How to show your animated menu on the dining-room TV

What the screensaver is

The screensaver is your restaurant's menu playing on the ready orders TV while there's nobody to call. It uses the active items of your menu, with name, category and price, plus the dish photos when you have them. There's nothing separate to build: change the menu and the TV shows the new one the next time the page opens.

There are five styles, and you pick one. Spotlight shows one dish at a time, big, with the price on a starburst. Conveyor rolls rows of dishes across the screen, with the categories on a ribbon. Poster writes the dish's name in huge letters. Live menu shows the menu with prices and lights up one line at a time. Card stack drops dish photos onto a pile, one by one.

Why it's worth turning on

• The TV works the whole service. Instead of a dark screen saying Nothing ready right now, a guest who's waiting sees what else they can order.
• A ready order is never hidden. When the kitchen marks an order Ready, it shows up full screen, with the number or table in giant type, together with the sound alert and the voice if they're on.
• People waiting still see theirs. After the call, orders not yet picked up stay in a column on the left while the menu keeps playing, smaller, on the right.
• It works even without photos. Dishes with a photo come first; the rest show their initial, big, where the photo would go. The Live menu style doesn't need photos at all.
• It costs nothing extra. The screensaver is part of qmen.us, which is free for the restaurant.

How to turn it on in 5 steps

Five steps, from the dashboard to the dining-room TV playing your menu.

1. Open the ready orders screen section

   In the dashboard, open Settings and scroll to Ready orders screen. If it's still off, turn on Turn on the ready orders screen: the screen's options show up right below.

2. Pick a style in Screensaver

   Under Screensaver, tap the card of the style that suits your place: Spotlight, Conveyor, Poster, Live menu or Card stack. Each card has a small drawing of the style and a sentence on how it works. Off keeps the screen showing only the ready orders, as before.

3. See how it looks before saving

   Each card has a Preview link. It opens the screen in a new tab, already playing that style with your menu, even while the screen is still off. Open two or three and compare them on the TV itself, if you can.

4. Save the settings

   Tap Save at the bottom of the page. If the TV already has the screen open, it reloads by itself within a second or two and starts playing the new style. You can also change it from the Kitchens page, on the screen's card, under Set up.

5. Leave the TV on the ready orders screen

   In the TV's browser, open the screen's address, the same one shown under Screen link — qmen.us/your-restaurant/m/ — and tap Full screen. From then on the screensaver plays by itself and stops whenever there's an order to call.

   Tip: The screensaver needs a recent TV or browser. On an old TV, the ready orders screen keeps working normally, just without the animated menu.

Frequently asked questions

Glossary

Ready

An item's status after the prep station marks it done; the waiter is alerted right away.

Menu

The screen that holds your items, categories, prices and photos. It's the source of the digital menu guests see through the table QR code.

Settings

The screen where the owner edits the restaurant's details: name, logo, photo, description, phone numbers, address and opening hours. You get there from the gear icon on the Dashboard.

Kitchen

The display where orders show up and move from Preparing to READY.

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