Guidesheet - Using the Housing Connections Online User Guide

This guide defines the web format, currently available in the Applications section only; others are still PDF. All the web pages have a standard look and feel; each describes a specific screen, dialog box or process. This guide describes how to navigate between them and the typical content included on those pages.

Printing User Guide Pages

Click into the page anywhere below the button bar. From File, Page Setup, set the printer properties to 'landscape' as all contents are in tables of fixed sizes. Then File, Print to print.

Page Headers and Navigation

The tops of the pages are devoted to defining the current page and allowing navigation to other pages:

  1. Main Menu Bar - Allows user to navigate the sections of the User Guide.
  2. User Guide section name. Currently only "Applications" exists in web format.
  3. The SiteSearch button calls up a site map page with links to all pages currently working on the site. In future it will also allow user to enter text (e.g. "Assets") and to find all pages which contain the word.
  4. The logo appears on all pages.
  5. Page Heading - This reflects the name of the current page the user has navigated to.
  6. Section Menu Bar - These buttons allow user to navigate to:
  7. [App Home] -Always returns to the section's home page where the Section Menu buttons are.
  8. [Up] -Will return to the previous menu this page was called from. An [Up] button only appears when the previous menu is not the section home. In this example, Manage Application was called from the Main menu on the home page so there is no [Up] button, as it would be redundant of [App Home].
  9. All other buttons are sub-pages of the current page. E.g. Manage Application has 18 sub-pages.
  10. Cycle Bar - [Prev] and [Next] navigate through the pages of all menu options on the page this was called from. Eg. Manage Application was called from the section home page menu, so [Prev] and [Next] would cycle through "Misc", "New Application", "Process Application", "Manage Application", …etc. This is most useful at the lowest menu level, e.g. cycling through all the pages about "Supplementals": A,B,C, etc.
  11. Links - Eg see table below. (not shown above) - These appear anywhere. They look and behave as all web-page links: when clicked, they navigate to another place on the page, another page, or a specific document.
  12. [Back] and [Next] buttons of browser - Eg (not shown above) - As on any website, the browsers will navigate back and forth through the series of pages recently visited.

Website Hierarchy of Pages

For each section in web format, there are 3 levels of pages: Section Menu (e.g. Manage Application), Sub Menu (e.g. Supplemental), andPage Details (e.g. A-General), with details of screens and/or processes.

See the section's Site Map, available from for a complete list of all the pages of that section, listed in their menu hierarchy.

Sample Navigation

Following these steps will make one familiar with the method of navigating the user guide website.

Step / Click on: / Notice:
Application Section's Button from Main Menu. / The components of the header as noted above, except there is no cycle bar as App Home is alone at the top level of this section.
[Site Search] button / The heading changed, and here is a list of links to all pages on this site.
Initiate New App link / This is the easiest way to directly access any page of the site.
[App Home] button / It comes back to home page (with main menu) from any page.
[Manage Application] / There is no [Up] button because [App Home] is the same
[Supplemental] / Now there is an [Up] button, as 'Manage App' is between here and home.
[A. General] / Page detail level has no more options below on the menu bar.
There is a cycle bar for supplemental screens with:
Cycle [Next] 4 times / It cycles through pages for screens B,C, D, and E
Cycle [Next] until you can't / This is the end of the screen set and only is available.
Cycle [Prev] 2 times / It cycles backwards through the supplemental screen set.
Browser's [Back] 4 times / It backs up through recent pages viewed, in the order they were viewed, no matter their order in the screen set.
[Up] button / It returns to Supplemental page (where [A. General] was called from).
[Up] button / It returns to Manage Apps page (where [Supplemental] was called from). Manage Apps is one of the Main Menu options called from the home page, so there is a cycle though Main Menu options.
Cycle buttons / Cycles though pages from Main Menu options.
[App Home] button / It comes back to section home page (with main menu) from any page.
Using this Web-based User Guide / Because this is a word document it opens in a separate window.

Page Bodies and Topic Content

The heading in the first column below describe the sectionson each page which define the characteristics of each application screen, dialog box or process. To see how these are used in the actual user guide, examples are provided on the right.

Topic Heading / Description of Contents / Example in User Guide
Description / This describes the overall function of the topic on this page in a few sentences or less. / Manage Application, Supplemental
Screen Print / If this page is about a screen or dialog box, a picture of it will be here. If data is showing on the screenprint, it is test data only. / Manage Application, Supplemental
'How To' Guide / This will be a link to online training material describing the actual steps of data entry, mouse clicks and tool usage, when available. / Enter New Application
Work Process / This describes business processes and rules attached to this topic, what the system does behind the scenes, and any special conditions or exceptions to consider when using this screen. / Manage Application, Supplemental, Validate/Invalidate
Fields / If there are but a few fields, they'll be here, otherwise in a table of their own below the Page body, with a link to that table in the fields box. Full descriptions and field usages are here, along with popup lists of values for drop-down lists. / Manage Application, Supplemental, Screens A through E.
Data Sources / Can be considered "Reads From". It describes where information gets entered which is read by this screen or process. If user is not getting expected or desired results on this screen, the data source may be the place to look to see if changes are required. / Manage Application, Supplemental,Validate/Invalidate
Data Outputs / Can be considered "Writes To". It describes what other changes occur in other areas based upon entries in this screen. / Manage Application, Supplemental, Validate/Invalidate
See Also / Any other page or document relevant to the topic. / Home Page
Other / Special criteria or security topics not covered above. / Manage Application, Supplemental