* Tip of the Week * - How to Edit Margins in an EMR Note

[Alan_L]

How does one alter the margins of an EMR Note so that they actually save once the EMR Note is saved?   There are numerous ways to alter the margins of an EMR Note or EMR Note Template, however, only one method will actually retain the margins after you click SAVE.  I will not go into any detail of all the methods as this is the ONLY method that will actually work.

NOTE: The steps I’m about to describe will work for an actual EMR Note in a patient’s chart as well as with the EMR Note template.  For the purpose of this posting, I will only be referencing an EMR Note Template.

First, open an EMR Note template and look for the black triangle (if that’s what you want to call it) that I have circled in red below:

This triangle is actually 2 pieces, a top piece and a bottom piece.  They can be moved independently of each other. THIS IS NOT WHAT YOU WANT TO DO!  They must move together when you slide them to the right or left.  Click your mouse in the middle of the triangle and drag it to the desired margin location. 

You can either do a “Select All” prior to shifting the triangle to affect the margins of the entire template at once, or you can do it line by line or paragraph by paragraph.  Its totally use to you.

[pchaneyosa]

Alan: Your explanation is interesting but I have to point out some things before I would call it a solution. The "triangle" marks you reference are indenting marks. The top is the 1st line of a paragraph and the bottom is for the hanging indent which is the rest of a paragraph. The reason you have to "select all" is because you will be doing  the indenting of  each and every paragraph (every time you hit the return sign a new paragraph is made). If you use the symbol your red line cuts through, which is the arrow with the vertical line in front of it, that is the margin marker. Then you can move the left and right margins without having to select all. You will see the indent marks move with the margins. These will stay when you have clicked ok. You cannot place the indents behind the margins for obvious reasons.

The word processor for Templates is rather anemic at best. There is no page layout etc. Formatting is held with certain characters on the page, which is why things revert back to no margin if you alter one or more of these important characters (some are hidden). That is why when you copy in a word processor you choose retain source formatting, text only, or others. These Carestream Templates drive things to their own formatting without the option to change it.  If you keep source formatting when you bring documents in from word, etc. and the formatting is done on the document, you get a document that is maintained the way you made it after you hit ok.

Before you all jump me that this crashes your system, let me assure you I have been doing this for 2 years without problems and it is done very quickly. Carestream and Microsoft do not get along. You just take charge and make them get along in your playground. I have worked with this EMR and all the peripherals that go with it for years. Many have asked me to do  a seminar on this but as of yet that has not happened.