Contents

The following Help Topics are available:

Introduction

Basic Concept

Where Is Overview

How To...

Set Your Where Is Status

Set Someone Else's Where Is Status

Update The Master Board

Refresh Your Local Display

Commands

WhereIs Menu Commands

Options Menu Commands

Toolbar Commands

Other Facilities

Side Panel Icons

Status Bar

Drag And Drop

For Help on Help, Press F1


Basic Concept

The idea of this application is to provide instant status as to the where about is a particular person is at any particular moment, i.e. Gone to a meeting, gone to lunch, holiday and etc.

It is very similar to a clock in/out system; when you go to a meeting you just clock Out and specified that you have gone to a meeting, you can include the time you went and the expected time you will return. When you return you clock yourself back In to inform the other people you are now back at your desk.

It is therefore very useful to keep track of where someone is, and to inform people where you are. It is particularly useful when you have answered a colleague's phone but do not know where he/she has gone.

The application allows you to change the where is status of yourself. It will also allows you to change the where is status someone else, e.g. a person has phone in sick and you wish to update that person's status; however the  application prompts you for confirmation on changing another person's status.

The application consists of a Master Where Is Board which resides on the network directory in which the application is installed. The Master Board holds the up to date information on all the users on the system. When you start up the application on your PC, the Master Board is read and copy is displayed on your screen. You can then update yours or another user's status on the local board. The Master Board will not updated with your changes until you explicitly ask the application to update the Master Board, or until the set time interval when changes are automatically updated.


Where Is Overview

This shows the local Where Is board which is a copy of the Master Board. Click on the individual fields to get help on that field.


Set Your Where Is Status

This outlines to steps to set your Were Is status and update the master board with your changes.

The first User Panel on the screen will always display the Where Is status of yourself. You can freely change the status of yourself and then update the master board to reflect convey your changes to the other users.

There are two ways to change your user panel . Either edit the panel or drag and drop from the side panel.

Edit

1. Click either the IN/OUT   button.

2. Click into the information box  and enter the message you wish to inform the other users as to where you are.

3. Date and time can be entered in the information directly or click at the place where you want to enter the date/time, drag and drop the date/time from the status bar.

Drag and Drop from Side Panel

1. Point to an icon on the side panel  and click and hold down the mouse button.

2. Drag the icon to the information box and drop the icon by letting go of the mouse button.

The status associated with that icon is used to set the panel. You can then edit the panel if you wish to do so.

Once you have completed you should explicitly "Update The Master Board" so that the other users can get an up to date of your status. However, the application has a timer to update the master board at regularly interval.

To update your changes on the Master Board, click WhereIs/Update Master Board  on the menu, or click the Update Master Board button on the toolbar.


Set Someone Else's Where Is Status

You can change the status of another user on the system, but the application will prompt you to confirm your intention. This is mainly used say, when a user has phoned in sick or for other reasons and therefore you need to change the user's status on the system.

There are two ways to change another user's panel  . Either edit the panel or drag and drop from the side panel.

Edit

1. Click either the IN/OUT   button.

2. Click into the information box  and enter the message you wish to inform the other users as to where is of  the user you are setting.

3. Date  and time  can be entered in the information directly or click at the place where you want to enter the date/time, drag and drop the date/time from the status bar.

Drag and Drop from Side Panel

1. Point to an icon on the side panel  and click and hold down the mouse button.

2. Drag the icon to the information box and drop the icon by letting go of the mouse button.

The status associated with that icon is used to set the panel. You can then edit the panel if you wish to do so.

Once you have completed you should explicitly "Update The Master Board" so that the other users can get an up to date of the  status. However, the application has a timer to update the master board at regularly interval.

To update the changes on the Master Board, click WhereIs/Update Master Board  on the menu, or click the Update Master Board button on the toolbar.


Update Master Board

The Master Board, which resides on the network holds the status of all the users on the system. It order to reflect your status, the master board should be updated whenever you make changes to the your or someone else's Where Is status. A timer is set to regularly update the master board with any changes you have made since the last update, however whenever you have made any changes you should explicitly update the master board.

To update the Master Board

Click WhereIs/Update Master Board  on the menu

Or, Click the Update Master Board  button on the toolbar

To change the update timer

Click Options/Set Update-Refresh  on the menu


Refresh Your Local Display

Your local board (local display on the screen) displays a copy of the master board on the server network. A timer is set to refresh your local board at regular intervals from the master board. If you wish to get an up to date status of all the users on the system you should explicitly refresh your local board.

