Tip of the month

December tip of the month: Formatting large graphs

2008-12-01T09:00:10Z

If you are carrying out an analysis over a prolonged period, or if your analysis covers a large variety of areas, you may find that the X-axis values are “squashed” together as shown below:

You can amend this by following the steps below:

Right click on your chart.
Select "Graph Options".
Go to "Axis".
Increase the “Interval” to separate these values.

5. Click "OK" to apply your changes.

November tip of the month: Adding and removing Asset activity types from records

2008-11-03T12:00:00Z

In the Asset module you can have several activity types assigned to the records. On occasion, the maintenance requirements may change for assets and so you will be required to add or remove activity types. The steps below outline how to do this.

Adding An Activity Type

1. Go to the Asset record.

2. Click on Actions > Add Activity Type.

3. Either select an existing activity type from the drop down menu or manually type in a name for a new type and click [OK].

4. If entering a new type, click [OK] again to accept the new type.

Removing An Activity Type

1. Open the asset record.

2. Browse to the activity type you wish to remove.

3. Right click on this and select “Delete Activity Type”.

4. Click [OK] to accept the changes.

October tip of the month: Keeping confidential records confidential

2008-10-01T10:02:00Z

Through the dynamic groups, it is possible to set-up permissions to the People module so that only the record holder (the person who's details are in the record) and their manager(s) can access these. This ensures that all data is treated confidentially and no unauthorised access can be obtained. In our example, we'll say that John Doe reports to Joe Bloggs.

Assigning Record Holder Access

1. Launch Q-Pulse and go to the Administration module.

2. Go to Settings and Defaults, Groups.

3. Scroll down to the dynamic groups (highlighted with a symbol).

4. Locate the group called Person Record Holder, and click on View/Edit.

5. Apply the permissions to this group that you would like the record holders to have.

6. Click 'OK'.

Assigning Manager Access

1. Launch Q-Pulse and go to the Administration module.

2. Go to Settings and Defaults, Groups.

3. Scroll down to the dynamic groups (highlighted with a symbol).

4. Locate the group called Person Manager, and click on View/Edit.

5. Apply the permissions to this group that you would like managers of record holders to have.

6. Click OK, and close out of the Administration module.

7. Go the People module.

8. Locate and open a the manager's person record - in this case, Joe Bloggs.

9. Go to the Properties tab and edit these by clicking on the Manage Properties button .

10. Click on Reporting Structure.

11. Click on Add Direct Report to assign all users that report to this manager - in this case, we'll be adding John Doe to report to Joe Bloggs.

12. Click 'OK'.

The above procedure has updated Joe Bloggs record to say that John Doe reports to him. Joe is John's manager. We've also changed the permissions so that only John (the employee) and Joe (the manager) have access to John's record. This procedure could be adjusted to add many employees to one manager, or to multiple managers, depending on your own organisation's hierarchy.

September tip of the month: Grouping records

2008-09-01T10:22:45Z

In follow up to last month’s tip about column customisation, record lists can also be customised by grouping records by one or more selected columns, e.g. Document Type.

To group by a column:

1. Right-click over any column header and select ‘Show Group-By’ to surface the Group-By Box above the record list

2. Select a column and drag this into the Group-By Box. This will group the record list by that column

3. Further columns may be dragged into the Group-By Box to apply secondary and tertiary groupings, etc.

Organising the record list by grouping records allows relevant records to be found more easily.

August tip of the month: Customising columns

2008-08-01T07:00:00Z

Columns can be added to a record list for any module using Column Customisation as follows:

1. Right-click on any column header and select ‘Select Columns...’ from the context menu

2. A window displaying available columns for selection will be displayed

3. Add columns to the list by selecting the column from the window and dragging it into the required position in the list header

To remove a column:

1. Click on the column and drag it until a cross is displayed

2. Release the mouse button to remove column from the list

Customising the columns displayed on a record list can avoid individually opening records to obtain the information required.

