Token Display

What you need

The page where you call tokens and the screen the waiting room sees run in the same browser on the same computer. There is no server behind the site to pass a call from one device to another, so a phone in one hand and a TV across the room cannot be joined up. Two set-ups work:

• A computer with a TV or monitor as its second screen. Connect the TV with an HDMI cable, set it up as an extended screen, and keep this page on the computer's own screen. Open the display opens the screen in a window of its own: drag it onto the TV and press F, or click Full screen on it.
• One screen only — a smart TV or TV box with a web browser, or a computer whose monitor faces the room. Set up the counters on this page, then use Show it on this screen instead and call tokens from a keyboard, a numeric keypad or a presenter clicker, so nobody has to walk to the screen.

Setting up

Type the name to show at the top of the screen, such as the clinic or the department. Call them is the word on the screen and in the voice: it is "Token" unless you change it to Order, Ticket, Number or a word of your own.

Add up to nine counters. A counter can be a counter window, a doctor's room or a doctor — name each one the way people should hear it, such as Room 2 or Dr. Anitha. Then choose how the numbers are given:

• One line of numbers — the counters share one run of numbers, and whichever counter is free calls the next. This suits a bank or an office where any counter serves anyone.
• Each counter its own — every counter gets a letter and its own numbers: A1, A2… at the first counter, B1, B2… at the second. This suits two doctors seeing their own patients. The letters are given in order and shown beside the counter names.

The numbers start from 1, or from any number up to 9999 you type. Changing between the two kinds of numbering in the middle of a day starts the day's calls again, so the page asks first.

Calling

Each counter has its own card with the token it is serving now and four buttons:

• Call next calls the next number. The button shows which number that will be.
• Call again repeats the counter's token on the screen and in the voice, for someone who did not hear it.
• Not here puts the token on the Missed list, shown on the screen as "Please come to the counter", and calls the next number. When the person comes, tap their token on the Missed list and it is called back to the counter that missed it.
• Number… calls a number out of turn, for example someone with an appointment. Later, Call next steps over that number so it is not called twice.

Undo the last step takes back the last thing done — a Not here and the call that followed it come back together. The list under the buttons shows everything done today with the time.

The keyboard works too, when you are not typing in a box: 1 to 9 call the next token at that counter, Space calls the next at the first counter, R calls again and Backspace undoes. On the screen itself Space, → or Page Down call the next token, R, ← or Page Up call again, Backspace undoes and F switches full screen. A presenter clicker sends Page Down and Page Up, so its two buttons become Next and Call again.

Tokens given out, and how many are waiting

If you hand out tokens at a desk, tap + Give out as each one is given. The screen then shows how many are waiting — the tokens given out that have not been called. With each counter's own numbers, each letter has its own button and its own count. If you never tap it, the screen simply leaves the count out.

The sound

Each call plays a soft two-note chime, then says the token aloud with the device's own voice — for example: Token number A 12, please go to Room 2. Choose English, Hindi or Malayalam for the voice, and Say it twice if the room is noisy. Hindi and Malayalam say the token and the counter's name as you typed it. Try the sound plays a sample.

The voice is the one built into the computer or TV. If it has no voice for the language you choose, the page says so and only the chime plays; a voice can usually be added in the device's text-to-speech settings. Browsers let a page make sound only after a click or a key press on it, so the sound comes from the window where the call is made — the computer's speakers, or the TV's if they are the computer's sound output.

The screen

The screen shows the name at the top, the time and date, and every counter with the token it is serving, as large as the screen allows. A new call flashes its counter; with two or more counters it also fills the screen for six seconds with the token and where to go. Along the side are the last few tokens called, the missed tokens and the waiting count, and an optional message runs along the bottom — the OP timings, or a request to keep phones silent. Choose dark or light colours to suit the room. While the screen is open it asks the device not to go to sleep, where the browser allows it.

The day, and token slips

The calls belong to the day. The next morning the page shows that the calls are from the day before, with Start today to begin again from the first number; Start a new day does the same at any time. Before that, Today's list for Excel saves every step of the day — date, time, token, counter and what happened — as a CSV file. The figures in the same panel count the tokens called and missed, and for each counter how many it called and about how many minutes apart.

No token machine? Print slips to hand out: choose the numbers from and to, and you get 40 slips on each A4 sheet with cut lines, up to 400 at a time, with the name and the word you use. With each counter's own numbers, choose whose letter goes on them. Print them once and use them every day.

Where it is kept

The settings and the day's calls are saved in this browser on this computer. Nothing is uploaded and there is no account. Clearing the browser's data clears the set-up, so keep a note of the counters' names. The highest token number is 9999.