Daylight Research - Community Forums

Daylight Research Community Forums

Help on Community Forums

Following are guilelines for effective use of the Daylight Research community forums:

1. Browse or search for an existing thread that deals with your topic before creating a new thread: Your issue may already have been addressed in a previous discussion thread and if you can find that thread, you will have found your answer without having gone to the trouble of composing your thread and waiting for a reply. However, do not let this guideline prevent you from creating a new thread. If you cannot find a relevant forum discussion thread or the thread you do find does not provide all of the information that you need, you should either post a reply or create a new thread. For help on how to search the community forums, click the green Help on Getting Help link in this topic group.

2. Give your post a descriptive title: Don't title your post Help Needed or Please Help. Instead, make the title a short summary of your problem. This will help others to identify your post as something that falls within their sphere of knowledge and will more likley draw a reply. It also makes it much easier for those who are browsing for a thread that addresses a particular issue.

3. Give as much detail about your problem as possible: The more information you provide, the more likely it will be that whoever replies will be able to provide the solution without delaying the resolution of your issue by having to ask for more information.

4. Observe the forum rules:

a. No threatening, profane or otherwise uncivil messages.
b. No external links, advertisements, self-promotion or spam.
c. No illegal content. This includes but is not limited to content on how to defeat software licensing restrictions.
d. No cross-posting. Do not post the same message in more than one forum.

Forum moderators will use their discretion in enforcing these rules by editing or deleting posts that violate them as well as banning posters who repeatedly ignore forum rules.

Help on Getting Help

Following are the help resources that are available to you along with tips on how to get the most out of them:

Daylight Explorer™ Help System: This is the help system that ships with your product. Access the help system by clicking the Help menu in the Daylight Explorer™ toolbar.

1. How To Topics: Expand the How To node in the Contents pane of the Help window and determine if there is a How To topic that addresses your issue. Keep in mind that many tasks in Daylight Explorer™ are done the same way. Therefore, if you see a topic that seems to address an issue similar to yours, it might be worth investigating.

2. Menu and Window Topics: All Daylight Explorer™ menus and windows have their own help topic. You can access these topics in the Help window by expanding the Reference node in the Contents pane. You can also access them directly by right-clicking a node in the Explorer indow and holding your mouse pointer over the Dynamic Help menu. These topics tell you what each menu does and provide a graphic of each window with numbered captions telling you how everything works.

3. Tutorials: There is an exhaustive series of tutorials on each of these topics: baskets, custom database queries, custom formatting, filtering, report creation and managing your ministries.

Daylight Research Website: This is the place to go if you could not find what you were looking for in the Daylight Explorer™ Help System or the help topic that you did find did not give you enough information.

1. Knowledge Base: The knowledge base will contain articles that clarify and/or update existing help topics and generally add to the body of knowledge about Daylight Explorer™.

a. Browsing the Knowledge Base: Click the Support menu in the Daylight Research website and then click the Knowledge Base Articles heading on the Support Options page. You are taken to the Article Categories page. Click the article category which seems the most promising and you will be taken to a list of articles that fall under that category.

b. Browsing the Most Popular Knowledge Base Articles Page: The Most Popular Knowledge Base Articles page does not break articles down into categories but lists them in the order of popularity.

c. Searching the Knowledge Base: Locate the Search field at the top of this website. Notice that, in the Search Type field, there is a Knowledge Base Text and a Knowledge Base ID option. If you have been referred to a specific knowledge base article by it's ID number, choose Knowledge Base ID and then enter just the number (without the KB prefix) in the Search field. If you are looking for a range of articles on a specific topic then select Knowledge Base Text and enter a word that you think will most likely yield the article that you are looking for.

2. Community Forums: The community forums are where you should go if you couldn't find help elsewhere and you need it quickly. Daylight Research staff will monitor forum threads continually each working day and try to reply to each post that asks for help. If you could not find help using the previous steps, it is quite likely that you will find it here on the same day.

a. Browsing Threads: Click the Support menu in the Daylight Research website and then click the Community Forums heading on the Support Options page. You are taken to the Forums page. In the Forums page click the forum that seems to offer the kind of information that you are looking for. You will be taken to the page that lists all of the discussion threads in that forum where you can scroll for a thread that seems to address your issue. If you find such a thread but have further questions, you can join in the discussion by clicking the Reply button.

b. Searching for Threads: Locate the Search field at the top of this website and, in the Search Type field, select Community Forums. Next, enter a key word that is likely to be found in the type of discussion that you are looking for and then click Search. Once you find your discussion thread, you can just gather the information that you need or reply, seeking further clarification. If you are viewing the BrowseThreads page which lists discussion threads in a particular forum, you will see a Search Within This Forum search box in the right-hand column of this website. You can use this search box to limit your search results to discussion threads only from within the forum that you are currently viewing.