July tip of the month: Search Folders

2008-07-01T05:00:00Z

Q-Pulse allows searches for records to be saved. This may save you time when you use the same search criteria regularly to find documents or non-conformances. You can save your search by:

Opening the list view for a module
Selecting the ‘Advanced...’ link at the bottom of the Search tile
Enter the search criteria for the record(s) you wish to locate
Select the icon from the main toolbar
This will open a window in which you can enter a name for the folder to be created
Enter a Name and other information as required and select ‘OK’

The folder will be added to the 'My Searches' tile on the record list (see below). Double-click on the search folder to run the search when required. Creating search folders for commonly run searches provides a much easier method to locate the same relevant records.

June tip of the month: Creating a custom navigation list

2008-06-01T07:00:13Z

Where a record is opened from a module list view, the buttons in the main toolbar allow navigation to the other records in the list.

However, you can create a custom list by selecting only the records you want to navigate between.

This can be achieved by:

Holding the Ctrl key and left-clicking on the records to be viewed on a module list view.
Right-clicking on any of the selected records and selecting ‘Open Record...’ from the popup context menu, as shown below.

The first record in the selection will be opened. The first record that appears is the record nearest the top of the list. This could be changed by changing the how the list is sorted, so if the list is sorted by date in ascending order, the selection with the oldest date will be the first record shown.

Use the button to navigate to the next record in the selection and to go back.

This provides a quick way to select and navigate between certain records in a large list.

May tip of the month: Acknowledge receipt of multiple documents

2008-05-01T07:00:56Z

Where multiple documents have been distributed to you within the Document module, these can be acknowledged collectively by:

Selecting the ‘To Acknowledge' from the My Actions metric from the Document list screen to retrieve the relevant documents
Reading the documents as necessary
Selecting all the documents you wish to acknowledge by selecting Ctrl+ A
Selecting the button from the main toolbar

(click on the image above to view the full-size version of the image)

This will acknowledge the receipt of all selected documents and avoid acknowledging documents individually.

April tip of the month: Re-ordering modules on the Launchpad

2008-04-01T08:26:00Z

April's tip of the month explains how to re-order modules on the Launchpad. The order can be customised as follows: ...

Select the icon at the top of the LaunchPad to open the preferences window.
Select the LaunchPad option on the left hand side to display the current Panel order on the right hand side.
Select a module and use the adjacent ‘Up’ and ‘Dn’ keys to move its position within the list.

Adjusting the panel order allows you to locate modules more easily e.g. moving the most accessed module(s) to the top of the list or ordering the modules alphabetically.

NB Access to user preferences are controlled by assigned permissions.

March tip of the month: How to reduce time taken to access modules

2008-03-01T08:00:00Z

This handy tip shows how you can vastly reduce the time taken to access a module (such as CA/PA or Document) by specifying search criteria before opening the module.

This can be achieved by:

1. Expanding the module tile on the LaunchPad by selecting the icon

2. Enter search terms in the provided text box

3. Select the icon to open the module list view and initiate the search

Why is it slower normally?

Selecting a module from the LaunchPad opens the module list screen and initiates a default search for records. The time taken to open the module is affected by the number of records it contains. By entering search terms that uniquely identify relevant records, search times are reduced and a more relevant set of records are returned.

February tip of the month: group edit feature

2008-02-13T12:05:00Z

Group Edit feature

Instances can arise where it is necessary to reclassify multiple Non-Conformance records eg Severity. It can be a slow and cumbersome task to achieve this by sequentially opening each record and making the necessary edit. However for such cases, Q-Pulse has incorporated a ‘Group Edit’ feature that allows field values to be edited collectively across multiple Non-Conformance records.

The Group Edit feature can be accessed by:

Searching for and selecting the records to edit within the Non-Conformance list screen

Right-Click over one of the selected records and select the ‘Group Edit’ option from the pop up menu
This will launch a window allowing you to specify the field value to be edited
Upon selection, a field will be surfaced allowing you to select the new field value to be applied
Select the ‘Apply Edit’ button to commit the change
Edit any further fields as necessary, following steps 3-5, and close the window

NB The time taken to commit changes varies with the number of Non-Conformance records selected.