Tag: project manager

Elementool Help Desk User Manual




Hi, welcome to the tutorial on how to use Elementool Help Desk. Help Desk is so easy, even your grandma can use it.
I’m Allison, and I will be showing you how to use Help Desk.
Let’s begin.
The account is divided into two sections: The Control Panel and the application section.
On the top of the screen are tabs that correspond with each action in Help Desk. Click on a tab to perform that particular action. As you can see, you have the option to create a new issue, view issue, display issue reports, and access the control panel.
The Control Panel is where you setup the account. It can be accessed only by users that are part of the Admin group.
The application section consists of “new issue”, “view issue”, and “display issue reports”. Users of all groups can access the application portion of Help Desk by logging in to their Elementool account.
Let’s start with the Control Panel

The next icon, “edit email settings”, allows you to edit the settings on the email fetcher. The Email Fetcher is responsible for storing the email messages sent by your customers to your support email box in your Elementool account.
All you need to do is enter your email server address, your support email address, and a few other simple details and you’re all set. You are minutes away from having your support email address linked with your Elementool Help Desk account.
The spam filter settings enable you to set the rules and actions of the e-mail fetcher when it encounters spam mail. Based on these rules, the Email Fetcher will automatically delete spam email that is sent to your support mailbox.

Going back to the control panel, the next icon is “edit customer list”. Here is a list of all your customers. You can add new customers to the list by clicking ‘add new’ and entering the customer’s information. Clicking on a customer allows you to delete them or edit their information.
The next icon, edit support form, allows you to edit and customize your support form. Help Desk allows your customers and team members to submit issues directly from your website. The support form is the form that your customers will use to submit tickets. The first heading that appears on this screen is ‘edit support form’. You can customize the support form by dragging the fields from the left to the right, and clicking update. You can preview the form by clicking the preview button.
When you click on the Update button, Help Desk will create an HTML code that you should copy and paste to your support page on your website.
This code will present a support form and will be used to submit support tickets to your Elementool account directly from your website.
Below that, is the ‘edit auto reply’ heading. You can create customized automatic responses to customers after they place a ticket. For example, “Thank you for submitting a ticket. A representative will contact you shortly”.
Help Desk includes a web link in the auto-reply e-mail that allows your clients to view the status and correspondence history by clicking on it.

The last heading on the screen is the “knowledge base code”. Here, you are provided with the HTML code for the knowledge base box that is placed on your website. A knowledgebase is a search box on your website that allows customers and team members to search your Help Desk account for frequently asked questions for issues and their solutions.

Viewing Issues
If you know which issue you would like to view in particular, type in the issue number in the “view issue #” box located on the top right, or click on the ‘View Issue’ tab and type the issue number there. You can also view issues by running a report and opening the issues on the report itself.
When you view an issue, Help Desk displays the correspondence history related to it. You can see all the emails that were sent back and forth between your client and your support team.
To reply to a client support request using Help Desk, you should open the message that was sent by the client by clicking on the message title.
Then click on the Reply button and use the Reply form to send out your response.
By using the reply form, the email that you send will be added to the issue’s correspondence history. It is very important that the interaction is done using Help Desk, in order to keep the communication trail on your Elementool account.

As you can see, Help Desk is very easy to use. So easy, your grandma can do it!

Issue Tracking User Manual



Hi, it’s me, Allison. Welcome to Elementool Issue Tracking. I am going to show you how to setup and use your account.
Issue Tracking is so easy, even your grandma can use it.
The account is divided into two sections: The Control Panel and the application section.
On the top of the screen are tabs that correspond with each action in Issue Tracking. Click on a tab to perform that particular action. As you can see, you have the option to create a new issue, view issue, display issue reports, and access the control panel.
The Control Panel is where you setup the account. It can be accessed only by users that are part of the Admin group.
The application section consists of “new issue”, “view issue”, and “display issue reports”. Users of all groups can access the application portion of Issue Tracking by logging in to their Elementool account.
Let’s start with the Control Panel

