Administration


1:3 About this guide

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When I began writing 'The SmartFAQ module Visual Guide for Administrators and Users' I had used the module many times in a trial setup. Over several changes and rewrites I had the pleasure of watching it grow from an excellent idea to a slick, professional class application, that I would now describe as one of the best examples of a Xoops module.

Documenting the Visual Guide was major project itself. I felt that software of this calibre required a truly 'comprehensive' guide that was easy to use, logical and gave useful information to both Administrator and general user alike. Have I succeeded? Well, only you the user can say and I welcome any feedback for improvements.

Many help pages and guides are very 'wordy' and dull. We have probably heard the old adage 'If all else fails read the instructions!' Why don't we read instructions? I reckon it's because they are usually boring and don't really get the message across. This guide is an attempt to convey lots of information in an interesting and easy to learn format. It is very 'visual' and an extension of Horacio Salazar's notable visual guides of the past. This guide goes a bit further, by integrating help into tool tips that pop up when you hover over hot spots in the images. By doing this I can remove a lot of 'referencing text' and also ambiguity about what the help dialogues refer to. Many of these tool tips have a link in them that leads to related pages. In this way we can cascade a sequence of logical steps into the guide that are connected by explanatory dialogues.For more details on tool tips used in this guide please read the OverLIB page.

To use the guide effectively, you need to scan the images with the mouse cursor as you examine them. If there is a help tool tip for any area on the image it will automatically pop up when the cursor moves over it. Some of these tool tips are temporary which means they disappear once you move off the selected area and some are sticky because there is a link you need to reach actually in the tool tip. Sticky tool tips will jump if your cursor moves over the close button and then back onto the same selected area. Internet explorer users have some advantage here because clicking on the image produces a hyperlink mask showing the area. This is poorly rendered in Mozilla browsers.

Does it work for you? Once again, your feedback both critical and creative is welcome.

I'm also going to take this opportunity to express my thanks and appreciation to the XOOPS project

Xoops represents one of the best, nah ...! THE best Content Management Systems available today. I don't just mean the software either. The community of supporters, users and developers set a new standard in collaboration and connectivity that I have not experienced elsewhere. I have included a page about Xoops as an important reference to this module.

Finally ... TheSmartFAQ module is yet another fine example of Xoops collaboration. It has been both exciting and rewarding to work with the author Marc-André Lanciault. It is still a marvel to me how the internet can bring people together to share knowledge and skills from all over the world, with one creative objective; and all all without financial reward.

For months Marc-André has driven this project forward with skill, dignity and passion. Not only has he produced a fine piece of software, but along the way gained friends and the respect of many helpers and developers alike. Chapeau, mon ami!

Richard Strauss Carnuke@xoops.org XOOPS Documentation site


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