Appointment Views 

In the Appointments module, only about six or seven operatories will show at one time because of the screen size. If have more operatories or you want to have more control over what is showing, you can set up different view. From the Main Menu, select Setup | Appointment Views.

Each view in the list is associated with a function key, one of the 12 keys running across the top of your keyboard above the number keys. So when you have the main Appointment module open, you can switch back and forth between the views by using the F-keys. Double click on a view or click the Add button to edit:

You must select at least one operatory and at least one provider to show in your view. Hold down the Ctrl key to select more than one at a time. Notice that you do not have any way to reorder the operatories; you can only pick which ones to make visible. To add or reorder operatories see the Operatory setup section. If you are using 15 minute increments, then you might want to change the number at the top of this window from one to two. This will make the appointments taller and more readable.

The checkbox for "Only show operatories for scheduled providers" allows Open Dental to dynamically change the view for each day, depending on how which providers are scheduled.  If using this option, separate morning and afternoon views may be set up.  This is useful if providers are reassigned to different operatories after lunch.

In the middle of the window are a right arrow and a left arrow. To the left of the arrows are items that are available to show on appointments, including a number of patient and appointment fields, as well as custom Appointment Fields and Patient Fields.  You can move any of these items over to an actively displayed row by using the right arrow.  Move it back using the left arrow.

A few of the available fields need some explanation as they are not entirely intuitive:

Lab: Shows status of labcase in all-caps. Recommended to make this red as well.
Procs: Lists procedures for the appointment, each on its own line
ProcDescript: The procedure description lists all procedures on a single line, separated by commas. If they are too long to all fit on one line, then it wraps to the next line.
Production: The sum of the fees for all procedures attached to the appointment. You must have this displayed in order to see the daily production sum at the right of the Appointments module.  If you have PPO insurance set up, then you might see two numbers in the production box.  The first number is the gross, or the sum of the procedure fees.  The second number is the net after subtracting all PPO writeoffs and PPO writeoff estimates.

Proc Colors
In the main Appointment Views window at the top of this page, there is a button for Proc Colors.

These colors apply to only one very specific situation.  When you use the "ProcsColored" field in one of your Appointment Views, the settings in this window determine how the procedures will be colored.  If nothing is entered in this code range list, then using ProcsColored will result in an exact duplicate of the "Procs" field with black text. Click add.

The checkbox for show previous date allows the previous completed procedure date to show.  For example if previous BWs were taken in March of 2008, then it would show as 4BW (3/08).  The date for any given code range will always be the same for a single patient.  It will be the most recent of any code in that range.  If you want the most recent date for a specific procedure code, then add another item to the list of Proc Code Ranges, and just enter that single procedure code in the range box.