About User Assistance (Online Help)

The information on this page explains the how online help Site is organized. It also describes the features and conventions that are used in the topics to assist users in finding, viewing, and understanding the help information.

 

 

 

Online Help Explained

Online Help is a form of user assistance, like written manuals/PDFs. The LaunchPoint Online Help provides task-oriented topics that support the user in operating the LaunchPoint Web Application. Topics are generally organized in a logical order from setup to configuring to operating the web client.

• Topics define requirements, terms, and assumptions that are relevant to the feature topic.

• Topics provide links and cross references for related information.

• Topics provide task-oriented instructions on how to use the wizards and features in LaunchPoint .

 

Online Help and PDFs Guides are Feature-based

All topics are organized by the name of the feature in LaunchPoint (meaning by the name of the wizard, feature, report, or specific option).

FOR EXAMPLE ...

• Choose the topic for Live Events if you want to know how to view live events.

• Choose the topic for add access groups or the Edit access groups if you want to know how to add or change an access group.

 

Topics are Task-Oriented & User Friendly

All topics are written with a task-oriented approach and include basic steps to help complete the task successfully.

Topics provide the following information within the topic ...

• Prerequisites - list of any prerequisite tasks that must be performed before you begin
• Notices - list of cautions and tips that help you perform the task correctly
• Cross-reference Links - links to related topics that and alternate methods
• Terms and Concepts - to help user understand the terminology and explain how the feature works
• Basic Procedural Steps - to guide user through performing the tasks the feature supports
• Images - images of the product screens or conceptual diagrams that help understand the task

 

 

Navigating Online Help Topics

The Online Help organizes topics by catagories then by features ...

Navigating Menus and Finding Topics

Topics are organized under the menu they belong to in LaunchPoint. For example, you can find topics about the wizard features under the under the Wizards menu. Reports topics are under the Reports menu, and so on.

Menus are the Categories ...

• Getting Started

• Settings

• Features

• Wizards

• Reports

   

Examples of Feature topics under the Menus ...

When user expands a menu, it will reveal the feature topics under that Menu Category.

• What’s New, etc. (under Getting Started menu)

• Camera Group Settings, etc. (under Settings menu)

• Edit Cardholders, etc. (under Features menu)

• and so on ...

 

Finding, Navigating, and Controlling Topics

There are menus, toolbars, links, and buttons on the topic web pages that allow the user to find topics and control how the topic information displays.

SEARCH

Topic Search Bar: is a search text field where user can enter a search-word to search all help topics to find the list of topics where the word is mentioned. See the search eyeglass for related information.

Topic Search Eyeglass Button: is a button the user can click to invoke a word-search for all “search-able topics”. A results-list of topic links will be displayed in the web page area for user to choose from. When the user opens a topic in the result-list, the search-word will be highlighted in the topic information as many times as it occurs. See Highlight button below for related information.

 

TOPIC NAVIGATION

Side Menu: the navigational menu (left side) is organized in subjects or categories and it provides click-able menu options that expand/open and collapse/close to allow user to find topics under the categories listed in the menu.

Topic Breadcrumb: the breadcrumb at the top of the page shows the menu path that the topic page is located in. The user can click on the menu path to hop back to prior places in the menu sequence.

“UP” Button: (a.k.a. ‘back-to-top’ button) the UP button floats in the bottom right corner of the topic page. It dynamically appears when the user scrolls down the topic webpage far enough. When the user clicks the UP button, the browser scrolls back to the top of the topic page.

“Features List” Links: (under topic title/top of page) the Features List is a list of clickable links/bookmarks that let the user hop or jump down to a specific subheading that is within the same topic page.

“Next Steps” Links: (bottom of topic) the Next Steps is a list of clickable links that open other topics which are related or should follow the tasks the user has completed in the currently open topic - similar to “also see” links.

“Also See” Links: (general) the Also see is a clickable link that lets the user open or jump to other topics which are related or should follow the tasks the user has completed in the currently open topic - similar to “also see” links.

TOPIC TOOLBAR BUTTONS

Topic Toolbar: a topic toolbar displays at the top of the topic web page. The topic toolbar displays control buttons that allow the user to print, remove highlights, expand or collapse dropdowns, or other functions as the toobar buttons are enable for.

Highlight Button:   removes all search-word highlights from the topic page.

   Show/Hide Button: button expands or collapses all show/hide dropdowns.

Print Button:  prints the topic (opens the print preview window).