ICommander File Manager combined with other tools via the ICommander Help Topics
Menu offers a great alternative to email, paper notes, and other methods for
communications among staff members.
The Help Topics Menu is a separate co-existing set of ICommander Menus which may easily be accessed from any ICommander Accounting Application System Menu by using the Help button on the Toolbar, pressing the F1-Key for a drop down list of help, or using the "Secret" Menu Choice #84. It may also be setup to be accessed directly from a Windows Desktop Icon without the normal ICommander logon when the only purpose for signing onto ICommander is to use one of the tools provided by the Help Topics Menu System.
The general Help Topics Menu is available to all ICommander users. Other Help Systems may also be established when it is desired to limit access or when a complete set of menus dedicated to a particular purpose is needed. This may be a system that is selected just like one of the accounting applications or it may be a branch off from the general Help Topics Menu. We use the branch off approach at ICommander Corporation for our Customer Support Center in order to have a complete menu tree available.
The Help Topics Menu at ICommander Corporation includes a "What's Happening" menu choice that invokes a simple ICommander utility program to review files available and to read, add, or print information in the files. We setup a file for each staff member and encourage everyone to use it as a way to communicate projects currently in process, notes to other staff members, reminders about various topics and for many other types of communications. A new entry is started at the top of a staff members file by using a :B to insert the Date, Time and User-ID at the (B)eginning or top of the file and to start the Vim editor in Insert Mode.
Only a few of the powerful Vim Editor commands are needed for making entries in the Help Topics files. A Standard Help Topics Menu choice points to a PDF File that covers such commands plus we have a list available while editing a file that is available by entering :I for ICommander Vim Help. The editor is a little different that a normal word processor but the power that comes with it is well worth the couple of minutes it takes to learn how to use it.
Access to What's Happening defaults to listing files in descending date last modified order so users can quickly see which files have most recently been updated. The concept is essentially a public shared electronic communication mechanism that works better than email or memos due to the continuing history of all communications that is available.
The Help Topics Menu at ICommander Corporation also has a "Staff To Do/Projects Status" menu choice. This invokes ICommander File Manager in a shared area where each staff member has a directory or folder. Files are created in the staff members directory either by the staff member or someone else. There is always also a "done" folder into which the todo/project files are moved when they are completed. A number of staff members create other subdirectories for particular projects that may have several components. Use of ICommander File Manager makes all of the tools offerred by that powerful function available so creating subdirectories, moving files, searching for files or text patterns is easily done.
We also have a "Staff Forums" Help Topics Menu choice that uses ICommander File Manager. This is used to start a file or directory on a particular topic for input from others. A "News and Events" menu choice is also available. We use this to note various changes to ICommander as well as many other topics.
The News and Events directory is also made available to the ICommander Intranet so that it may easily be reviewed from the user's web browser when there is no other need for accessing ICommander and for users who seldom access ICommander itself. Any such directory may be made available via the Intranet, although we currently do not allow editing other than through ICommander.
The continuing communications trail provided by the ICommander Help Topics Menus has proven extremely useful. The powerful search facilities of the Vim Editor make it simple to search for phrases, key words, dates, etc. and is MUCH simpler than trying to find that email that we saved SOMEWHERE. The easy ability to cut and paste into the Help Topics text files has resulted in many occasions where staff members will paste a pertinent email into one of these files. In other cases, it is useful to make an entry to simply remind oneself of where particular information is stored and use ICommander as a guide to locating. This is especially useful for items from several months or even years earlier as no one has a perfect memory.
Those menu choices that use ICommander File Manager extend the ability to search
to filenames, directories, and text patterns in files across all files in a
directory (and optionally in subdirectories).