Control Panel

The green tab is the ‘control panel’. I am going to go through a quick overview of the control panel with you. Click ‘control panel’.
Here you will see edit accounts, edit issue form, and edit user profile.
Let’s click on ‘edit accounts’.
The ‘edit accounts’ section enables you to manage different administrative aspects of your account.
It includes the following options: Manage account list, update billing info, download database, empty trash, set time-zone, and sms settings. I’ll go through each option one by one.
Let’s start off with ‘manage account list’.
This option allows you to add or remove services for each account.
The “update billing information” tab is just that!
Here, you can enter your billing information or change it.

The ‘download database’ option allows you to download your database into an Access file.
It allows you to save a local backup of your account, export the data to external applications and also run advanced queries on your issues.

The next tab is “empty trash”.
Here, you can delete issues that have ‘Trash’ status assigned to them. This is a perfect way to make room for new issues. Isn’t that the whole point of emptying trash? So you can have new trash?
The ‘set time zone” tab is self explanatory, right? You can set the time zone according to your geographical location.
Lastly, the “SMS setting” allows you to add SMS notifications to your SMS bank by account. Later you will be able to use this feature to send text notification directly to your team members’ mobile phones.

Now that we have a feel for ‘Edit Accounts’, let’s go back to the main control panel screen and click on ‘edit issue form’.
Here, you can customize the issue form to work exactly the way you prefer. You can customize the existing fields or create unlimited new fields. Let me show you how to do this.
Click on the caption you wish to change or click “add new” field. Here, you can change field caption, type, set field width, or create a value list.

Going back to the main screen on the control panel, the last icon is ‘edit user profiles’. This is where you add users to the accounts.
In order for people to have access to your Elementool accounts, they need to have usernames and passwords. The username is unique to each user.
Here you can assign users to particular groups based on job function or assign them to accounts. You can also create new user groups and define access permissions based on user and group privileges.

Welcome Page

When you sign in your account, you see the “Welcome Screen” where your automated dashboard is displayed. You can customize this to your liking.
Clicking the ‘edit’ button on the dashboard box allows you to filter and customize the item based on your preferences. If you have several Elementool accounts, you can setup your dashboard to display your entire workflow. For example: you can display all your open issues, all the high priority tasks, and so on.
The Welcome page is fully customizable and enables you to add new items, change their location on the screen using drag n’ drop and have an easy access to your quick reports (more on quick reports later.)

Notice how the top of the screen displays the account name that you are logged into currently.
You can switch accounts by clicking on the dropdown menu and choosing the account of your preference.
On top of the left hand side of the screen, below the Elementool logo, is a display that shows the current online users who are using the account.
If you drag your mouse over the display, it will show you the actual users. Clicking the display will enable you to instant message online users in a chat room setting.

Creating an issue is as simple as pie.
Click on the ‘new issue’ tab and simply fill out the fields. It can’t get any easier!
As you can see, you can set the status, priority, frequency, and severity of the issue. In the same area, you can assign users to the issue. These features are extremely important in keeping things organized so issues don’t fall through the cracks!
Below is the remarks field. Here you can write comments regarding the issue. All comments in the remarks field are displayed in the remarks message board.
The History Trail preserves a complete audit trail of all the changes that have been made in the different fields.

In the same section is the ‘linked issues’ and ‘attach files’ button.
The file attachment feature enables you to attach HTML, PDF, Word, Excel and other file types to an issue by clicking the ‘attach button’ and uploading the file. This is useful because users will have direct access to files that are related to the issue, as opposed to wasting time looking for the files in the company’s server.

Issue Tracking is part of a suite of applications that are seamlessly integrated. The ‘Linked Issue’ option allows you to link issues between the different Elementool applications.
To do this,
scroll to the ‘linked issues’ field near the ‘remarks section’ and choose the account name and application from the dropdown field that you want the current issue to be linked with. Then type the issue number in the text box. Your issues are now linked!

