9.1 Personal Preferences

Click Personal preferences on the Home Page to define how certain parts of Beacon appear to you personally, as well as re-setting your Timeout period, Password and Security Question.

The Personal Preferences page is split into 3 sections:-

a) Drop-down Name Lists & Timeout

The preferences set here apply to the current computer or current user only and settings are only stored if optional Cookies have been accepted through the Cookie control.

Drop-down Lists
The appearance and order in which drop-down lists are displayed may be changed to suit your personal preference. The options are to sort by Surname or Forename and to display with Surnames first or Forenames first.

Whichever combination is chosen, a name can be located quickly by typing its first letter of the displayed name - the list then jumps to the first name starting with that letter. For this reason, sorting and displaying Surname first is probably the most useful.

Timeout
When Beacon has been inactive for a period of time, you are required to log in again. This is an important security precaution to reduce the likelihood of someone else using your computer after you have logged in and then left the machine.

By default, Beacon times out after 20 minutes and you should not make the delay longer on a shared machine (it would be better to reduce it). However, if you find this period inconvenient on a computer to which no-one else has access, you may change the Session timeout duration here. The maximum value is 99 minutes. Note that attempting to set a larger value reverts the period to 20 minutes with no warning.

Press the Save Name Lists & Timeout button to save your settings.

b) Change Password

Note that if you have more than one Username (e.g. for admin and leading a Group) each Username has its own independent password.

To change your password, enter your new password in the New password box and enter it again in the Confirm box. As you type there will be hints displayed to tell you whether you have chosen a good password, if it meets the format requirements and if the 2 entries match.

 

Press the Change Password button to bring the new password into effect.

c) Change Personal Q&A
To change your personal question and answer click in the Question box. You can accept the default Question or change it to something else. Make sure that the Answer is something that you will remember (including the format) but which is unlikely to be known to anyone else.

 Note that like the password, if you have more than one Username they each have their own Q&A.

Press the Update Q&A button to store the new phrases.

Revision History

v2	2022-02-15	Graham Tigg	Note that the timeout maximum is 99 minutes
v3	2022-08-16	Graham Tigg	Updated screen shots
v4	2022-09-23	Graham Tigg	Updated for Cookie control. Emphasise usernames have their own password and security questions