Building Help and Training to Make Every User an Expert

Andrea Leszek, salesforce.com, VP, Technology Communications, @aleszek, @salesforcedocs

Alice Becker, TrainTheCrowd, Founder, @trainthecrowd

Andrew Fawcett, Financialforce, CTO, @andyinthecloud

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Agenda▪ Benefits of adding custom help▪ Declarative custom help options▪ Programmatic custom help options▪ AppExchange apps▪ Open source options▪ Q&A

Alice BeckerFounder, TrainTheCrowd @trainthecrowd

What would you like to be an expert at?

The journey to becoming an expert…

Beginner Expert!Intermediate

What value do experts bring?Experts will…

• Help streamline processes• Generate new ideas• Set example to follow• Support other users

This will…

• Increase productivity• Increase efficiency• Improve data quality• Reduce support cost

What will take your users from zero to hero?

User ManualBuddy System

Instructor Led TrainingAsk an ExpertHow to Videos

Custom Help

“Clicks, Not Code”Declarative Custom Help Options

Field-Level HelpAdd help bubbles to fields to give tips and info to your users.

▪ Works for both standard fields and custom fields!

Override “Help for this Page” Links For when you really need to provide your own documentation.

▪ Affects only “Help for this Page” links, not “Help & Training” link

“Getting Started” Web TabWeb Tab in Application HTML Page on Website

Give users a short orientation when they first go to a tab. Splash Page for Custom Object Tab

Create Content

HTML, Image, Zip, PDF, etc.

Upload as Static Resource

Setup → Develop → Static Resources

Create VF PageTo show the static resource using the URLFOR action.Setup → Develop → Pages

Create Home Page Custom Link

To display the VF page.Setup → Customize → Home → Custom Links

Set Splash Page Custom Link

For the desired tab.Setup → Create → Tabs

<apex:page sidebar="false" showHeader="false" standardStylesheets="false"

action="{!URLFOR($Resource.orderssplashhtm)}"></apex:page>

“Let’s Code!”Programmatic Custom Help Options

Andrew FawcettCTO, Financialforce@andyinthecloud

Object-Level HelpOverride Help for

▪ List View page▪ Detail page

Object Help▪ Object Home Help Topic

• Describe object purpose, buttons, cross References

• Describe fields

Configuring Object-Level HelpVisualforce Page“helporder”

Using Visualforce Pages to Link to External HelpEach Object has its own Visualforce Page for its help

▪ Unique help topic, redirects to a single “help” Visualforce page• /helporder, /helpinvoice, /helplineitem

The “help” page finally redirects the browser to the help topic▪ Handles building the URL to the help location, including topic Id

• /help?topicId=XXXX

▪ Apex Controller ‘doRedirect’ calculates full help URL to external location• Including user locale for translation

<apex:page action="{!URLFOR('/apex/help?topicid=1006')}"/>

<apex:page controller="HelpController" action="{!doRedirect}"/>

Visualforce Page-Level HelpPage Level

▪ Link via Section Header▪ Help Link can be

contextual▪ Describe workflow of

the page, cross references

<apex:sectionHeader title="Create Invoice from Order" subtitle="Create an Invoice" help="{!URLFOR('/apex/help?topicid=1006')}"/>

Example External Help URLhttp://en-us.help.mydomain.com/myapp/2x/Default_CSH.htm#1321

Demo of Object- and Page-Level Help▪ Help Hosted on Google Drive▪ Order Object-Level Help

• List View • Detail View

▪ Create Invoice from Order Button• Page Help

▪ Sample Code• See Chatter Feed in Dreamforce Org for link

Third-Party ToolsAppExchange and More

Using AppExchange ToolsIf you don’t want to build your own solution, other options include:

BlackboardLearn - LMS

Dynamic Inline Help – User

Adoption Tool

CrowdGuide -Training &

Adoption Tool

Dynamic Inline HelpFeatures include:

▪ Provide inline help on Opportunity, Case, Lead, Campaign, Account or Contact page layout

▪ View business process diagrams (e.g. sales process) when record status changes

Blackboard Learn (LMS)Features include:

▪ Course management and completion tracking▪ Testing and assessment tools▪ Dashboard reports to measure impact of training

CrowdGuideFeatures include:

▪ 20+ standard user guides▪ Easy to update content▪ Context sensitive▪ User guides stored in one location▪ Supports rich-text, images, YouTube, URL links▪ Say goodbye to printed training materials!

Open Source – Guiders-JS from OptimizelyAn open source JavaScript library to add your own guided tours to Visualforce pages.Available at https://github.com/jeff-optimizely/Guiders-JS

Mobile-ready doc portal.▪ Built on Heroku

• Apache CouchDB• Written in Ruby

1. Get it on github at https://github.com/forcedotcom/doc-portal

2. Create your HTML doc files.3. Write TOC file.4. Update metadata file.5. Deploy.

Open Source - Salesforce.com Doc Portal on Heroku

Custom Help Option Pros Cons

Field-level help bubbles Easy to do. Keeps user in app. Annoying if overdone.

Override Help & Training Best for heavy customizations. Potentially confusing for users.

Getting Started tab Packaged with app. Content externally maintained. Extra tab visible unless manually removed.

Custom object splash page Great for tab intro. Various methods to deploy content. Requires multiple setup steps.

Custom object help with VF General help for object. Requires VF development skills.

Visualforce page help link Contextual per page. Requires VF development skills.

Static resources Easy to deliver content on the platform. Content embedded in app. Harder to update once packaged.

AppExchange apps No development necessary. Relies on external vendor.

Heroku doc portal Mobile-ready. Easy delivery. Requires some setup.

Alice Becker

Founder, TrainTheCrowd @trainthecrowd

Andrew Fawcett

CTO, Financialforce@andyinthecloud

Andrea Leszek

VP, Technology Communications, salesforce.com

@aleszek@salesforcedocs

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