Adjust Sizing — switch the sidebar into sizing mode (see Sizing, below).
  • Show Filtered and Show Inactive — the two preview toggles, covered next.
  • Snap — a Freeform-only alignment aid (see Flow vs. Freeform, below).
  • Save, on the far right.
• The screen’s bottom button row stays visible and editable, with empty slots shown as placeholders so you can see where a button would go.

The two preview toggles

Both are off by default, and both only change what you see while editing — neither changes what the floor sees.

• Show Inactive — on shows switched-off buttons, faded, so you can edit them. Off, they’re hidden, same as on the floor.
• Show Filtered — on shows buttons and tabs that this screen’s context filters are currently hiding. Off, filters apply normally — what the floor actually sees.

Leaving the editor

If you try to leave with unsaved work, you’ll be asked: “You have unsaved changes. Save before exiting?” — Cancel, Discard, or Save. When you exit, you’re returned to the screen you were editing, on the tab you were looking at.

What you can add to a screen

Select a tab or a section and the sidebar shows what you can add to it — the choices differ depending on where you’re adding. Most elements share the same basic controls once added: Duplicate copies the selected element, and Remove deletes it.

Adding a new tab

A tab is a page of the screen. With the screen itself selected, use Add Tab to add one, or select an existing tab and use Add Tab → to insert a new one right after it.

A tab’s properties panel offers:

• Name
• Icon
• Layout: Flow / Freeform — see Flow vs. Freeform, below
• The add palette (what you can put on this tab)
• Order, set with ← Move Left / → Move Right
• Context Filter — attaches one of your context filters, so the tab only appears when that filter allows it

Removing a tab warns first: “Remove {name} and all of its buttons?”

Adding a section

A section is a named box of buttons within a tab. Select a tab and choose New Section to add one. A section can be left empty on purpose — it stays that way through a save.

A section’s properties panel offers:

• Name
• Order, set with ↑ Move Up / ↓ Move Down
• The add palette (what you can put in this section)
• Active
• Duplicate / Remove Section

Removing a section warns first: “Remove {name} and all of its buttons?”

Adding an item

An item button rings in a menu item. You can pick several items at once from the search and get a button for each.

An item’s properties panel offers:

• Linked to — what the button points at. Change Item… repoints it without rebuilding the button
• Name — what the button says. A Default button puts it back to the item’s own name
• Icon — Change Icon… opens the picker; double-tap an icon to choose it, or Clear to remove it
• Colour — Change Colour…
• Skip prompted modifiers — rings the item in without prompting for its forced modifiers
• Context Filter
• Active — turning this off hides the button from the floor without deleting it. Hidden buttons stay visible to you in the editor, faded, only when Show Inactive is on
• Order, Duplicate, Remove

Adding an item category

An item category button opens a category of items. A tickbox in its properties can turn it into a Category Link instead.

An item category’s properties panel offers:

• Linked to — Change Category… repoints it
• Category Link tickbox
• Colour
• Skip prompted modifiers
• Context Filter
• Active
• Order, Duplicate, Remove

There’s no Name field — an item category button always uses the category’s own name.

Adding an action

An action button runs one of the POS actions — Payments, Discounts, Tools, Time Clock, transfers, and more. Adding one opens Select Action: a search box with an on-screen keyboard on the left and the catalogue on the right, grouped by type, with a plain-English description under every action. For example, Apply Note: “This action applies a note to the selected items (the last-entered item on a handheld). Configure the note text, or leave it blank to prompt the user.”

An action button’s properties panel offers:

• Action type — Change Action… swaps it, alongside a sentence explaining what the current action does
• Name, Icon, Colour
• The action’s own settings underneath — for example, Adjust Guest Count has Adjustment and Amount
• Context Filter

Two actions are temporarily unavailable to add: Print Terminal Report and Distribute Tip Pool aren’t offered in Select Action right now. Buttons that already run them keep working — they just can’t be added new.

Adding a separator

A separator is a divider — but only inside a section; it isn’t offered at the tab level. If you try to add one while a tab is selected, you’ll see: “A separator can only be added inside a section. Add or select a section first.”

A separator’s properties offer Show divider line — whether it draws a line or is just a gap — plus the usual Order, Duplicate, and Remove.

