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Adding/Editing a Series Template in LXEdge

Question Last Updated on: 2/6/2025

Introduction

LXEdge provides fully customizable series templates, allowing examiners to create pre-defined templates for gathering information in various testing scenarios. These templates store that information about a series, including details about the examinee that the examiner collected just before an exam. The information is stored in fields, and are included within a larger set of information. Think of a field like a box that holds one specific detail. Each field contains one type of information, such as the exam location, the examinee's sleep quality & quantity, recent meal history, and the examiner's name, if desired. Templates can be saved for future use and duplicated to create new ones for different testing needs. It's important to note that any changes to series templates will only affect new PFs; existing PFs will retain the settings of the template used at their creation. Many examiners will find that once they create a Series Template for a testing situation, that will become their personal default Series template for that type of testing. The Series Templates will be embedded in a PF template, which will be explained in the PF Template training section.

Default Series Template

LXEdge includes a Default Series Template with the following categories

  • General Information
  • Sleep
  • Food
  • Prior Polygraph
  • User-Defined Questions
  • Misc

Each group contains relevant fields. For example, the Food group contains fields to gather information about if the examinee has eaten prior to the polygraph. Groups and fields are fully customizable.

Viewing the Default Series Template

To access the Default Series Template in LXEdge, click on the Templates button in the main menu, select Series at the top of the screen, then select the Default Series Template under the Default Templates list.

Find Series Template

Find Series Template

Customizing Series Templates

When creating your first customized Series template, it's recommended to start with the Default Series Template. While you can also create personalized Series templates from other personalized templates, it's generally best to begin with the Default Series Template.

Step 1: Creating a New Customized Series Template

To create a new template from the Default Series Template, click the blue EDIT button on its card. This action generates a new template based on the Default Series Template, as it cannot be edited directly. A prompt will then appear to name the new template. Note that the EDIT button will allow you to directly manipulate custom templates.

New Series Template from Default

Step 2: Managing the Components of Series Templates

Series templates consist of groups and fields

  • Fields: Individual data points about a series.
  • Groups: Collections of related fields.

Each component can be easily managed

  • Add a New Group: Scroll to the bottom of the template components and click the New Group + button.
  • Add a New Field: Click the + Add Field button within an existing group.
  • Reorder Components: Click and drag fields to reorder them. Fields can be moved between groups if the destination is not empty.
  • Edit a Component: Click on a component to highlight it, then make changes on the right side of the screen. Only the name of groups can be customized. Field options are covered later in this document.
  • Additional Operations: Click on a component to highlight it, then use the Copy, Paste and Delete buttons at the top of the screen.

Step 3: Understanding Series Fields

Each field in a Series template can be configured with different data types. The available types are:

  • Custom Field: Allows creation of a custom format to restrict how data is entered.
  • Date: Allows dates to be added.
  • Numeric: Allows only a number to be entered.
  • Phone Number: Phone number in US format. See Custom Fields for information on how to create a field with a different format.
  • Dropdown List: Enter a list of options for the user to select from.
  • Separator: Visible separator between fields.
  • Signature: Requires a signature pad.
  • Start Date: The beginning of an exam or other event.
  • End Date: The end of an exam or other event.
  • Text: Allows data to be entered without any restrictions.

Field Options

All fields, except the Separator type, have several configurable options

  • Name: The text displayed for the field when filling out the personal history at the beginning of an exam.
  • Required: Fields can be set as required or optional, except Subject Name, which is always required.
  • Data Stripping: Data in this field will be removed when archiving or emailing a PF made with this template.
  • Report Field: Corresponds to the name of the field used in reports. This value is preconfigured for some field types.

These options make it easy to customize the templates to fit different testing scenarios.

Custom Fields

The ?Custom' field type lets you define a specific format using an Entry Mask, which controls the characters that can be entered. Refer to the table below for the mask characters and their meanings. Any characters in the mask not listed in the table must match the data entered exactly. Note that the mask only restricts the characters allowed at each position; it does not automatically format the input string.

Mask Characters
Character Meaning
# Numeric (0-9)
_ Wildcard, matches any character
* Wildcard, matches any character

Example

To create a custom field that only accepts a property formatted Singaporean phone number without the country code, use the mask "#### ####". This mask ensures that the input consists of four numbers, a space, and four final numbers. Any deviation from this format, such as missing or additional spaces or numbers, or the use of any alphabetic characters, will result in an error and the chart cannot be started until it is corrected. The screenshot shows an example of an incorrectly entered Singaporean phone number and the warning that appears when a custom field has incorrectly entered data.

Step 4: Editing a Default Series Template to make a Custom Series Template

When you select the Default Series Template to edit you will see the following

View Custom Series

View Custom Series

Each of the default groups (General Information, Sleep, Food, Prior Polygraph, User Defined Questions) can be retained, edited or deleted based on your preference. Additional custom groups can also be created using the New Group + button at the bottom of the page.

To delete a group entirely, simply click on the blue header (in the example here the Food header. The section will highlight slightly gray and will show in Customization box to the right. Then click the trash can and the Group will be deleted. Note you can also delete fields within each group by clicking that field and then clicking the trash can.

Delete Group

Delete Group

To edit a field within a group, click that field and it will highlight gray and show in the Customization box on the right (in this case Breakfast in the Food group). From the Customization box you can edit the field name, and it will change the field name in the group (For example, we changed Breakfast to Brunch).

Edit Field

Edit Field

Step 5: Saving a Custom Series Template

Once a customized Series template is ready, save it with its current name by selecting the Save button, or save it with a new name using the Save As... button at the top of the screen.

Viewing Series Templates

After creating custom Series templates, the Series templates page will list them on the left side, with user-defined templates at the top and the Default Series and Empty Series templates at the bottom. To view the details of or edit a custom template, click the blue EDIT button on the template card after selecting it from the list.

Viewing Custom Series Template

Managing Series Templates

To delete, duplicate, or rename a custom Series template, select it from the user-defined Series templates menu, then click the three dots at the upper right corner.

Managing Series Templates

Example Video

This video demonstrates how to create a custom Series template, manipulate and utilize various field types, and develop a PF Template using the new Personal History template. It also covers the creation of dropdown list fields.

Example Video



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