Searching the Help
To search for information in the Help, type a word or phrase in the Search box. When you enter a group of words, OR is inferred. You can use Boolean operators to refine your search.
Results returned are case insensitive. However, results ranking takes case into account and assigns higher scores to case matches. Therefore, a search for "cats" followed by a search for "Cats" would return the same number of Help topics, but the order in which the topics are listed would be different.
Words and Phrases
| Search for | Example | Results |
|---|---|---|
| A single word | cat
|
Topics that contain the word "cat". You will also find its grammatical variations, such as "cats". |
|
A phrase. You can specify that the search results contain a specific phrase. |
"cat food" (quotation marks) |
Topics that contain the literal phrase "cat food" and all its grammatical variations. Without the quotation marks, the query is equivalent to specifying an OR operator, which finds topics with one of the individual words instead of the phrase. |
Using Boolean Operators
| Search for | Operator | Example |
|---|---|---|
|
Two or more words in the same topic |
|
|
| Either word in a topic |
|
|
| Topics that do not contain a specific word or phrase |
|
|
| Topics that contain one string and do not contain another | ^ (caret) |
cat ^ mouse
|
| A combination of search types | ( ) parentheses |
|
Form layouts
Follow these guidelines to generate forms that display well on a variety of platforms and with different screen resolutions and fonts.
The size of Service Manager forms and the objects on them are defined in terms of grid units. For instance, a combo box may be defined to be 36 units wide and 2 units tall. Objects are also placed on forms using the same units. For example, the same combo box may have its upper left corner at a location 5 units to the right of the form edge and 4 units beneath the top of the form.
The size of a grid unit varies depending upon the currently selected Service Manager font. The grid unit is always defined as being half as wide as the lower case e in the current font, and half as tall as the lower case e in the current font. Thus, in a font whose letter e is 8 pixels wide by 12 pixels tall, the grid unit is 4 pixels wide and 6 pixels tall.
Changing the system’s font changes the size of a form on the screen. Just as importantly, it may change the relative shape of the objects therein. If a screen’s grid unit goes from 4x4 to 6x8, then objects on the screen becomes 50% taller, and doubles in width. Thus, the screen appears to stretch and have different proportions than it did originally.
An important point to recognize is that Windows true-type fonts are non-deterministic. Each video driver manufacturer can bundle its own hardware mapping of common fonts, and most modern video cards do so. Many manufacturers improve upon the base Microsoft Windows definition of what constitutes a particular font. Thus, the letter e in Arial 8 pt. bold when displayed at 640x480 on one video card may have a different metric than the same letter displayed at the same resolution on a different video card.
Use easy to understand names and descriptions for buttons and links. Acronyms and cryptic language makes it is difficult or impossible to know what is going to happen if you click the link or press the button.
Related concepts
Form creation
Forms Designer
Creating and editing forms
Forms Designer best practices
Form design
Fonts
Sizing graphics
Form naming conventions
Web client forms
Building accessible forms
Related tasks
Access Forms Designer
Create a form using the Form Wizard
Update a form
Related references
