Quick Start Guide
Install Improved Help
Install the latest general availability release of Improved Help into your Salesforce org.
Log in to the desired destination Salesforce org as a System Administrator and select the appropriate link for your situation:
Click the link and then check that the installation is what you expect:
- Correct Org? Does the browser URL on the upgrade page begin with the correct, expected domain address? If in doubt, paste the tail portion of the above link starting from ‘packaging/…‘ into the address bar of the setup page in the target org, replacing all text after the ‘…salesforce.com/‘ domain portion of the URL.
- Correct package version? Are the versions being upgraded from and to as you anticipate? In common with all Salesforce packages, our products cannot be ‘downgraded’ to previous versions.
When prompted, select the appropriate installation security option for your situation:
- Install for Admins Only: Controlled roll-out (especially in any Production Orgs);
- Install for all Users: For product evaluation (typically in Sandbox or Development Orgs).
Please contact us if you are unsure how best to proceed in your situation.
Initialise Global Help Settings
Initialise Improved Help global settings, default configuration and tools.
Switching to Lightning Experience, open the Improved Help for Lightning app and from the ‘Welcome’ tab:
- Upsert Configuration Tools: to initialise certain Help clickables, such as menu items and tools offered on helped Lightning pages.
- Initialise Settings: Click this button to create some default product settings, covering areas such as product preferences and branding.
- Refresh the Welcome tab: to see additional in-app help and guidance materials that have now been created, alongside Help Settings tab for accessing additional global options at any time.
Where Lighting is not available, Switch to the Classic Improved Help app, go to the Help Settings tab and from the Quick-Start sub-tab, Initialise settings using the button.
Assign Licenses to Users
Assign Improved Help Licenses to named-users.
A license is required to use Improved Help. License assignment is managed according to the org and installation type and managed from the Setup Menu – search for Installed Packages and then click Assign Licenses.
Assign Permission Sets
Select and assign Improved Help Permission Sets to users.
Improved Help Permissions are hierarchical, so each user only needs the highest level of the following (don’t worry if you add multiple Permission Sets – Improved Help ignores all but the highest):
- Helped Users: Can view help content & comment;
- Help Analyst: As above but can also access Help Analysis mode to view statistics (they also need reporting permissions set at their Profile level);
- Help Authors: As Above but can also edit help content and view Inactive Help Topics;
- Help Administrators: As above but can also access Improved Help Setting Page. Profile-level ‘Customize Application’ rights are needed to save Help Settings changes.
Permissons can be managed through Profiles – please contact us to discuss your specifc use cases.
We also ship a Help Diagnostics permission set – not needed for production use, but potentially useful during setup in complex orgs, should any permissioning anomalies arise. This permission set grants access to our ‘Field Level Security Check’ (IHFLSCheck) Visualforce page. Users can be directed to this page to obtain details of the level of permission Improved Help calculates for the logged in user, on the basis of their CRUD access rights (however granted) to Help-related objects.
Consider Initial Scope
Improved Help is now installed, initiated and available to deploy, so it’s worth considering implementation approach, as several factors may affect how best to configure help and manage your content, including:
- Where: are the points of need for help & learning content to be deployed – priority apps, pages, objects, forms, fields…?
- Who: will interact with Improved Help, as consumers & content ‘Pathfinders’ and curators?
- Helped Users: the target audience of end-users needing help & learning content? Do multiple groups need dedicated content – by language, internal vs. community, etc?
- Help Authors: those with domain knowledge who can act as the Pathfinders who will find, create and curate content?
- App Stakeholders: from teams in business, product, UX, change management & System Administration?
- What: content is needed – (and where is it now?) and what needs to be created, migrated or signposted?
- How: best to deploy and configure Improved Help to deliver the right information to the right people at the right time?
Please contact us for any advice you need on the above – alternatively, feel free to dive straight in to implementing Improved Help for the Salesforce environments that are relevant to your organisation.
Add Components to User Experience(s)
Add Improved Help components to your Salesforce user experiences.
Add Improved Help component(s) to Lightning pages and/or Utility Bar
Improved Help ships with a growing set of Lightning Components that offer great flexibility in presenting help & learning content to your Users where they need it most – right in their Salesforce pages. Please contact us for guidance on options to suit specific situations and use cases.
The basic recipe to add Improved Help components to Lightning pages is to use the Lightning Page Builder – from the page or setup (requires page editing permissions), then simply:
- Insert: Improved Help components (from the Custom – Managed component section in the sidebar) to the desired location on the page;
- Configure: Set component parameters to set design, behaviour and content to suit the layout and desired user experience;
- Save: the edited page and click Back to exit the Lightning Page Builder.
