General tab

Use the General tab to view and edit customer and store references, set the output data folder location to place the data you create, define distance units, and determine the appearance of the Quick Start tutorial when starting the program.

Customer and store references

You can change how stores and customers are referenced. For example, you can use banks and clients, hospitals and patients, or preschools and children—whatever fits your line of work. Once changed in Preferences, the modified names appear throughout the wizards and on the Business Analyst menu after you restart ArcMap.

Repository

The Repository allows you to define the path were your work and outputs are saved in a project-based file structure. You can change the default location of the output.

If you select Use the standard repository, your outputs will be saved locally or to a network drive and allow you to access your work from Business Analyst Desktop.

If you select Use BA Server compatible repository, your work will be saved in your Business Analyst Server Repository and allows instant access to your outputs directly from Business Analyst Server.

Click the Save current Business Analyst project to map document (MXD) check box to save your current project to the MXD. As an example, this allows you to open three different MXDs with three different Business Analyst projects saved to them with each MXD opening with the appropriate assigned project.

Distances units

You can select the default distance unit for every analysis. You can choose from miles, kilometers, meters, etc.

Show Message Center

You can choose whether you want the Business Analyst Message Center to appear at startup.

Build

You can check the current version, or build number. If a Business Analyst service pack is applied, the build number will be updated.