Preferences Dialogs

There are two preferences dialogs in BondManager, both launched from the Edit menu.

The Confirmation Options dialog allows you to view and modify the current value of six confirmation options which affect behaviors in the Bond Analyzer dialog, Bond Definition dialog, the Positions Dialog, and the Portfolio Navigator.

The Positions List Options dialog allows you to view and modify the visibility of columns in positions lists that appear in the Positions Dialog and the Portfolio Navigator.

Confirmation Options

There are three groups of preferences in the Confirmation Options dialog. Each preference controls whether to require user confirmation before doing something irreversible to the database. The first group controls whether to confirm Bond Definition updates. The second group controls whether to confirm portfolio position modifications and deletions.

Dialog Close Events

The second and fourth check boxes indicate your desire to have BondManager post a confirmation dialog before updating a bond definition when you close the dialog. The second check box affects close events in the Bond Analyzer dialog and the fourth check box affects close events in the Bond Definition dialog. The default value for both preferences is to require confirmation.

Change Symbol Events

The first and third check boxes indicate your desire to have BondManager post a confirmation dialog before updating a Bond Definition when you change the identifier in the bond definition and analyzer dialogs. The first check box regulates change identifier behavior in the Bond Analyzer dialog. The third check box dictates change identifier behavior in the Bond Definition dialog. The default value for both preferences is to require confirmation.

Delete and Modify Events

The preferences in the second group affect whether you’re queried for confirmation after pressing the Delete or Modify buttons in the Positions dialog. Confirming position deletes is probably a good idea, but it’s not a huge tragedy if you don’t confirm modify operations, because you’ll have the opportunity to re-Enter the position before quitting the Positions Dialog, but no warning will post when you close the dialog with values present in the controls above the Enter button. The default value for both preferences is to require confirmation.

Positions List Options

Positions List Options are virtually self-explanatory. The preference names correspond with columns in the Positions dialog and the Portfolio Navigator. The preferences in the left column affect the visibility of columns in the Positions dialog and the preferences in the right column affect the visibility of columns in the Portfolio Navigator.

All of the preferences have the default value of enabled (checked), so all columns will be visible in each of the affected dialogs. The columns appear in the same order that they occur in the preferences list at right.

The only preference that doesn’t coincide with a column heading is the very last one on the right – ‘Initially Hide Positions’. The Portfolio Navigator has many row types; the row type at the leaf level in the hierarchy displays a position in a format almost identical to the display used in the Positions dialog.

The justifications for a default of initially suppressing the display of positions went something like this. 1) Positions are always displayed in the Positions dialog. 2) You have the option of expanding an issue’s summary node to see the positions that contribute to that subtotal row. 3) Portfolios would require more scrolling if the positions were visible. 4) It would be quite a bit of work to toggle all of the issue expansion nodes off, to facilitate fitting more summary information onto the small screen.