The Issue Form enables you to assign the issue to a user by selecting the user from the ‘Assigned to’ list.
Checking the email or mobile phone checkbox will send a notification with the issue details to the assigned user’s email or cellular phone.
Each issue has a unique issue number that is assigned by the system when you submit a new issue. You can later use this number to reference this specific issue.

If you know which issue you would like to view in particular, type in the issue number in the “view issue #” box located on the top, or click on the ‘View Issue’ tab and type the issue number there. You can also view issues by running a report and opening the issues on the report itself.

To run reports, simply click on the “issue report” tab.
You can customize the issue report by title, description, status, severity, assigned to, and much more. You can also customize the fields that appear in the report by clicking the ‘customize report’.

The customize report option enables you to select the columns that are displayed on the report, the report’s sorting order and the query filters.

Next to the “customize report” tab is the “View type” tab

There are several view types: Normal, which displays the report on the page; Excel, so you can export the report to excel; and Dynamic, to perform bulk field changes to the issues on the report itself-so you don’t need to update the issues one by one. Choosing the “print view” displays the report in a printer friendly fashion.

Quick Reports

If you frequently run the same report, you should add it to your quick reports. This feature allows you to run reports based on predefined criteria, rather than customizing your report each time. It is very simple to set-up.

Click on the ‘add report list’, and select the accounts and query fields you want present in the report. Customize the report based on your preferences, and click step 3. Select the report fields, such as the field list and report columns, and go to step 4. Lastly, name your quick report and click “save”.
Once you setup your quick reports, you can send the report results to people by email.

As you can see, Issue Tracking is very easy to use. We work closely with our clients and are open to ideas and suggestions regarding enhancements and new features.
If you have any questions, suggestions or requests, please don’t hesitate to contact our support at support@elementool.com

Elementool Test Cases Manual




Hi I’m Allison, and I am going to show you how to use Elementool Test Cases. Test Case is so easy, even your grandma can do it.
Let’s begin!
On the top of the screen are tabs that correspond with each action in Test Cases. Click on a tab to perform that particular action. As you can see, you have the option to edit tests, view tests, display test reports, and access the control panel.
The account is divided into two sections: The Control Panel and the application section.
The Control Panel is where you setup the account. It can be accessed only by users that are part of the Admin group.
The application section consists of “edit tests”, “view test”, and “display test reports”. Users of all groups can access the application portion of Test Cases by logging in to their Elementool account.

Now that we have a feel for ‘Edit Accounts’, let’s go back to the main control panel screen and click on ‘edit test form’.
Here, you can customize the test form to work exactly the way you prefer. You can customize the existing fields or create unlimited new fields. Let me show you how to do this. Click on the caption you wish to change or click “add new” field. Here, you can change field caption, type, width, or create a value list.

O.K, great! That sums up the control panel. Now let’s move onto the application section.
When you sign in to your account, you see the “Welcome Screen” where your automated dashboard is displayed. This will show all test cases assigned to you.
Notice how the top of the screen displays the account name that you are logged into currently. You can switch accounts by clicking on the dropdown menu and choosing the account of your preference. On top of the left hand side of the screen, below the Elementool logo, is a display that shows the current online users who are accessing the account. If you drag your mouse over the display, it will show you the actual users. Clicking the display will enable you to instant message online users in a chat room setting.

Edit Tests

Editing and creating test cases is very easy using Elementool Test Cases. To create a new test, group, or subgroup, or to edit any of these, click on the “edit tests” tab. To create a new test group, click “new” on the left hand side and choose “group” from the dropdown. If you would like to add a subgroup to an already existing group, click on the group to highlight which group you would like to add a sub group to, and on the left, click “new” and choose “sub group” on the dropdown.

To add a test case to a group or subgroup, click on the group to highlight which group you would like to add a test case to, and click “new test” on the right hand side. Fill out the test form and you will be set!
To edit a test group’s name, highlight the test group you wish to change, and click “edit” on the left. To edit a test case, click on the particular test group or subgroup that the test case is associated with, and click on the test case you would like to edit on the right. It’s really that easy!
You can do some other nifty things on the “edit tests” screen, such as copying test templates to new test groups and importing test cases from Excel. To learn how to utilize these more advanced features, check out our blog and watch the tutorial videos!

