Help-Windows for OS390
Online Documentation Management
Help-Windows is a CICS product that was developed to meet an ever-growing need in the data processing industry, that of on-line documentation. As on-line systems have become more and more sophisticated, the need for immediate access to procedural instructions has increased substantially. Terminal operators do not want to browse through manuals to find answers, they want answers at the touch of a key. Text writers and documentation personnel want to maintain there documentation on-line, where changes can easily be made. Management does not want to go through expensive re-prints to new procedural manuals. Programmers and other users do not want to be bothered with updating manuals and inserting pages
OVERVIEW
Help/Windows meets these and many more needs by providing one product which performs two major functions.
- Full on-line text maintenance. Complete manuals can be created and maintained on-line. Manuals can be sub-divided into system, documents, sections and subjects. Text is easily entered and edited using a text-editor type of process. Common paragraphs or entire subjects may be "included" from one document to another. Nested includes are supported. Printing orders may be inserted in the text to control document appearance. Entire manuals or selected subjects may be printed or displayed on the terminal in "list" form (as it appears when printed). Automatic page numbering, section Titles, running headers, table of contents and index creation are supported.
- On-line text retrieval from application transactions. Selected sections of a manual, or stand-alone documents may be "keyed" to any application transaction in the on-line environment. A user-defined PF or PA key may be used to retrieve the associated text while operating the transaction. The associated text can be displayed either in full-screen mode or in a "window" on the screen, the position and size of which is defined by the text writer. Help windows may be referenced at the transaction level, the screen level or at the individual field level. The terminal operator uses the cursor to "point" to the data for which a Help window is requested. When finished browsing through the Help text, control returns to the application transaction at the touch of a key.
FEATURES
- Full online access
Create, maintain, display and print entire manuals on-line, on the mainframe, and the power of four levels of hierarchical organization are supported.
- Attach sub documentation to any user transaction
Access sub-sections of a manual, or stand-alone documents from any user transaction.
- Windowed help screens
Display help text in a window on the screen.
- Full screen help
Create and use help menus, either in window mode or full-screen mode, for quick access to various sections of help text.
- Word wrap capable
"Wrap" the text to fit the window, or pan the text right or left in a window.
- Full help text search
Search for key words or character strings in help text.
- Attach Help to transactions and fields
Associate help text with a transaction, a screen of a transaction, or a field of a screen.
- Attach Help to Keywords and phrases
Associate help text with a word or phrase within other help text, thereby creating multiple levels of help.
- Cross document level help
Define "cross-document" fields. fields that appear on multiple screens or multiple transactions, always referencing a common set of help text.
- Cursor position help
Define help displays by invoking the user transaction screen, positioning the cursor as desired and pressing a "help definition" key.
- Hot key help
Define a single "hot" key to be used as the help-retrieval key for all transactions, or define a different help key for individual transactions.
- Nested help support
"Chain" sections of help text together in various ways to create multiple paths through the documentation.
- Unlimited window layout
Create multi-window displays, windows may overlap in any configuration desired. there is no limit to the number of windows on one screen.
- Import text
Import text from some other file into the help-windows text file. control statements make it easy to define and sub-define the imported document.
- Export text
Export Help/Windows text to a sequential file to be processed by another system.