Example: Page Help – Quick Access Menu
Below is a simple example that shows how to add the Improved Help Quick Access Menu to a Lighting Page Layout, to access help content and tools with minimal use of precious page real-estate when not in use…
Access the Lightning Page Builder from the page to be helped (or setup), then simply:
- Insert: Drag the ‘Improved Help: Quick Access Menu‘ component, from the ‘Custom – Managed’ component section in the sidebar, to anywhere convenient on the page;
- Size: Set the ‘Expanded Height’ parameter according to your needs – other settings can be left as default;
- Save changes & click Back: (or navigate to) the updated page, to see the helped Lightning Page Layout.
Example: Help Index – Help for Help
Open the Improved Help for Lightning app to see Help for Help: in the app utility bar. This is a working example of a Help Index, based on our Utility1 component, which combines our Tree and Topic Viewer components. Originally designed for the utility bar presentation, (hence its name!), it can also be added to the Quick Access Menu, (useful when no utility bar is available), displayed stand-alone in a Page Layout – or even delivered into Visualforce or Classic user experiences via LightningOut.
It’s also a working example of Application Help, providing content for Help Administrators and Help Authors to plan, configure and use other Improved Help features – so it’s well worth a browse.
The Tree Builder tab in this app is a working example of a content management Lightning app, built using Improved Help Listing, Tree and Topic Viewer components, in which Help Authors can create and manage any Help Index or similar sets of hierarchical content.
Add Improved Help component(s) to Classic pages
There are many ways to add Help on demand to Classic pages. To get going, you must add a custom button or a link in the side-bar, which when clicked, shows available Improved Help available ?mark icons next to any helped elements in the page and the Quick Access Menu (top right of any page).
In-App Help Component
The simplest way to get started is to create a new ‘Your ‘In-App’ Coach!’ Home Page Help & Training Component and add this to your Home Page Layouts:
- Create a link:
- Go into Setup… Customise…Home…Custom Links
- Click the ‘New’ button to create a new link
- Label = ‘Help on this Page!’ (or whatever will work for your users)
- Behaviour = ‘Execute JavaScript’
- Content Source = ‘OnClick JavaScripts’
- Paste the following code in the big white box below:
- var scr = document.createElement(‘script’); scr.setAttribute(‘src’, ‘/resource/iahelp__IHResources/js/jsConsole.js’); document.head.appendChild(scr);
- Click ‘Save’
- Create a links component:
- Go into Setup… Customise…Home…Home Page Components
- Click the ‘New’ button to create a new ‘Links’ component
- Call this ‘Your ‘In-App’ Coach!’ (or whatever will work for your users)
- Add the Link you created above (Help on this Page!)
- Click ‘Save’
- Add the links component to your page layout:
- Go into Setup… Customise…Home…Home Page Layouts
- Edit your desired Home Page Layout (or create a clone to test with a subset of users if testing in a Production org)
- Add the ‘Your ‘In-App’ Coach!’ component to your sidebar and place it somewhere near the top.Click ‘Save’.
Improved Help Lightning components can also be used in Classic pages via LightningOut in Visualforce components.
Classic Communities and Lightning Communities (such as ‘Napili’) are fully supported. Please contact us for guidance on setup options for your situation and use cases.
If you’re using a Lightning Community, you’ll find the setup process very similar to that used for Lightning Pages process.
Classic and Lightning Console are fully supported. Please contact us for guidance for your situation and use cases.
Improved Help supports Salesforce-supported phone and tablet devices. Contact us to discuss your specific use cases.
Improved Help components can be incorporated into custom Visualforce pages via Lightning Out. Please contact us to discuss your specific use cases.
Improved Help components can be used in concert with local Flows and custom components to create helped processes. Contact us to discuss your specific use cases.
Add Improved Help components to your Salesforce user experiences.
Lightning
Add Improved Help component(s) to Lightning pages and/or Utility Bar
Improved Help ships with a growing set of Lightning Components that offer great flexibility in presenting help & learning content to your Users where they need it most – right in their Salesforce pages. Please contact us for guidance on options to suit specific situations and use cases.
The basic recipe to add Improved Help components to Lightning pages is to use the Lightning Page Builder – from the page or setup (requires page editing permissions), then simply:
- Insert: Improved Help components (from the Custom – Managed component section in the sidebar) to the desired location on the page;
- Configure: Set component parameters to set design, behaviour and content to suit the layout and desired user experience;
- Save: the edited page and click Back to exit the Lightning Page Builder.
