General Help:

• How do I login?
• What do I do if I forgot my password?
• Your Control Panel
• Change Password
• Change Email Address
• Search Help

Knowledge Base specific help:

• What is the knowledge base?
• What are documents?
• What are recommendations?
• What are comments?
• How do I browse documents by category?
• What are keywords?
• What are recent documents?
• What are popular documents?
• What are featured documents?
• How so I sort documents?
• What is a document's rating?
• What are watches?
• How do I embed images into a document?
• How do I add attachments to a document?

How do I login?

To login to the knowledge base, click the Login link in the upper-right corner of your browser window. From there you enter your username and password. If you would like the knowledge base to automatically log you in each time you visit, click on the checkbox next to Remember Me. (Note: You must have cookies enabled for this feature. Your login information will be encrypted and stored in a cookie.)

What do I do if I forgot my password?

If you can not remember your password click on the "Forgot your password?" link from within the Login box. From there you will be presented with a page that will send an email with instructions on how to reset your password.

Your Control Panel

After logging in to the knowledge base using your user account you may click on Your Control Panel to view and edit your knowledge base settings such as knowledge base watches and general settings.

Your Control Panel displays up to five tabs:

• General Settings - Allows editing of general viewing preferences such as default number of knowledge base documents per page and preferred time zone.
• Your Profile - View and change your personal information and it's visibility to other users of the knowledge base. From this tab you may also change your password.
• Watches - Maintains a list of all knowlede base categories and documents on which you have placed a Watch. From this tab you may specify whether you would like to receive email alerts for certain watches, as well as save and delete watches if a watch is no longer relevant.
• Recommendations - Use the this tab to keep track of all the recommendations you may have made. This tab is only visible if recommendations have been enabled by the system administrator and you have permissions in at least one category to create a recommendation.
• Documents - Use the this tab to keep track of all the documents you may have created. This tab is only visible if you have permissions in at least one category to create a document.

Changing your password

If you wish to change your password you will need to login and visit the "Your Profile" tab in your Control Panel. Within that panel is a form to change your password.

Updating your email address

If you wish to change your email address you will need to login and visit the "Your Profile" tab in your Control Panel. Within that panel is a form to change your personal information, including your email address.

What is the Knowledge Base?

• Browsing by categories
• Dynamic portlets that highlight the latest information on popular, recent and featured documents
• Sorting results lists by relevance, rating, date and content type
• Watches that proactively notify you when a specific document or category has been updated
• A comment system to allow for specific feedback on a document
• A rating mechanism that gives you the ability to provide feedback on how useful a particular document is

What are documents?

A document in the knowledge base contains the actual information. Depending on the context, you can think of it as an article, tech note, etc.

What are recommendations?

A recommendation is a way for users who do not have permissions to create a document in the knowledge base to recommend a new document. The recommendation will be reviewed by the knowledge base administrators who can approve it as is to become a new kb document, reject it with comments, or move the recommendation to a another category that may be more appropriate.

What are comments?

How do I browse documents by category?

The browse by category page facilitates navigation to information based on general areas such as products or discipline. Selecting a specific category displays a page with documents arranged according to importance as determined by the category administrator.

While browsing by category users have the following options:

• Search within a chosen category. ---> Search help
• Sort the comprehensive listing by last modified, rating, title and content type. ---> Sort details
• Go back to previous pages via the "cookie crumbs" navigation bar beneath the Knowledge Base heading at the top of each page.
• Watch the category

What are keywords?

Keywords are individual words that are used by the search engine to help users find the documents they are looking for. Each document has a set of keywords that are defined when the document is created which show up in a pulldown on the search page directly beside the search query text field.

What are recent documents?

The main Knowledge Base page contains a dynamic portlet listing the 5 most recent documents across all categories.

What are popular documents?

The main Knowledge Center page contains a dynamic portlet listing the most popular documents. The popularity of a document is determined by a formula based on the weighted average of # hits, average rating and age.

What are featured documents?

The main Knowledge Center page contains a portlet featuring documents of particular importance. Featured documnts may be related to recent news, upcoming special events or critical software updates such as service pack or feature releases.

How so I sort documents?

A Sort option is presented on the results page after conducting a search or clicking on the View All link for a particular category. The Sort By button provides the ability to sort documents by the following:

• Relevance - expressed as a percentage, it serves as a general indicator as to how useful a document will be based on how closely the search terms matched text contained in the documents's main body, title, keywords and other fields. This is the default sort value for search results.
• Rating - the mean rating taken from documents that have been rated as Exceptional, Above Average, Average, Below Average, Poor.
• Last Modified - displays documents in order with the most recent ones at the top of the list and the older documents towards the bottom.
• Title - displays documents in alphabetical order as sorted by the title.
• Type - sorts documents by their classification. Each type can be identified by an icon to the left of the title.

What is a document's rating?

At the bottom of each document page a form exists where you can rate the document's usefulness. Users are encouraged to rate each document as to whether you found it Exceptional, Above Average, Average, Below Average or Poor.

What are watches?

A watch notifies you if the document or category you are interested in has been updated. Watch notifications are sent via e-mail. Note that you must be logged in to use watches.

To add a document to your watch list, click on the Watch Category or Watch Document link at the top of the page. Click on Stop Watching to end the email notifications. After 30 days, inactive watches automatically expire.

To see the current list of documents you are watching, click on Your Control Panel. From this screen you can choose to receive email notifications when new documents are created or updated. Just click on Email Alert checkbox next to the watch for which you want to be notified.

You can delete a watch by clicking in the Delete check box for the watch you want to delete, then clicking the Delete button.

How do I embed images into a document?

Images can be embedded in documents, document parts and recommendations if you have the proper permissions to create images by the system administrator.

To embed an image into a document, click on the 'Attach Images' button which will take you to a form where you can upload to the server the images you wish to embed into the document. Once you have selected the images you wish to embed, click on the 'Attach Images' button at the bottom of the form. If no errors occur you will be taken back to the document creation form where you should see the images you just uploaded listed at the bottom of the form. Position the cursor in the document where you want an image to display and click the 'Insert Image Link' link beside the appropriate image. This action will cause an [img]xxx[/img] tag to be inserted into the document at the cursor.

You can delete an image by clicking on the 'Remove' link beside the image you want to delete. If there was a corresponding [img]xxxx[/img] link already inserted into the document it will have to be removed manually.

How do I add attachments to a document?

Attachments can be added to documents, document parts and recommendations if you have the proper permissions to create attachments by the system administrator.

To add an attachment to a document, click on the 'Attach Files' button which will take you to a form where you can upload to the server the attachments you wish to add to the document. Once you have selected the attachments you wish to add, click on the 'Attach Files' button at the bottom of the form. If no errors occur you will be taken back to the document creation form where you should see the attachments you just uploaded listed at the bottom of the form.

You can delete an attachment by clicking on the 'Remove' link beside the attachment you want to delete.