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ARCHIBUS Smart Client

ARCHIBUS Web Central

ARCHIBUS Smart Client Extension for AutoCAD

ARCHIBUS Smart Client DWG Editor

Using ARCHIBUS Help

This topic has the following sections:

Overview

Displaying the Navigation Pane

Moving to Linked Topics

Paging through the Table of Contents

Searching for Topics

Bookmarking Frequently-Used Topics

Accessing Context-Sensitive Help

Online and Offline Access

System Management Help

Overview

ARCHIBUS Help is a context-sensitive online help system. The help system includes content for:

• using Web Central
• using Smart Client
• using the Smart Client Extension for AutoCAD or Revit, or Smart Client DWG Editor
• applications such as Space Inventory & Performance, On Demand Work, Condition Assessment
• the ARCHIBUS mobile apps
• a Quick-Start section to help you get up and running with key Space and Building Operations tasks

Access ARCHIBUS Help from:

• the Help command in Web Central
• the Help command in Smart Client
• the ARCHIBUS Help command in the Smart Client CAD programs
• the Process Navigator's right-click Help command in Smart Client
• the Process Navigator's right-click Help command in Web Central
• entries on the Quick-Start home page or on other home pages
• the right-click Help command available on the panels of the ARCHIBUS home pages

Once you access the online help system, you can use its Search, Table of Contents, Index, and Glossary features to load specific online help topics.

Note: When using the ARCHIBUS help systems, you might encounter minor browser-specific behaviors. For information, see ARCHIBUS Revision History / Known Issues.

Displaying the Navigation Pane

ARCHIBUS Help has a content pane (on the right) for displaying topics and search result lists and a navigation pane (on the left) with tools for accessing various parts of the help system. The navigation pane includes the following tabs for accessing topics:

• Contents: A hierarchical outline of the Help system's material.
• Index: A keyword entry box and a listing of keywords linked to topics. Select the keyword to display its linked topic in the right pane.
• Glossary: An alphabetical list of glossary terms for all ARCHIBUS programs and business applications. Select a term to see its definition in the right pane.

To hide the navigation pane, click on the triangle-shaped button on the right border of the navigation pane.

To resize the navigation pane, hover over the navigation pane's right border and drag.

Moving to Linked Topics

A topic may contain links to other topics in the help system, as indicated by colored text.

Click on the colored text, and the new topic will either replace the current topic in the browser, or, if it is a glossary word, it will display in a pop-up topic. Click outside of the popup window to close it.

Paging through the Table of Contents

The Table of Contents organizes the help topics by ARCHIBUS program (Web Central, Smart Client, CAD program) and by business application (Space Inventory & Performance, On Demand Work, Condition Assessment, and so on). On the Contents tab, you drill down through a series of organizing "books" to access specific topics.

To become familiar with an application or program, you can follow the structure of the Table of Contents, selecting the "book" icons to drill down through the content and selecting the "page" icons to load topics.

Searching for Topics

Rather than drill down through the Table of Contents, you might wish to search for topics.

1. Enter a phrase or word in the Search box, located in the upper right corner. See below notes for tips on making your entries.

   In the content pane, the system presents a list of all topics containing your search word or words. To help you determine if this topic will be helpful to you, the search results present the first few lines of text of each topic.

2. Scan the search results and click on a topic that is of interest.

   The system displays this topic in the content pane and highlights each occurrence of the search word or words.

3. For easier reading, you can shut off the highlight using the "Remove highlight" button, located at the top of the content pane.
4. If this topic does not meet your needs, you can return to the list of search results using your Web browser's "Back" button

   You can now choose another topic to load.

Note these search behaviors:

• Searches are not case-sensitive. Search results will include topics that contain both upper and lower case instances of the search term you enter. However, matches that use the case you entered will most likely be shown higher in the results.
• Search includes terms with variant endings. Search results include matches that have different endings than your entry. For example, a search for the term 'lease' will include matches for 'leases' and 'leased.' A search for the word 'local' will include matches for 'locales' and 'localization'. The highlight in the topics will be on the part of the word that you entered in the search box.

• Partial search is supported for the Web-based System Management Help only.Partial search finds matches that contain your entry anywhere - at the beginning, middle, or end of a term. For example, if you enter stoplight, topics that contain the parameter useStoplightColor, and the phrase stoplightColor value would both be included, as well as topics that contain the word stoplight on its own. For all Help that is locally installed, and for the User Help system that is posted to the ARCHIBUS Web site, partial search is not enabled. For the web-based System Management Help, you must enter at lease 4 characters to perform a partial search.

  Note: For the Help systems that do not support partial search, be aware that if a topic matches your search term and also happens to have a word that contains your search term anywhere within it, the search highlights both the search term and any word that is a partial match. For example, if you search for the word 'dash' and a topic has the word 'dash' and also the word 'dashboard', dash will be highlighted as dash and where it occurs within dashboard. However, note that the search is finding these partial matches only in topics that also include the exact term you entered.

