Why ICommander?

As discussed under another topic, the ICommander Manuals are online and accessible in many different ways. What about documentation specific to your use of ICommander?

ICommander provides several ways to have your own documentation on line. We DO NOT recommend adding to or changing the standard ICommander Manual and related documentation as it is subject to being replaced whenever ICommander is updated to the most recent version.

Various methods are summarized below. Consideration should be given to the approach that works best for your site when ICommander is initially implemented. ICommander Implementation Staff can then use your preferred approach as various instructions and examples are prepared and review with you how to update your online documentation as time progresses.

Implementation & Processing Topics Specific to You

The Implementation and Processing (I&P Topics) online documentation allows you to add new topics that are specific to any or all Company-ID's that you have setup for ICommander processing. If you have multiple Company-ID's and the I&P Topics apply to all or selected other Company-ID's, you have an option in the Company-ID File Maintenance in ICommander System Control to Allow Access to I&P Topics for ALL Other Companies or for a Specific Other Company.

As soon as you add an I&P Topic that is specific to your operations, it will show up when you access the Help Options with the F1-Key at any Menu (or click on the Help button on the ICommander Toolbar) and select "This System-I&P Topics". You may also access with "Secret" Menu Choice #87. I&P Topics may be plain text files, a mix of inserted print screens and text, or may point to a PDF File.

User Shortcuts

One of the "Secret" Menu Choices allows any user to add personal shortcuts to a Menu Choice along with reminder notes to be displayed when the shortcut is used. ICommander Shortcuts may be used in many other ways. When ICommander Shortcuts Maintenance (either via ICommander System Control or by the choice on the first "hidden" System Selection Menu) is used, the full range of options is available for use. Eleven different types of shortcuts may be entered. The shortcuts may be tied to specific menus and menu choices to either automatically display notes entered with the shortcut or as an option by the user. The shortcuts may also point to I&P Topics, PDF Files, and other Windows Graphic files. They may optionally be limited to a specific Company-ID or User.

One use of this facility is simply for brief notes about a particular function (as opposed to I&P Topics which are generally a broader discussion). If it is desired to always have users access your site-specific documentation via shortcuts versus finding some under I&P Topics, pointing shortcuts to applicable I&P Topics enables centralizing all under the Shortcuts.

Help Topics Menu

The Help Topics Menu has only one Main Menu Choice that is reserved for updating by ICommander Corporation. You may add as many different menu choices as desired to the Help Topic Menu. Up to five levels of sub-menus are allowed so you may categorize in about any way desired.

Help Topic Menu Choices may open text files with your documentation. It may also open PDF Files, Word Documents, and about any other form of file that you decide to use. Text files are the most quickly accessed and are easily searched with the Vim Editor but are limited when it comes to having examples of screen entries and the like. Once you decide on the best media for the documentation you create, it just needs to be made available to ICommander (by placing in the appropriate directories) and then you can add to the Help Topics Menus.

If you do not already have access to a PDF Writer, we recommend PDFFactory. It is inexpensive but very flexible for combining output from various sources into a single PDF File. It is very simple to direct graphical screen prints to a PDF Writer and ICommander Print Utility also lets you easily route any ICommander Report to it.

Users on the LAN open graphic files with the applicable Microsoft Windows program for the file type. Remote users need to download the files to their local PC (this is automatic in most cases and we are working to always make it automatic).

Help Topics Menu choices may also invoke the ICommander File Manager in any directory you specify (and make available via ICommander System Control). Use this approach when you do not want to take the time to maintain many menu choices because of frequent content changes. Just make sure to use a directory that is shared out from the Linux Server to the LAN. We normally setup a public "shared" directory for this purpose and for many other uses.

Company-Specific and/or Site-Specific Help Topic Menus

The general Help Topics Menus are available to all users via the F1-Key at any menu, the Help button on the ICommander Toolbar, and by "Secret" Menu Choice #84 at any Application System Menu. If you wish to use the Help Topics Menu approach but have different options depending on the Company-ID involved, it is simple to setup a Company-Specific Help Topics Menu. If this is done, these Help Menus may be accessed from the general Help Topics Menu (a prompt to press the F2-Key to access will be there when they exist).

A Site-Specific Help Topics Menu may also be created. Use this when you want to use the general Help Topics Menu for making various resources available but prefer to centralize all documentation about ICommander Processing and accounting considerations in one place. You may also put a choice on the general Help Topics Menu that will call the Site-Specific Help Topics Menus.

Separate Help Systems with Controlled Access

Help Only Systems may be added to ICommander System Control. Unlike the Help Topics Menus, such systems need to either have a menu choice on the System Selection Menus or select users told how to access directly from the System Selection Menus by entering the System-ID assigned.

The advantage of this approach is that you can easily restrict which users may access this system. Use it for any form of documentation that you wish to restrict only to key employees. Such systems may also be used for many other purposes. ICommander Corporation uses a MKTGS Help Only System for centralizing all information related to marketing ICommander Software and another Help Only System for Audit & Accounting References, Standard Forms, scheduling, etc.

File Manager via ICommander General Utilities Menus

Pointing Help Topics and/or Help Only System Menu Choices to File Manager for a particular directory is noted above. There is another way to use File Manager to access a shared area. The ICommander General Utilities Menus (which may be accessed via the F1-Key, the Help button on the ICommander Toolbar, or by "Secret" Menu Choice #90) includes a menu choice for "File Manager Explore Options". The last option on the menu that this brings up is labelled "Other Directories".

You may use ICommander System Control to define various areas where File Manager may be used but also control which users have those available and with what type of permissions. One potential use of this functionality is to specify a directory that has documentation and references that key employees are allowed to access to add files or change existing information. Other employees may be allowed to access in Read-Only mode or not at all. Depending on how you decide to set this up, those File Manager Choices available to a particular employee and/or when signed onto a specific Company-ID will be available for selection from the "Other Directories" choice.

As you can see, there are many options for making your documentation available online. It isn't noted above but another option is to include links to your documentation on your ICommander Intranet. This can be specific items on a web page or by using the Apache Web Server Directory Explore utility. ICommander users will find it quicker to access any documentation directly from the ICommander Menu System. If you wish to also make the information available to staff members who do not use ICommander, the Intranet is a convenient way to do so.

Another option for staff members who do not normally use ICommander is to setup a desktop icon that will go directly to the Help Topics Menus or any other Help Only System. This can be done where the user will not even need to enter a user name or password. They will go directly to the Help System involved and will be automatically logged out when they exit from it. Some staff members of ICommander Corporation use this even though they are also setup as normal ICommander users. It provides quick access to "What's Happening", To Do Lists, News and Events, ICommander Customer Support, and various other tools we use via the Help Topics Menu when the user has no other reason for signing into ICommander.