Guidesheet - Using the Housing Connections Online User Guide
This guide defines the web format, currently available in the Applications section only; others are still PDF. All
the web pages have a standard look and feel; each describes a specific screen, dialog box or process. This guide
describes how to navigate between them and the typical content included on those pages.
Printing User Guide Pages
Click into the page anywhere below the button bar. From File, Page Setup, set the printer properties to
'landscape' as all contents are in tables of fixed sizes. Then File, Print to print.
Page Headers and Navigation
The tops of the pages are devoted to defining the current page and allowing navigation to other pages:
0. Main Menu Bar - Allows user to navigate the sections of the User Guide.
1. User Guide section name. Currently only "Applications" exists in web format.
2. The Site Search button calls up a site map page with links to all pages currently working on the site. In
future it will also allow user to enter text (e.g. "Assets") and to find all pages which contain the word.
3. The logo appears on all pages.
4. Page Heading - This reflects the name of the current page the user has navigated to.
5. Section Menu Bar - These buttons allow user to navigate to:
a. [App Home] -Always returns to the section's home page where the Section Menu buttons are.
b. [Up] -Will return to the previous menu this page was called from. An [Up] button only appears when
the previous menu is not the section home. In this example, Manage Application was called from the
Main menu on the home page so there is no [Up] button, as it would be redundant of [App Home].
c. All other buttons are sub-pages of the current page. E.g. Manage Application has 18 sub-pages.
6. Cycle Bar - [Prev] and [Next] navigate through the pages of all menu options on the page this was called
from. Eg. Manage Application was called from the section home page menu, so [Prev] and [Next] would
cycle through "Misc", "New Application", "Process Application", "Manage Application", …etc. This is
most useful at the lowest menu level, e.g. cycling through all the pages about "Supplementals": A,B,C, etc.
7. Links - Eg see table below. (not shown above) - These appear anywhere. They look and behave as all webpage links: when clicked, they navigate to another place on the page, another page, or a specific document.
8. [Back] and [Next] buttons of browser - Eg
(not shown above) - As on any website, the browsers
will navigate back and forth through the series of pages recently visited.
Website Hierarchy of Pages
For each section in web format, there are 3 levels of pages: Section Menu (e.g. Manage Application), Sub Menu
(e.g. Supplemental), and Page Details (e.g. A-General), with details of screens and/or processes.
See the section's Site Map, available from
for a complete list of all the pages of that section, listed
in their menu hierarchy.
Sample Navigation
Following these steps will make one familiar with the method of navigating the user guide website.
Step
Click on:
Notice:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Application Section's Button
from Main Menu.
[Site Search] button
Initiate New App link
[App Home] button
[Manage Application]
[Supplemental]
[A. General]
8.
9.
10.
11.
Cycle [Next] 4 times
Cycle [Next] until you can't
Cycle [Prev] 2 times
Browser's [Back] 4 times
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
[Up] button
[Up] button
Cycle buttons
[App Home] button
Using this Web-based User Guide
The components of the header as noted above, except there is no cycle
bar as App Home is alone at the top level of this section.
The heading changed, and here is a list of links to all pages on this site.
This is the easiest way to directly access any page of the site.
It comes back to home page (with main menu) from any page.
There is no [Up] button because [App Home]
is the same
Now there is an [Up] button, as 'Manage App' is between here and home.
Page detail level has no more options below on the menu bar.
There is a cycle bar for supplemental screens with:
It cycles through pages for screens B,C, D, and E
This is the end of the screen set and only
is available.
It cycles backwards through the supplemental screen set.
It backs up through recent pages viewed, in the order they were viewed,
no matter their order in the screen set.
It returns to Supplemental page (where [A. General] was called from).
It returns to Manage Apps page (where [Supplemental] was called from).
Manage Apps is one of the Main Menu options called from the home
page, so there is a cycle though Main Menu options.
Cycles though pages from Main Menu options.
It comes back to section home page (with main menu) from any page.
Because this is a word document it opens in a separate window.
Page Bodies and Topic Content
The heading in the first column below describe the sections on each page which define the characteristics of each application screen,
dialog box or process. To see how these are used in the actual user guide, examples are provided on the right.
Topic Heading
Description of Contents
Example in User Guide
Description
This describes the overall function of the topic on this page in a
few sentences or less.
Manage Application, Supplemental
Screen Print
If this page is about a screen or dialog box, a picture of it will be
here. If data is showing on the screenprint, it is test data only.
Manage Application, Supplemental
'How To'
Guide
This will be a link to online training material describing the actual
Enter New Application
steps of data entry, mouse clicks and tool usage, when available.
Work Process This describes business processes and rules attached to this topic, Manage Application, Supplemental,
what the system does behind the scenes, and any special conditions
or exceptions to consider when using this screen.
Fields
Validate/Invalidate
If there are but a few fields, they'll be here, otherwise in a table of
their own below the Page body, with a link to that table in the
Manage Application, Supplemental,
fields box. Full descriptions and field usages are here, along with Screens A through E.
popup lists of values for drop-down lists.
Data Sources Can be considered "Reads From". It describes where information
gets entered which is read by this screen or process. If user is not
getting expected or desired results on this screen, the data source
may be the place to look to see if changes are required.
Manage Application, Supplemental,
Validate/Invalidate
Data Outputs Can be considered "Writes To". It describes what other changes
occur in other areas based upon entries in this screen.
Manage Application, Supplemental,
Validate/Invalidate
See Also
Other
Any other page or document relevant to the topic.
Home Page
Special criteria or security topics not covered above.
Manage Application, Supplemental