40d:Standing orders

Standing orders that apply to the whole fortress can be accessed with o

• i Civilians or all dwarves can be ordered to stay indoors, which can save lives in a siege. Note that "indoors" actually means subterranean: any "Inside Above Ground" areas will be forbidden just like "Outside" areas.
• x adjusts the level of job cancellation announcements that are shown
• a toggles whether dwarves will move caged animals to a stockpile
• f toggles whether dwarves will move food to a stockpile
• u toggles whether dwarves will move furniture to a stockpile
• g toggles whether dwarves will move dead dwarves to a stockpile
• r sets refuse orders
• F sets forbid orders
• s toggles whether dwarves will move stone to a stockpile
• w toggles whether dwarves will move wood to a stockpile
• h toggles who will harvest plants from farm plots - if set to "Dwarves All Harvest", all dwarves will participate, including nobles and children.
• m toggles whether different types of food can be put in one barrel at a stockpile
• W sets workshop orders
• z sets activity zone orders

Refuse orders

Dwarves can do different things with different types of refuse. You can tell them to ignore refuse altogether r for a smelly fort, or to gather refuse even from outside o which is mainly useful for collecting animals killed by military dwarves (only hunters will return animals they kill, and even then will not return animals which were not the target of a hunt when they died). Each type of refuse can be toggled between "save" (bring to a stockpile) and "dump" (throw in a garbage dump activity zone)

Workshop orders

Many workshops will generate tasks automatically, from this menu you can turn that off for selected workshops. The loom and clothier's shop can be further configured to use only dyed thread/cloth or any type. Since finished clothing cannot be dyed, this is one way to make sure the clothing is of best quality possible.

Activity zone orders

Fishing and drinking (water source) zones can be set to mandatory here, which can be useful if you need to keep fisherdwarves away from a carp infested river.

When dwarves disobey orders

Staying indoors

When you have only outdoor meeting areas (for example to prevent cave adaptation) and tell your dwarves to stay inside, the ones that have nothing to do seem to just stand around wherever they were, looking silly, even when they are outdoors, Designate a meeting area inside and they'll run there. Disable it when you don't need it (ia) and your dwarves will keep on using the outdoor meeting area.