General Preferences

HelpMaster is a highly configurable system.  There are many user preferences that can be set to suit the individual needs and tastes of unique users.  The user settings screen allows the currently logged in user to customize the look, feel and behaviour of HelpMaster to their liking.  Settings are saved in the database, so they will "follow" a user if they log onto a different computer and user HelpMaster. 

The User Settings screen is accessed via the User menu > General tab

Use

1. Open the User preferences screen by using the User menu and selecting General
2. Apply your changes as required.
3. Click on OK.

Explanation of settings

Jobs and Actions

• Don't mark helpdesk jobs as read when the helpdesk job is viewed : When unchecked, every time you view, or preview a job in the workgroup explorer, its read status will be set to read.  This setting is similar to the way many email programs work.
• Show helpdesk job counts in helpdesk explorer window : When checked, the count of jobs in each job queue and saved search will be displayed in brackets (34) after each queue.  Checking this option incurs a performance penalty, as well as network traffic and database hits as the application needs to perform a the database calculation for each job queue.  Turn this off if you are experiencing lag, or network congestion.
• Show my skillgroups unassigned helpdesk jobs in my staff section of the helpdesk explorer : When checked, the "Unassigned" section under "My jobs" will appear in the helpdesk explorer
• Client search type used when logging jobs : Select from the drop-down box which fields the quick-search text box will use when logging a job.
  • Clients / Sites : Searches Client ID, First Name and Last name for client, as well as the Site name
  • Clients : Searches Client ID, First Name and Last name
  • Client Only (Contact details, Site) : Searches Client ID, First Name and Last name as well as all information contained in the "Contact details" frame of the Client Details screen > Contact tab.  Also searches the Site name
  • Client, Sites (Custom text fields) : Searches Client ID, First Name and Last name, as well as the Site name.  Also searches any custom text fields that appear on the client only.
  • Client, Sites (Custom text fields, Contact details) : Searches Client ID, First Name and Last name, as well as the Site name.  Also searches all information contained in the "Contact details" frame of the Client Details screen > Contact tab.  Also searches any custom text fields that appear on the client only.
  • Custom user defined search : Use this option to search on fields that are returned by the database stored procedure called "stpJobClientSearch_UserDefined".  This option allows a database administrator to create a custom search query using SQL.  Note that the format of the SQL should follow the design pattern of the original version of the stored procedure.  The names of the fields that are returned by the SQL must remain the same, however the way their values are retrieved can vary to suit your requirements.  Please contact PRD Software for further information about this.
    
    

Job / Action preview

• Sort actions in preview windows by the newest action first : When checked, will sort the text and action log by a descending date order.  Good if you like to read what happened last, first.
• Show the Helpdesk Explorer preview in plain text only (Classic mode) : When checked, the Preview panel of the Explorer screen will show the job and action log details in plain text.  This is similar to the way previous versions of HelpMaster worked.
• Show Job details / Actions in preview window : Use the options here to to adjust how action log entries are displayed
• Action log display style : Choose from 3 different stylings of the action log. 
  

General

• Show "Tip of the day" on startup : When checked, will display the tip of the day screen every time you start HelpMaster for the first time.  This setting can also be set via the Tip of the Day screen.
• Categorize "Quick Launch" items : Changes the way the Quick Launch items are displayed in the menu.  They can be grouped either by their category
     eg.  All general applications, or Graphic files
     or, alphabetically regardless of what category the item belongs to
  
• Use "Auto text" when editing text : When checked, the Auto Text feature will be active when typing into any multi-line text box throughout HelpMaster.  This is especially helpful when entering job details when logging a job, or performing an action.
• Sort order for user-defined custom fields on "Custom" tab : Sets the default sort/display settings for custom fields on the custom tabs.  When actually viewing custom details, this setting can be manually over-ridden
• Automatically list all entities when search screens are displayed (similar to HMP v5) : Usually when the user clicks on an entity button (client, site, asset, knowledge base) from the toolbar, the filter/selector screen is displayed.  From here the user can enter some search criteria and press the "Search" button to perform the search.  If this user preference checkbox is checked, these screens will automatically perform the search, using no search criteria, in effect displaying all of the available entities.  This is similar to the way HelpMaster v5 performed and may be useful if you have a small number of entities.  If you have many entities, you may wish to leave this option unchecked so that you have the chance to provide some filter criteria before manually clicking the "Search" button.
• Show main keyboard shortcuts in status bar : Checking this will display a status bar along the bottom of the screen that displays some of the common shortcut keys for HelpMaster.  Use this setting if you are new to HelpMaster, or just need a reminder about some of the function keys.
• User-defined boolean displayed as : One of the custom data datatypes is the Boolean datatype.  Select from the drop-down box your personal display choice.
• Prompt user to confirm when exiting HelpMaster : When checked, a confirmation message will appear whenever HelpMaster is shut down.  This is a useful setting for times when you accidently click the X in the top-right corner of the window, thinking that it is another window, only to find that you have closed the main HelpMaster application.  Also good for terminal sessions such as Citrix when shutting down and re-starting HelpMaster takes some time.
• Disable grouping in listview when sorting : When unchecked, all list displays will not be grouped by the column that is being sorted.

Document Interface

MDI / SDI : Choose your screen preference for HelpMaster.  MDI is the default.  SDI allows you to have HelpMaster screens completely separate and floating.  Good for multiple monitors.

Log File

• Log application errors to : Should an unexpected error occur when using HelpMaster, an error log will be created and written to the location that you specify in this setting.  This log can then be sent to PRD Software, or your HelpMaster administrator for analysis.

Spell checking options

• Spell check screens when saved : When checked, HelpMaster will use the Microsoft Word (if installed) dictionary to spell-check all text boxes whenever a screen is saved.

Themes

• Select a visual theme to use with HelpMaster : Select a theme from the drop-down box.  Further information about themes.

Language

Select the language to use HelpMaster in : Currently HelpMaster only supports English.  Future versions may provide additional language support.

See also

System administration