Q&A about the Help Desk Tool ---------------------------- (written by Karla, 9/15/00) First time user questions: * How do I bring up the help desk tool? Log onto a machine outside the firewall and type aruser40. * How do I do a query? Click on Search For/CNS-Helpdesk and fill in the fields with the values you want to query for. (Example: Put "VTT" in the Platform field to find all the VTT calls.) * How can a figure out what a field is for? There is context sensitive help. Click on the ? in the tool bar and then click on the field. * How do I reply to a call? Click on the book icon next to the Call Log. Type your reply in the Diary Editor. Select an option from the "Mail Call log to user" ("Current Always" just sends your reply, "Entire Always" sends the whole log.) Next click on "Save" on the right hand side. * How do I send a call to someone else? If you just want to alert them, click on the E-mail tab and fill their address in under "Mail Call Log to Other". (Remember to select that you want to send "Entire Log" so they don't just get your reply.) Use the Assigned-to field to assign the call to someone else. * How can I monitor a call that I have assigned to someone else? Under the E-mail tab, fill your name in "Notify of request log updates". * What is the difference between a status of "Resolved" and "Closed"? "Resolved" means that you sent a solution to the user. "Closed" means the user said it worked. Later questions: * How do I Categorize a call? Click on the Categorizations tab and type the Category in "Problem Type". Frequently used types are available to select under the triangle. * How do I save and re-use a query? After performing the query, click on Actions/Save Search, then give the query a name. To use the query click on Actions/My Searches. * How can I search for strings in the log? When you are in a query form, type the word in the call log field. A comma delimited list of words are implicitly "or"d. If you want to do fancier queries, click on the "Advanced" button next to the "Search" button. This brings up a nice little query builder at the bottom of the screen. Click on a field to add it to the query, click on the operator to add it to the query. * How do I print the call log? Use Options/Print. (You should be able to use File/Save in the call log pop up window, but that seems to be broken.) * How can we get the e-mail notification to contain the question? The adminstrator has to set this up. * How can I get the calls reported sorted in a different order? From Actions/Sort Options you can choose fields to sort on (like Create-Date) and then make it sort in asending or descending order. * How can I add myself to the list of people who support a particular platform? Go to File/Search For/User Preferences. Type in your name and hit return. Choose the User Tool Setup tab and add the platform. * How can I make formatted reports? While the query results are being displayed, un-select the current call by cntl-clicking. (When no items are selected, all items are selected.) Then click on Tools/Reporting and a report building tool comes up. Double click on "New Style", name the report, add fields, decide how to sort, and format the report. Use Report/Save As to save the report and use Report/Preview to view the results. * How can I get rid of test calls? Only the administrator can kill calls. If you really want something killed, give it a unique short-description (like "karla says delete") and ask the administrator to get rid of everything with that short-description. * How do I merge two calls from the same person about the same topic into one call? Select Options/Merge and it will lead you through. * How do I handle several calls about the exact same problem? Select Options/Primary/Subordinate. This will allow you to make one call the primary and all the others subordinate. From then on everything you send to the primary call goes to all the subordinate calls.