The user interface for itBioPath is designed to be flexible and user-friendly. There are some powerful features of the interface that the user may not be aware of without some instruction or clarification. Everything in the application can be accessed and every task in the application can be performed without the use of a mouse. Especially when performing data entry, you may find it more convenient and faster to use the available keyboard short cuts to operate the interface. To help you to learn what these are, we have provided a topic that includes a complete list of itBioPath's Keyboard Shortcuts.

There are three main areas to the itBioPath interface. Along the top are a series of menus that are used to initiate most of the tasks to be performed in itBioPath. The function of these menu options will be discussed throughout this help documentation in topics describing each type of task.

The second area of the itBioPath interface is the search pane. This pane is used to provide access to specific specimen records by allowing the user to search for specimens in a variety of ways. Read The Search Pane for more information about this part of the interface, including a description of different ways to control the size and appearance of this pane. The final area of the interface is empty when the application first begins. This is the itBioPath desktop pane, where most of the windows representing specimen, collection, patient and other records will appear. There are also three additional buttons in the upper right corner of the application. The Profile button displays the current user's user profile, including security permissions that user has relative to the application in general, to various collection protocols and to specific projects that a specimen might be registered with or disbursed to. These permissions combine to control what information the user has access to for each record in the database. This is further discussed in the documentation section Granting a User Permission Relative to a Protocol or Project and Frequently Asked Questions About itBioPath. The Help button accesses this help documentation, and the Exit button logs the user out of itBioPath and closes the application window.

The interface for a number of features within the application are configurable. Users may select options to build their own interface. This is especially useful when a particular action will be performed multiple times, especially when default fields are consistently not required by the user. Instructions are provided in this documentation for performing the customization — see Customizing the Add Specimen Expert Tool to Streamline Specimen Batch Entry.