• Phrase search is supported. To search on a phrase such as "work request," you must enclose your phrase in quotation marks when entering it in the search box. Search results will include exact matches and variants. Variants are matches that use a different case or ending than the entry. For example, entering "work request" will produce matches such as "Work Requests" and "Work Request."
  • When using phrase search, lower-ranking topics might contain similar matches, such matching "work request as the words you entered with a hyphen. Note, however, that these similar matches are not highlighted in the topic.
• Wild card search is not supported.
• Boolean operators are supported. The following Boolean operators are supported:

  Operator	Description	Example
  And	And designates that matches must include both terms. When separating terms with a blank space, the AND is always inferred. Additionally, to use this operator, you could type any of the following: the word 'and' (not case-sensitive and no quotes needed) the plus sign (+) the ampersand (&) between two or more terms. Using the operator And is especially useful when you want matches that include both terms, but the terms are not necessarily part of a phrase.	For example, enter lease and chargeback to find topics that include and highlight the terms leases and chargeback, but are not limited to the term "lease chargeback".
  Or	To find topics that include either of the terms you enter, type either: the word Or (not case sensitive) or the pipe symbol (|) This broadens the search results.	For example, enter localize or translate to see topics that contain either of these words.
  ^	Search for topics that contain one term, but not the other. Use the ^ to separate the terms. The first term is the included term; the term after the ^ is the excluded term. Note: The ^ excludes the term and its variants - that is, the term you enter with different endings.	For example, enter: "conference calls" ^ Revision to search for topics on conference calls, but to exclude the Revision History topics.
  ()	Combine terms. Use parentheses ( ) to combine Boolean terms. Type the parentheses around the combined terms.	For example, type "smart client" and (localize or translate) to see topics that use either of the terms localize or translate, and that also include the phrase Smart Client.

• Non-words can be included in search. You can include content that is not regular letters and numbers in the search box. For example, you can enter angle brackets or underscores, and the search will match these entries to topics that contain them. However, except for the Boolean operators listed above, most punctuation is ignored.

  Note: Although, in general, non-words can be included in search terms, the dash is not recognized.

Bookmarking Frequently-Used Topics

You may wish to save a topic that your frequently access so that you can easily return to it without drilling through the Table of Contents or searching for it again. The URL for the topic displays in your Web browser, as shown in the below image. Use your Web browser's Bookmark or Favorites tool to save a this topic in the same manner that you would save any favorite web page.

Accessing Context-Sensitive Help

Rather than page through the Table of Contents, you might want to access online help that is specific to your current work. ARCHIBUS Help offers online help that is specific to the selected role or process listed on the Process Navigator or in the role or process section on the Applications tab of ARCHIBUS home pages.

Process Navigator procedure

1. In Smart Client or Web Central, load the Process Navigator.
2. Drill down to the Role or Process level, such as Risk / Environmental Health & Safety / Operational Reports.
3. Right-click while on the process or role, and choose Help from the pop-up menu.
4. A help topic that overviews this process or role opens in its own browser session.
5. The Table of Contents pane displays this topic's position in the hierarchy.
6. Follow the Table of Contents hierarchy to access topics detailing how to work with this process or role.

The below image portrays using the right-click Help menu from the Risk / Environmental Health & Safety / Operational Reports process and the resulting topic that overviews this process.

Home Page procedure

All home pages have the ability to access context-sensitive help from the right-click menu of a home page's panel. However, some home pages are not set up with linked help topics.

If you are signed into ARCHIBUS with access to the Applications page, you will find that you can access context-sensitive help for each role or process panel in the same way that you do from the Process Navigator. In the below image, selecting the Help command will access the same EH&S Operational Reports topic as shown above for the Process Navigator.

1. In Web Central, access the home page and choose the Applications tab.
2. Drill down to a panel at the Role or Process level, such as Risk / Environmental Health & Safety / Operational Reports.
3. Right-click while on the process or role, and choose Help from the pop-up menu.
4. A help topic that overviews this process or role opens in its own browser session.
5. The Table of Contents pane displays this topic's position in the hierarchy.
6. Follow the Table of Contents hierarchy to access topics detailing how to work with this process or role.

Note: Topics describing application tasks and reports provide the Process Navigator path in the upper right corner and may reference the Process Navigator in the text. Since ARCHIBUS provides several role-based home pages, help topics do not provide a path for accessing a task from a home page. If you are using the Applications page, you will find that the Process Navigator path and the path on the Applications page are the same.

Offline and Online Access

ARCHIBUS Help and ARCHIBUS System Management Help is available on the ARCHIBUS web site at these locations:

• ARCHIBUS Help - http://www.archibus.com/ai/abizfiles/v23_help/archibus_help/user_en/archibus.htm
• ARCHIBUS System Management Help -- http://www.archibus.com/ai/abizfiles/v23_help/archibus_help/system/sysman.htm

So that you can have the latest and most up-to-date information, these help systems are updated with the latest information between official product releases.

The default installation calls for the Help commands to access the help systems from the ARCHIBUS web site. However, if your site prefers to have you access a locally-installed help systems, your system administrator can locally install the help systems that are included on the product DVD, as described in System Management Help. See the topics for each application server.

If your Smart Client programs are part of a Smart Client-only deployment, you will access the online help systems either on archibus.com or locally, depending on how your system administrator has deployed them. If you wish to use the latest help, as stored on archibus.com, you can copy the above URLs to your web browser and save them as favorites.

ARCHIBUS System Management Help

Topics for advanced users, such as topics on configuration, security, customization, and installation, are found in ARCHIBUS System Management Help.

ARCHIBUS System Management Help has the same interface as described above. There are a few ways to load ARCHIBUS System Management Help:

• From the Process Navigator, right-click on the process of the ARCHIBUS System Administration application, access a pop-up menu, and choose Help from this menu.
• Start ARCHIBUS Help, go to the home page (the Learning Path). Choose the System Manager tab. Choose the links on this page that access System Management Help.