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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
• overviews for 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
• the right-click Help command on the buckets of ARCHIBUS navigation 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 underlined text.

Click on the colored underlined 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. You can also use the Forward and Back arrow buttons, located at the top of the content pane, to page through the Table of Contents.

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 entering search phrases.
2. 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.
3. Scan the search results and click on a topic that is of interest.
4. The system displays this topic in the content pane and highlights each occurrence of the search word or words.
5. For easier reading, you can shut off the highlight using the "Remove highlight" button, located at the top of the content pane.
6. 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:

• To search on a phrase such as "work request," you must enclose your phrase in quotation marks when entering it in the Search box. Note that when you choose a topic from the search results, the topic will not highlight the location of this phrase. However, you can use your Web browser's "Find" or "Find on this Page" command to find the location of this phrase in the current topic.
• Partial searches of a phrase or word are not supported. For example, if you search on “afmhighlight” in System Management Help, you will not receive topics such as AfmHighlightQueryInit and AfmHighltQueryByOwner.
• You cannot use wildcards, such as %, *, and $.

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 above 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 navigation 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.

Navigation Page procedure

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

If you are signed into ARCHIBUS with access to the Applications navigation page, you will find that you can access context-sensitive help for each role or process bucket 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 navigation page and choose the Applications tab.
2. Drill down to a bucket 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.

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/v21.2_help/archibus_help/archibus.htm
• ARCHIBUS System Management Help -- http://www.archibus.com/ai/abizfiles/v21.2_help/system_management_help/afm-sysman.htm

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

Web Central

The default installation calls for Web Central's Help command and the Process Navigator's right-click Help command 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.

Smart Client and Smart Client Extensions

If you install the full Smart Client locally on a single-user workstation using the standard deployment, ARCHIBUS Help and System Management Help will be installed locally. When you chose the Help commands from the Smart Client programs, you will access the locally installed online help. Additionally, the standard deployment creates shortcuts under Program Files (Windows 7) and an icon in the desktop (Windows 8).

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 choosing Help from this menu.
• Start ARCHIBUS Help, go to the home page, the Learning Path. Choose the System Manager tab. Choose the link on this page that accesses System Management Help.