How to Work on Several Calls at Once
In one browser tab, ABM Service keeps every call screen with unsaved changes open, so you can move between them without losing anything. Once two call screens are holding unsaved changes, opening another saved call brings up a dialog asking you to save or discard one first; starting a new call is never stopped. To have more calls in front of you at once, open them in separate tabs or, in the desktop app, separate windows.
Can I switch between calls without saving first?
Yes. You can leave a call you are working on, open another call, and come back to the first one with everything still in it: the fields you changed, both documents with their pictures, where you had scrolled to, the cursor, and Undo. Use Back, or select the unsaved reminder for the call in the bottom-left corner of the screen.
- Type your changes on the first call screen.
- Open another call, for example from the customer's name and then the customer's Calls section.
- Select the reminder naming the first call in the bottom-left corner, or press Back, to return to it.
Each call screen keeps its own call. What you type on one never appears on the other, and pressing Ctrl and S together (Ctrl+S) saves only the call you are looking at. One call is never open twice in the same tab: open a call you have already changed again, from the Calls list, from the customer's Calls section or from its reminder, and you get that same call screen with your changes in it, not a second copy.
A call you are only reading is not held against you. ABM Service keeps two call screens open in a tab, counting the one you are on, plus any others holding unsaved changes, and when you open another it quietly closes the oldest one that has no unsaved changes. Nothing is lost when that happens: opening it again reads it fresh, and the section you were in comes back when you return to it with Back.
What does "Two calls already have unsaved changes" mean?
The Two calls already have unsaved changes dialog appears when you try to open another saved call while two or more call screens in this tab are holding unsaved changes; a new call you have started and typed into counts as one of them. A call screen keeps everything you have typed, documents included, for as long as it is open, which is why ABM Service asks before it holds another one. The dialog lists every call with unsaved changes by name so you can decide which to deal with.
- Discard it — beside each call, throws away that call's unsaved changes. Once fewer than two calls are left holding changes, the call you asked for opens straight away.
- Stay where I am — closes the dialog and leaves you on the screen you were on, with every call still holding its changes. This is the button the keyboard is on when the dialog opens.
To keep the changes instead, choose Stay where I am, go back to one of the calls with its reminder, and save it; then open the call you wanted again.
Usually the dialog lists two calls. It can list more, because starting a new call is never stopped: if two calls already hold changes and you start a new call and type into it, you have three, and you would need to save or discard two of them before opening another saved call.
Nothing you typed is ever thrown away without you choosing it: the dialog only appears when two calls hold work, and it never removes anything by itself. Two situations never bring it up:
- going back to one of the calls you already have open;
- starting a new call with New Call, or with Log a call on the customer screen, which always opens.
The Two calls already have unsaved changes dialog is about call screens only, and customers have no such limit: you can leave any number of customers with unsaved changes, each with its own reminder in the bottom-left corner.
Should I open calls in separate tabs instead?
Open calls in separate browser tabs when you want to look at them side by side, or when you need more than two calls with unsaved changes at the same time. Each tab is independent: it has its own screens, its own Back, its own unsaved reminders and its own Two calls already have unsaved changes dialog.
To open a call in a new tab, hold Ctrl and select the call number in the Calls list, or select the small open-in-new-tab button that appears beside the call number when you point at it. In the ABM Service desktop app the same actions open a new window instead of a tab; if that call is already showing in another desktop window, that window comes to the front instead.
Unsaved changes stay in the tab where you typed them. A call opened in a second tab is read fresh and does not show typing you left in the first tab, and its reminders appear only in the tab they belong to. Closing or reloading a tab loses the unsaved changes in that tab, so your browser asks first.
Why did my call open without asking, even though two calls are unsaved?
The dialog only guards opening a saved call. A new call from New Call or Log a call always opens, because a blank new call holds nothing yet. A call you already have open in this tab also opens without asking, because returning to it does not add another. And the dialog does not appear at all when the calls you have open have no unsaved changes: ABM Service simply closes the oldest one in the background.