Build an HMI text menu with a screen selector list

What you need

• The HMI programming software with the project open.
• The operator screens built and named as destinations: Run setup, Dose, Alarms. The names are what operators will read in the list.
• A spare key if you want keypad access. A panel fitted with the 20-button add-on keypad carries 20 function keys to assign from.
• The optional bezel with its MENU key, if the panel has one.
• The panel's install guide, which names the combination that opens the setup screens.

Build the landing screen and the list

Build the screens first and the menu second. The selector list is configured from screens that exist, so a half-built project makes a half-built menu.

1. Build every operator screen and name each one the way an operator says it out loud.
2. Set the project's initial screen to the landing screen in the project settings, so the panel opens on the menu at power-up.
3. Add a Screen Selector object to the landing screen, where a tap is natural and it covers no process values or alarm banners.
4. Open the object's configuration and choose which screens appear in the selection list: the operator destinations only. Leave engineering, calibration and setup screens out.

The list is the control point of this design. A screen left out of the list is never offered to operators through the menu, so what you pick here decides what every key and the MENU key can reach.

Open the list three ways

5. Touch. Stop here if touch is enough. The object from step 3 is the entry: tap it, the list opens, tap a destination.
6. Function key. Use the same Screen Selector object and assign it to a spare function key, then drag the object outside the viewing area. The object keeps working while it is invisible: the panel opens the list when that key is pressed and the screen holding the object is displayed. On a panel with the 20-button add-on, one key spent on the menu leaves 19 for machine functions.
7. Bezel MENU key. If the panel has the optional bezel, set the action once for the whole panel: open Setup Menu, open Bezel Menu Key Setup, and select Screen Selector for the Action. The install guide names the combination that opens the setup screens; one 6-inch micro graphic panel's guide documents holding BAK [F1] and ENT [F5] together for 3 seconds. If a setup screen that should open from taps never does, that is a separate fault, and why taps never open a hidden setup screen walks through the check.

Match the door to the hardware. Touch needs no extra hardware. A key suits gloved hands and a crowded landing screen. The bezel key is configured once in the setup screens, so verify it from every screen operators use.

Example: a packing-line panel with 7 screens

Scenario. A packing line runs a small panel with the 20-button add-on keypad and no bezel. The project holds 7 screens: Menu as the landing screen, 5 operator destinations (Run setup, Dose, Alarms, Batch report, Clean), and Engineering for the electricians.

The arithmetic of the list: 7 screens in the project, minus Menu itself, minus Engineering held back on purpose, leaves 5 screens in the selection list. The electrician reaches Engineering the same way as before the menu existed, from the programming software; operators cannot reach it from the panel.

One key opens the list. The Screen Selector object sits outside the viewing area on Menu, assigned to a spare key, so Menu itself carries no menu clutter. The keypad has 20 keys, so 20 − 1 = 19 remain for machine functions.

From power-up the panel opens Menu. Any of the 5 destinations takes 2 presses: the key press opens the list, the tap selects the screen. Each destination screen carries a plain change-screen button back to Menu, so the return trip is 1 press. Total build for the menu: one object, one list of 5 screens, one key assignment, 5 return buttons.

Check it worked

• Power-cycle the panel. It must come up on Menu. If it opens anywhere else, correct the initial screen in the project settings and download again.
• Open the list and read it line by line against the intended destinations: the 5 you chose, nothing else.
• Press the assigned key while Menu is displayed; the list must open. Then press it while a destination screen is displayed and note what happens. The documented promise covers the screen that holds the object, so this test tells you what operators will actually get.
• On a bezel panel, press MENU from each screen operators use and confirm the list opens with the right contents each time.
• Tap every entry in the list once and confirm each lands on the screen it names.

When a list is the wrong tool

• Two screens that only ever jump to each other: put a change-screen button on each and skip the list. A list adds a press to a two-screen job.
• The controller decides which screen shows, as with recipe steps or faults raised by the PLC: change the screen from the PLC and give control back when operators need the menu again.
• A prompt that needs no screen of its own: build an HMI pop-up screen window so the prompt never crowds the selector list.

Recommendation: Build the landing screen around one Screen Selector object and keep the list to operator screens only. On a panel with the bezel, set Action: Screen Selector under Setup Menu > Bezel Menu Key Setup and verify the key from every screen operators use. Without a bezel, place the object outside the viewing area on the landing screen, assign it to one of the keypad's keys, and put a change-screen button back to Menu on each destination. Power-cycle and walk the full path before operators touch the panel.

Questions