Settings

The Settings tab holds everything you can change in BeeBEEP. This page goes through it entry by entry, in the order the tab lists them, and says what each control does and what it is set to when you first start. It is for anyone who uses BeeBEEP; what an administrator sets for a whole office is on settings for administrators.

How the Settings tab works

Each entry opens a page of its own. On a phone, or on a window too narrow for two columns, the page covers the list and Back returns to it; on a wide window the page opens beside the list and the entry you are on is lit.

A switch or a choice applies the moment you tap it. Four things wait:

• the network password, which is applied with Apply;
• the language, which changes at the next start;
• the panic log, which takes effect at the next start;
• Prefer IPv6 over IPv4, whose announcement at start follows at the next start.

Some entries exist only on a computer: Window and Automation, and inside other pages Language, Download folder and Import from BeeBEEP 5.x. Where a default differs between a computer and a phone, the tables say so.

When an administrator has fixed a value for your office, the page shows it and says so, and you cannot change it here. That is the case for your circles, under Privacy, which read Set by your administrator., and for the network effort, which reads Custom (managed). What an administrator can fix is on the policy file.

Preferences

What you accept from other people. The three switches are saved as your preferences and your contacts' BeeBEEP knows them.

On a phone the received files stay in BeeBEEP's own documents area, so there is no Download folder row.

Download automatically

A file offered by a contact starts downloading at once when it is not larger than the size you choose here; a larger one waits for you to tap Accept. A file from someone who is not your contact always waits, and a voice message always downloads.

The default is tagged on the page itself. Who counts as a contact is in getting started.

Privacy

Who sees what of you, whose invitations reach you, which networks make contacts and which circles you are in.

Contacts

Your name, color and photo are seen by everyone whatever you choose. Everyone is meant for a shop or a reception desk, where anyone on the network may look.

Networks

BeeBEEP asks whether a network is private or public the first time you join it. The page lists Connected now the networks this computer is on and Known networks the ones it has used before, each with its category. Tap one to change it.

A network still without an answer is shown as Unclassified. On Windows the system decides the category: the row says Set by Windows and the change is made in the Windows network settings.

When people became contacts on a network, its page lists them under Contacts made here and offers Remove them as contacts, which asks you to confirm. People you made contacts yourself stay.

Circles

The Circles card lists your circles. Tap the icon at the right of one to remove it, after a confirmation, and Add a circle to add one: pick a circle heard on your network or type a new name. You see only the people who share a circle with you, and with no circles you see those who have none. Circles says what changes in the lists and the chats.

When your administrator sets your circles the card shows them with Set by your administrator. and has nothing to add or remove: see when an administrator sets them.

Notifications

A single chat can also be muted with the bell at the top of the chat. Either way only the notification of the system is held back, never the unread counts.

Appearance

Theme

The theme changes at once. Whoever wants other colors can edit the theme file: theming says how.

Language

The language changes at the next start: until then the row says Restart BeeBEEP to apply. On a phone BeeBEEP has no language row and uses the language the system sets for it.

The translations folder is for whoever translates BeeBEEP and wants to try the work: see translating.

Window

Only on a computer.

Keyboard shortcuts

BeeBEEP's own shortcuts work only once you turn them on. The usual keys of your system, such as the one to quit, always work and are not listed.

A key needs Ctrl, Alt or Meta with another key, and one no other BeeBEEP shortcut has: otherwise the page says Not taken and keeps the old key. Reset appears at the right of a row you changed and brings its default back.

Network

How your device is found and reaches the others. Most of these are right as they are in an office or at home; they are here for the places where BeeBEEP does not find anyone by itself, which finding the people you want to reach explains.

The listening port and the addresses are what you tell someone whose BeeBEEP cannot find you; they add you with Add a user by address in Users (getting started). Both are also on the You tab.

Relay messages for others

When two people cannot reach each other directly, their messages can pass through you. They are never shown on your device, but relaying uses some battery and data.

The default is tagged on the page itself.

Network effort

More effort notices a colleague who left sooner, and costs more traffic.

When your administrator has set the budgets, the page shows Custom (managed), which you can neither choose nor leave.

Import from BeeBEEP 5.x

Brings the contacts, the groups and the missing parts of your profile over from an older BeeBEEP on the same computer. Nothing already in BeeBEEP is changed, and chats are not imported. Search this computer looks in the usual folders of a BeeBEEP 5.x installation, and Choose a folder... takes the old BeeBEEP's own folder or its data folder. A report says what was brought over, or that nothing was found.

Network password

Use network password shows a Network password field. Type the password your network uses and press Apply: Restore brings back what was saved. Applying reconnects you to the network, so the people you are talking to drop for a moment and reconnect. The password is also applied when you leave the page. Turning the switch off stops using the password and keeps the one you saved.

Security

The key of a contact you verified in person is never replaced automatically, whatever you choose. What to do when a chat says a key has changed is in the FAQ.

Automation

Only on a computer. It lets a program of yours on this computer control BeeBEEP through the local console; it is for people who write such a program, and the rest can leave it alone.

The console is off at every start. You choose what a program may do before you switch it on: while it is on, the two choices are greyed and the page says Switch the console off to change this. While programs are connected the page counts them.

A console started from the command line is shown read-only, with what it allows, and has no switch: whoever started it decides when it ends. If it cannot start, the page says why.

Log

About BeeBEEP

The last entry has no switch. Under the bee and the name of BeeBEEP it shows the version you run and a line saying what BeeBEEP is, then:

A third-party row opens the full license text of the component, with License web page to read it on the web. To translate BeeBEEP yourself, see translating.