Example: Page Help – Quick Access Menu
Below is a simple example that shows how to add the Improved Help Quick Access Menu to a Lighting Page Layout, to access help content and tools with minimal use of precious page real-estate when not in use…
Access the Lightning Page Builder from the page to be helped (or setup), then simply:
- Insert: Drag the ‘Improved Help: Quick Access Menu‘ component, from the ‘Custom – Managed’ component section in the sidebar, to anywhere convenient on the page;
- Size: Set the ‘Expanded Height’ parameter according to your needs – other settings can be left as default;
- Save changes & click Back: (or navigate to) the updated page, to see the helped Lightning Page Layout.
Example: Help Index – Help for Help
Open the Improved Help for Lightning app to see Help for Help: in the app utility bar. This is a working example of a Help Index, based on our Utility1 component, which combines our Tree and Topic Viewer components. Originally designed for the utility bar presentation, (hence its name!), it can also be added to the Quick Access Menu, (useful when no utility bar is available), displayed stand-alone in a Page Layout – or even delivered into Visualforce or Classic user experiences via LightningOut.
It’s also a working example of Application Help, providing content for Help Administrators and Help Authors to plan, configure and use other Improved Help features – so it’s well worth a browse.
The Tree Builder tab in this app is a working example of a content management Lightning app, built using Improved Help Listing, Tree and Topic Viewer components, in which Help Authors can create and manage any Help Index or similar sets of hierarchical content.
Classic
Add Improved Help component(s) to Classic pages
There are many ways to add Help on demand to Classic pages. To get going, you must add a custom button or a link in the side-bar, which when clicked, shows available Improved Help available ?mark icons next to any helped elements in the page and the Quick Access Menu (top right of any page).
In-App Help Component
The simplest way to get started is to create a new ‘Your ‘In-App’ Coach!’ Home Page Help & Training Component and add this to your Home Page Layouts:
- Create a link:
- Go into Setup… Customise…Home…Custom Links
- Click the ‘New’ button to create a new link
- Label = ‘Help on this Page!’ (or whatever will work for your users)
- Behaviour = ‘Execute JavaScript’
- Content Source = ‘OnClick JavaScripts’
- Paste the following code in the big white box below:
- var scr = document.createElement(‘script’); scr.setAttribute(‘src’, ‘/resource/iahelp__IHResources/js/jsConsole.js’); document.head.appendChild(scr);
- Click ‘Save’
- Create a links component:
- Go into Setup… Customise…Home…Home Page Components
- Click the ‘New’ button to create a new ‘Links’ component
- Call this ‘Your ‘In-App’ Coach!’ (or whatever will work for your users)
- Add the Link you created above (Help on this Page!)
- Click ‘Save’
- Add the links component to your page layout:
- Go into Setup… Customise…Home…Home Page Layouts
- Edit your desired Home Page Layout (or create a clone to test with a subset of users if testing in a Production org)
- Add the ‘Your ‘In-App’ Coach!’ component to your sidebar and place it somewhere near the top.Click ‘Save’.
Improved Help Lightning components can also be used in Classic pages via LightningOut in Visualforce components.
Community
Classic Communities and Lightning Communities (such as ‘Napili’) are fully supported. Please contact us for guidance on setup options for your situation and use cases.
If you’re using a Lightning Community, you’ll find the setup process very similar to that used for Lightning Pages process.
Console
Classic and Lightning Console are fully supported. Please contact us for guidance for your situation and use cases.
Mobile
Improved Help supports Salesforce-supported phone and tablet devices. Contact us to discuss your specific use cases.
Visualforce
Improved Help components can be incorporated into custom Visualforce pages via Lightning Out. Please contact us to discuss your specific use cases.
Custom Flows & Components
Improved Help components can be used in concert with local Flows and custom components to create helped processes. Contact us to discuss your specific use cases.
Prepare Improved Help Launch
Whilst Improved Help can be implemented to support a major change program, application rollout project or new release, we recommend starting a small ‘Minimum Viable Product’ approach to implementing Improved Help for a targeted use case – to provide content that supports or enable step-change improvement in a process milestone step, new or complex pages or fields that can affect data quality.
Example use cases include helped:
- Help Index: for onboarding & Lightning migration – for Salesforce orientation, standard and custom object overviews and key use cases;
- Form Help: for record edit and creation use cases, including helped Record Type selection, which often drives process automation;
- Field Help: picklist selection help and naming conventions for free text fields on key records
Review Global Improved Help Settings
Review Improved Help global settings in the Setup tab and adjust to suit your situation. See Help for Help in the Improved Help for Lightning app for more detail or contact us to discuss your use cases.