To update the Master Board

Click WhereIs/Refresh Display  on the menu

Or, Click the Refresh Display  button on the toolbar

To change the Refresh timer

Click Options/Set Update-Refresh  on the menu


WhereIs Menu Commands

Update Master Board

The master board on the server holds the up to date status of the where about are the people on the system. Your display shows the a copy of the master board, and is update automatically at regular intervals, see Options Set Update/Refresh. on setting the update intervals.

When you make changes to your local board, the changes will be automatically updated on the master board at the set intervals. However, in order to ensure that the master board is always up to date, you should explicitly request that the master board is updated every time you change your where status. This command will update the master board with your changes.

Refresh Display

The local board is a copy of the master board on the server and is refreshed at set intervals, see Options Set Update/Refresh. on setting the refresh intervals. Because of the interval between the refresh time, the local board may not be up to date. Select this command to refresh the local board from the master board.

Activate Message

Start up the Message application.

Exit

Exit from Where Is.


Options Menu Commands

Set Panel Icons Text

The Side Panel contains 7 icons each with a predefined text. The text associated with each icon can be changed. Once changed, the new text will be used every time you start the application. The first icon is set permanently for IN and the rest are for OUT and cannot be altered. See Side Panel Icons.

Set Update/Refresh

Your local board holds a copy of the master board on the server. When you have made changes to the local board you will need to update the master board with the changes. You can explicitly request an update, see Update Master Board or leave the application to update the master at the set interval. The command allows you to set the time interval between each automatic updates.

Poll New Users

While the application is running, new users may be added to the system. Select this command to poll for any new users. This is only required to poll for new users while the application is running, all users on the system will be read when the application starts up.


Toolbar Commands

The toolbar is use for the frequently used commands. All commands on the toolbar are also available on the menu commands. The sequence of toolbar commands are:-

Display Selection

The application can only display a maximum number of people on the screen. The selection box allows you to display other users on the screen. However the first user panel will always display the where about of yourself.

Update Master Board

see Update Master Board

Refresh Display

see Refresh Display

Activate Message

see Activate Message


Status Bar

The status is use to display system messages and other system information. It is section into two parts.

The status bar currently displays the date and a run time clock. In addition to giving the current date and time, they can be used as input to the information box by using Drag and Drop


Drag And Drop

The concept of drag and drop allows you to drag an object on a screen and drop it onto another object which then causes an event to happen. The action is to point the object you want to drag from, press and hold the mouse button down, drag that object to the destination object and then release the button which is know as dropping the object.

For ease of use drag and drop has been implemented on the Side Panel Icons and the Date and Time fields on the Status Bar for input into the Information Box.

To use it,

Point to the object you want to drag to the information box.

Press the mouse button and hold down, the mouse pointer changes to the drag icon.

Drag it to the destination information box and release the mouse button.


Side Panel Icons

The Side Panel Icons are located on the left hand side of the display. It consists a number of graphical icons which can be used as input to the information box on the user panel, using Drag And Drop.

Each icon has an associated predefined text which gets inserted into the information box when it is dropped. The predefined text can be changed see Set Panel Icons Text.

There are 7 icons on the panel. The first icon is set for IN and the rest are for OUT, when dragged and dropped on  the information box, the IN and OUT buttons on the user panel are set respectively.


Display User

This contains the list of users on the system. If there are more users that can be displayed on the screen, select the user you wish to display.


Toolbar Update Master Board

Update the Master Board with any changes.


Toolbar Refresh Display

Refresh the display from the Master Board.


Toolbar Activate Message

Activate the Message application.


Side Panel Icons (IN)

The Side Panel contains a number of icons each with an associated information message. Drag and drop the icon to a user panel's information box to change the where is status for the user. The IN icon will also depress the IN button.


Side Panel Icons (OUT)

The Side Panel contains a number of icons each with an associated information message. Drag and drop the icon to a user panel's information box to change the where is status for the user. The OUT icon will also depress the OUT button.


User Panel

A User Panel displays the where is status for a user on the system. It consists of

User Name Plate

IN/OUT buttons

Information Box

You can depress the buttons and edit the information box, alternatively you can drag and drop icon onto the information box to change the panel status.


IN/OUT Buttons

This indicates whether you are IN or OUT.


Information Box

This contains the message to informs the other users where you are at this particular moment. Icons can be dragged and dropped onto here.


Status Bar Date

The current date is displayed. The date can be dragged and dropped onto the information box.


Status Bar Time

The current time is displayed. The date can be dragged and dropped onto the information box.