c. Posting New Threads: If you can't find anything promising and you want to resolve your issue in the community forum section of this website, you should start a new thread. Go to the Forums page and click the most promising forum and then, in the page that you are taken to, click the New Thread button. You will then be taken to a page where you can explain your issue. It is a good idea to make the title of your post descriptive of your problem rather then giving a general title such as Help Needed. Months later, another user may have the same problem that you are having and providing a title that describes the problem will help him or her more quickly locate your thread and thus benefit from your work. Also, give as much detail as possible. This gives those who reply to your thread a better chance at solving your problem on the first try rather than having to ask for more information and thus delaying the resolution of your issue.

3. E-mail: If you still cannot find the help you need, you should send an e-mail message. To do this, go to the Contact Product Support page (or click the Contact Us button at the top of the left-hand column of this website and then click Product Support). Give us as much information and detail as possible. Please double-check your return e-mail address. If there is a mistake in it, we will have no way to get back to you. We will try to respond to e-mail support incidents within one working day.

Help on Rss Feeds

Our free rss feeds enable you to stay current on new Daylight Research knowledge base articles, forum activities and blog posts. You can receive our feeds through your windows desktop or laptop computer, your web browser, pocket PC, smart phone or any other digital device that provides internet access. Here are the guidelines for using Daylight Research rss feeds:

1. Obtain an rss reader. Some of the newer web browsers include a built-in rss reader. You can also get one free from the internet by searching on the key words: rss readers. One useful feature to look for is the ability to provide a popup notice on your computer desktop whenever a new feed becomes available. This feature will be useful if, for example, you have posted a message on a Daylight Research community forum and you want to be notified without delay when a reply is posted.

2. Subscribe to your rss feed(s). Following are the directions for subscribing to the four types of Daylight Research feeds:

a. Knowledge Base feeds: Log in and navigate to the Article Categories page. Find the knowledge base category that you are interested in and click it's rss icon. --

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After you click the rss icon, your browser will display a summary of the articles in the category you have chosen. At this point, the Daylight Research website will have done it's job and it will be up to your web browser and/or your rss reader to complete the subscription process and each deals with this process in it's own way. If, for example, you are browsing with Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 you will be taken to a page with a Subscribe to this feed button. If you choose to use IE 7's built-in rss reader as your default rss reader, then your task is as simple as clicking that button. On the other hand, if you are using a different rss reader, then you must follow the directions in your rss reader documentation on the subect of how to subscribe to a feed. For example, if you are using the freely available SharpReader, you would copy the url in the address bar of your web browser into the Open Rss Feed dialog and then check the Subscribe to feed check box.

After you have subscribed to your knowledge base category feed, you will be notified, through your internet connection, every time a new knowledge base article in that category is published.

To unsubscribe to feeds and otherwise manage them, study your rss reader documentation.

b. Community Forum feeds: Log in and navigate to the Forums page. Find the community forum that you are interested in and click it's rss icon. Follow the instructions in your rss reader documentation as to how to subscribe to this feed. (See italicized comments under Knowledge Base feeds above.) After you have subscribed to your community forum feed, you will receive notification every time a new discussion thread or reply is posted.

c. Community Forum Discussion Thread feeds: When you subscribe to a discussion thread feed, you will be notified only when a new reply is made to a particular discussion thread. To subscribe to this type of feed, log in and navigate to the Forums page and then select the particular forum that you are interested in. (If you are subscribing to a thread that you have started, select the forum where you posted your thread.) You will be taken to the Browse Threads page. In the Browse Threads page, locate your discusssion thread and click the rss button. Follow the instructions in your rss reader documentation as to how to subscribe to this feed. (See italicized comments under Knowledge Base feeds above.) After you have subscribed to your discussion thread feed, you will receive notification every time a reply is made to the thread that you have subscribed to.

d. Blog post feeds: Since blog posts are not divided up into categories, simply click the rss button on the Tools bar of any blog post and follow the usual procedure as described above (in the italicized comments under Knowledge Base feeds) to receive notification when a new blog post is made.

Please click the forum that describes the type of discussion that you are looking for. Note that you must be logged in to create or reply to a thread. If you have not yet registered and would like to log into this site, go to the New Member Registration page.

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Forum Title: How To Forum Description: Ask questions and discuss how to do things in Daylight Explorer. Rss Feed:

Forum Title: Troubleshooting Forum Description: If you are having trouble installing Daylight Explorer or you suspect something might not be working as it should, post your issue here. Rss Feed:

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