User 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 Preferences screen is accessed via the HM menu >
My preferences option.
Use
- Open the User preferences screen by using the HM menu >
My preferences option,
- Apply your changes as required,
- Click on OK or Apply.
Explanation of settings
Jobs and Actions
- Don't mark jobs as read when the job is viewed : When
unchecked, every time you view, or preview a job in the explorer, its
read status will be set to read. This setting is similar to the way many
email programs work.
- Show job counts in 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 explorer : When checked, the "Unassigned" section under "My jobs" will
appear in Explorer.
- Show Custom Job Queues in Explorer : When checked
Custom Job Queues will appear in Explorer.
- Do not show Job notifications for unassigned skillgroups that I
am the supervisor for : When check this option will prevent job
notifications from appearing for the skillgroup supervisor whenever a job in
the unassigned skillgroup (that they are the supervisor) of is actioned.
- Entity search type for "Search as you type" : Select from the
drop-down box which fields the quick-search text box will use when searching
any entity including Clients, Sites, Assets and Knowledge Base articles.
- Entity Name : Searches the Name field only of any entity
including Client ID, First Name and Last
name for Clients, Site name for Sites, Asset ID for Assets, Article ID,
Title, and Keywords for Knowledge base articles.
- Entity Name, Dynamic Fields : Searches Entity name fields
above and additionally searches all entity dynamic fields (those of the
four entities that can be defined under System Codes). This includes the
"Contact details" frame of both the Client and
Site Details screen > Contact tab, the
drop-down selectable fields of the Asset Details screen
> General tab. No additional Knowledge Base article
fields are searched.
- Entity Name, Dynamic Fields, Custom Fields : As above and
additionally searches text only information contained on any entities "Custom
Fields" tab.
- 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 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 : 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.
- Show the standard toolbar on the main window (rather than the
ribbon control): Use to set your preference for navigation control.
Traditional menus, or Ribbon
- Disable email auto extraction: When dragging and
dropping an email from Outlook onto a job, HelpMaster can automatically
attempt to extract only the reply portion of the email, and discard the
signature block and everything below that. Use this setting to change
this behaviour. If auto-extract is turned on, holding down the CTRL
key when dragging and dropping an email will provide an over-ride and the
entire email will added.
Advanced
- Skip Crystal Reports installation check. When
HelpMaster first starts, it will pre-load the Crystal Reports runtime
libraries in the background. This is done to save time when running
reports later. Check this box to disable this operation.
- Export separator. Enter a custom field delimeter
when exporting fields via any of the list entity screens
- Form resize painting. Adjust the slider to
configure how HelpMaster re-sizes screens. This may help reduce screen
flicker, and lag.
HelpMaster Application Display Mode
Choose your screen preference for HelpMaster
All-in-one: The default setting displays all screens of
HelpMaster within a parent window. Individual windows can still be
"undocked" from the parent by clicking the small "pin" icon in the form title
bar.
Individual Screens: This mode 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
HelpMaster features spelling checker for all text controls within the
application. Major text controls such as the job and action details screen
will highlight misspelt words by underlining them with red sqiggly lines.
Other text controls can be spell-checked by right-clicking within the control
and selecting "Check spelling".
- 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.
- Dictionary: Select a dictionary to use for spell
checking
- Custom dictionary: Save custom dictionary files either
in a local, or networked location
Themes
Language
Select the language to use HelpMaster in : Currently HelpMaster only supports English. Future versions may provide additional language
support.
See also
Tip of the day
Field Chooser
Custom Fields
System administration
Auto Text
Quick Launch