You can set your user preferences by going to the File menu and selecting the Preferences option (Mac users will find this under their Kerika menu instead). There are two tabs in the dialog that comes up: one deals with general preferences, and the other lets you customize the notifications that you receive when your projects are modified by your team members.

Workspace Preferences

• Default Shape for Ideas: you can specify the shape you would like to use when you add a new item to an Idea Page by using the File menu and selecting theNew Shape option.


• Show Pictures as Images: when you add a picture file to an Idea Page, the picture would normally show up as an image on the page. If you want to save space on the page, you can choose to have the picture show up as a file icon instead. (Learn more about working with pictures.)

Toolbar Preferences

It is easy to customize your Toolbar by adding buttons:

• Refresh: this repaints your Idea Page.


• New Project Folder: this lets you quickly add a new Project Folder (i.e. start up a new project) within your current Home.


• Conversations: this lets you do instant messaging with other Kerika users who are online at the same time as you.


• Send Documents: this lets you control when document updates are sent from your computer to the rest of the project team.

Wizard Preferences

Kerika provides a wizard to help you set up a new project, as well as many helpful tip dialogs that provide help on how to use a particular feature, such as how you can draw a line on an Idea Page. You can turn off any of tip display at any time if you don't need it anymore, and the same is true for the wizard. But if you change your mind and want to see the tips and wizards again, this preference setting will bring them all back to life.

Privacy Preferences

For greater privacy you might want to set up your own private server or perhaps use one that someone has already set up for you. Private servers are identified by Kerika IDs just like ordinary Kerika users: a private server's Kerika ID is the valid email ID that you provided when you set up the server. If you want to use a private server and know it's ID, you can enter it here. If you leave this field blank, you will end up using the public storage server that we maintain at our data center.

Email Preferences

One of Kerika's great advantages is that you can use it for communicating within a project team even when there are some people on the team who are not in a position to use our softare: learn more about using email to work with people who aren't using Kerika.

• Include me on the CC list: you can arrange to get copies of any emails that get sent automatically on your behalf; a useful feature in some professions like consulting and law, where you might need to keep formal copies of all correspondence.


• Allow me to add a comment: whenever you send out an email update for a project or document, you can add a cover letter or introductory paragraph. Each person getting the same email update can get a separate, personalized comment from you.

Alerts Preferences

The second tab in the Preferences dialog lets you specify how you get alerted when your team members make changes to your shared projects.

• All add events: this will create a notification whenever anything is added to a shared page.


• All remove events: this will create a notification whenever anything is removed from a shared page.


• Title change: this will create a notification whenever any item on a shared page a shared page gets a new name.


• Position change: this will create a notification whenever anything on a shared page is moved on the screen.


• Size change: this will create a notification whenever anything on a shared page is made larger or smaller (i.e. by dragging its corners).


• Color change: this will create a notification whenever anything on a shared page changes color.


• Font change: this will create a notification whenever anything on a shared page has its font changed.


• Font alignment change: this will create a notification whenever anything on a shared page has its font aligned (e.g. left-, center-, right-) changed.


• Line thickness change: this will create a notification whenever a line, arrow or shape on a shared page has its line (or border) thickness changed.