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
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Topics that contain the word "cat". You will also find its grammatical variations, such as "cats". |
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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 |
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| Either word in a topic |
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| Topics that do not contain a specific word or phrase |
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| Topics that contain one string and do not contain another | ^ (caret) |
cat ^ mouse
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| A combination of search types | ( ) parentheses |
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Fields
Fields are areas of a form in which information for a record is displayed. For example, that information might be an asset name or the description of an incident. You can type information into some of these fields. Service Manager fills the other fields automatically.
When you type new data in a field and click Save, Service Manager stores the data in the appropriate Service Manager records.
Required fields
Required fields contain the information that is necessary to complete a form. For example, if you create an incident record, you must specify a category. A red asterisk is displayed to the left of a required field. If you do not type data in a required field before you save the record, Service Manager generates an error message. In some forms, the message includes a list of possible values.
Protected fields
You cannot edit protected fields. For example, you cannot change the incident number when you view an existing incident record. The fields that are protected depends on the form and your user rights.
Tabbing through fields
To tab through fields, press Ctrl+Tab. If you use the Tab key, Service Manager processes the Tab character as the content of the field and treats it as invalid data for multi-line text fields. However, you can use the Tab key to tab through regular input fields, such as fill fields or comfill fields.
View Field Help
Applies to User roles: All roles
Field Help can help you understand the use and function of each field or control on a form.
Note In the web client, make sure the disableKeyHelp parameter is set to false before you view Field Help.
To view Field Help, follow these steps:
- Insert the cursor in a field or click a control (such as a check box) on the form.
- Perform one of the following actions:
- In the Windows client, press Ctrl+H.
- In the web client, press F1 or Shift + F1.
Service Manager displays the help information for the current field or control. "No description" is displayed if no help text is available.
Note Service Manager also displays the file name, format name, and field name of the current field or control, if one of the following conditions is fulfilled:
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In the Windows client, the “Show context-sensitive help debug information” preference is enabled.
- In the Web client, “viewcontexthelp=true” is appended to the URL before you log in. The “viewcontexthelp” is only supported in Power User view (index.do).
You can use such information to add or edit a field help record, or add a stored query using certain field names.
Related topics
Editing records
Fill function
Find function
Field help editor
Stored queries
Add or edit help records