View Test

Now that we covered the “edit tests” tab, let’s examine the “view tests” tab. After you click on the “view tests” tab, you will see all of your test groups on the left. Clicking on a test group will reveal all associated test cases along with their priority, severity, completion percentage, and expected execution date. Clicking on a particular test case will allow you to edit it. Easy, right?
Let’s move on the last section, “test reports”.

Test reports

To run reports, simply click on the “test report” tab. You can customize the test report by title, description, status, severity, assigned to, and much more. You can also customize the fields that appear in the report by clicking the ‘customize report’.

The customize report option enables you to select the columns that are displayed on the report, the report’s sorting order and the query filters.

Next to the “customize report” tab is the “View type” tab. There are several view types: Normal, which displays the report on the page; Excel, so you can export the report to excel; and Print View, to create a printer friendly report.

There you have it! Test Cases is so easy, even your grandma use do it!

How to Use Mass Update

Mass Update is a powerful feature that enables you to make changes to a long list of issues in a single update.
This saves you the need to open each issue and update it separately.

To use Mass Update you should follow these steps:

Go to Control Panel and then click on the Mass Update button.

On the first screen we are going to select the issues that you want to update.
For example: All the issues that are closed and have been submitted between January 1st 2005 and December 21st 2010.

On Step 2 you should select the fields you wish to update.
In this example, I would like to change the status of all the issues that I selected from Closed to Archive.
So I’m going to add the Status field.

Step 3 shows me the details of the changes I’m going to make in the account and asks for my confirmation.

I confirm and the system performs the changes to my account.

Multiple File Upload

The multiple file upload features enables you to upload and attach multiple files to an issue instead of one file at a time.
Click on the file attachment button.
Click on the Browse button and select all the files that you wish to upload. You can use the keyboard’s Control button so select multiple files.
The files that you selected are displayed on the screen.
You can remove files by clicking on the red X button and you can also type a short description to each file.

Clicking on Upload will upload and attach the files to the issue.
The progress bar shows you the upload progress.

So easy!

Elementool Mass Update

Janet Smith got married last week and just got back to the office from her honeymoon in Paris. She’s changed her last name to after her husband’s name and now she is called Janet Michaels.

She wants also to update her name in the company’s Elementool accounts.
Over the years she has submitted over 200 issues and now she needs to update each one of them.

She calculated that it takes about 30 seconds to open and update each issue. So she figured that it will take her almost two hours to update all her issues.
That’s a lot of work.

Instead of doing that, she decided to use the Mass Update feature.
Mass Update enables Janet to update her issues with her new name in a single update that takes less than a minute.
What a time saver!

Elementool is very favorable and has been an excellent tool

We use Elementool for large projects. Our teams are located all around the world. Elementool enables us to run distributed projects because it is web based.
Elementool solved problems that we had before when we used spreadsheets.
We’ve been using Elementool for over 4 years. You have to have a tool like Elementool. Elementool is a steal for the price that we pay for it.
People understand Elementool’s functionality very easily. It is explanatory enough to use it immediately.
The remarks section is golden. It keeps the remark history and see what people said in the past. It provides an excellent record for audit trail.
We use Elementool for testing and tracking bugs and enhancements.
Elementool is very favorable and has been an excellent tool. Its price is extremely light.

Improve project communication

Elementool Conference is super easy to set-up and use! All you need is a computer and an active internet connection. You’re just a few keystrokes away from a virtual meeting. Besides benefiting from increased communication, conference saves you money by reducing unnecessary costly on-site visits.

More details: Click Here…

Elementool Integrates Tools

One of the key features of Elementool is the integration between the different tools.
Using different vendors is a mess. Elementool makes everything seamless and easy to use. So simple to access everything when logging in to the account.