User Help Files

The ‘Help’ pull-down menu at the top of the screen within Datafile contains an option Help Manuals which lists the standard Datafile Software manuals. In developing procedures for your system you may have created your own documentation so that other operators can perform selected actions as necessary. If these were saved as PDF files and included within the HELP folder of the system then they are included in the Help Manuals list, however, these Help files are available to all users and you may want to restrict the availability of some help files based on authority level or have them listed in a structure order. In addition you may have this documentation in other formats such as Word Documents

This new feature allows a new option on the Help menu for ‘User Help Manuals’ which will display a configurable list of help files filtering the list based on the operators authority level as required. This list uses the same facility as the, improved in Release 6.4, Reports on Desktop options to include files of various types such as PDF, DOC, etc. and open using the associated program.

Installation

Menu Design

The option to define the list of User Help Files available requires a new option to be added to the menu design. To update the menu layout sign on as the CONFIG user and select the option Application Menu Design. Select the menu to update – the desktop definition tools are usually held in the DBDESK.D03. Confirm the default program and select whether the ‘User Help’ option is to appear on the left or right of the menu. Move down to blank entry on the menu, enter the title for this option and press <Enter> to set the menu parameters.

Applic, Program or Notes P-Program

Menu Name or Program Path DB.EXE

Parameter 8009

Other options can be set as required.

User Help Files on Desktop

Once the definition action has been added to the menu then you can begin defining your list of user help files. If you added this new option to the DBDESK.D03 then this is accessed by selecting Database Systems from the main menu followed by Datafile Database Utilities and then Desktop Tools Definition. Selecting the new ‘User Help Files on Desktop’ option gives a list of up to 40 help files that can be included – select a blank entry to add a new help file to the list.

Title Offered to User – enter the title of the help file to be displayed on the list of User Help files.

Authority Level Required – set the authority level required to access this help file. Authority levels run from 0 to 9 where 0 is the highest authority level and 9 is the lowest.

Allow Only User-Id’s – as an alternative to setting an authority level you can nominate specific user-id’s that are allowed access to this help file. Up to eight user-ids can be set.

Help File Pathname – select the help file to be displayed, <F4-Select> is available as required.