Adding a label

A label is static text, useful for titling an area. There’s nothing to pick — it’s added directly.

A label’s properties offer Name (the text it displays), appearance settings such as width, font size, and alignment, along with Active, Order, Duplicate, and Remove.

Flow vs. Freeform

Every tab is laid out one of two ways, switched from the tab’s properties:

• Flow — buttons fill the space in order, automatically.
• Freeform — buttons and section boxes can be dragged anywhere.

Switching to Freeform asks: “Switch this tab to Freeform layout? You’ll be able to drag buttons and section boxes anywhere.”

Switching back to Flow asks: “Switch this tab back to Flow layout? The freeform positions on this tab will be cleared.”

Going back to Flow throws away your Freeform positions, and there’s no undo. If you’re experimenting with a Freeform layout, duplicate the screen first so you have something to fall back on.

Snap, on the editor toolbar, is a Freeform-only aid — it snaps a dragged button to a 5-pixel grid so a row lines up cleanly. It’s greyed out on a Flow tab, and it isn’t saved with the screen; it just helps while you’re dragging.

Making a new screen

• New Screen — the + beside the screen picker. If you have unsaved work, you’ll be asked first: “You have unsaved changes that will be lost. Start a new screen without saving?” (Keep Editing / Discard & Start New.)
• Duplicate Screen — makes a copy to work from.
• Remove Screen — has one hard stop: “This is the terminal’s default screen and can’t be removed here.”

Sizing — store default vs. this terminal

Adjust Sizing on the editor toolbar switches the sidebar to Element Sizing: “Pick an element, then adjust its size.”

You size a kind of element at a time, not one individual button. An ELEMENT dropdown picks what you’re sizing (Item Buttons, and the other element types), and three sliders control it: Scale (for example 1.00× to 1.25×), Image height in pixels, and Font size in points. The screen behind you redraws as you drag, so you’re sizing against the real layout rather than a preview.

Both save buttons stay greyed out until something changes, and each is subtitled with the element you’re sizing (for example “Item Buttons”), so you always know what you’re about to save.

• Save as Store Default — every terminal in the store gets this size, unless it has its own override.
• Save for This Terminal — only this terminal. Useful when one terminal needs a different size than the rest.

The prompt asks plainly: “Save the button sizing to the store default (all terminals) or just this terminal?”

A terminal override always wins over the store default — so a store-wide size change won’t reach a terminal that already has its own saved size. To undo an override, use Use Store Default, which warns: “This terminal’s saved size for it will be removed.” This is the single most confusing part of sizing, so it’s worth remembering: if a store-wide resize doesn’t seem to be taking effect on one terminal, check whether that terminal has its own saved size.

FAQ

I don’t see Edit Layout on my terminal. It only appears for job roles with the Manage Terminal Screens permission — the same one that controls Terminal Setup in the back office. The button hides itself rather than showing an error, so check the job role’s permissions first.

I made the buttons bigger on one terminal and nothing changed on the others. You saved it for this terminal. Save as Store Default instead to reach every terminal. And the reverse is also true — a terminal that already has its own saved size ignores the store default until you use Use Store Default to clear it.

I switched a tab back to Flow and lost all my positions. Freeform positions are cleared when a tab goes back to Flow — the prompt warns before it happens, and there’s no undo. If you’re experimenting, duplicate the screen first.

Tools → Edit Layout opened the wrong thing. The launcher’s Tools screen has its own Edit Layout button that opens the table/floor plan editor — a different feature. The screen editor’s Edit Layout is on the order screen’s Tools panel, bottom left.

Can I hide a button without deleting it? Yes — turn Active off. It disappears from the floor but stays visible in the editor, faded, when Show Inactive is on.

Why can’t I add a Print Terminal Report button? Print Terminal Report and Distribute Tip Pool are both temporarily unavailable to add in this release. Existing buttons that already use them still work.

Does editing a screen change anything already rung in? No. A screen is just a layout — changing it changes what the terminal shows from the next save onward. No order, receipt, or report is affected.

What if I leave in the middle of editing? Nothing is saved until you tap Save, and leaving always asks first — Save, Discard, or Keep Editing.