Welcome to the NCAWARE on-line Help manual, your comprehensive source for the following NCAWARE information:
Step-by-step instructions for every NCAWARE process and function
Summaries of important rules related to each process and function
Supplemental listings of other topical rules
Field descriptions
A glossary of NCAWARE related terms
Descriptions of NCAWARE interfaces
NCAWARE is a complex application used by a broad group of legal professionals. The NCAWARE training you received formed your initial base of knowledge for this application; on-line Help is your ongoing resource. With this in mind, NCAWARE on-line Help is designed to be both an easily understandable how-to and a detailed reference.
To become an efficient NCAWARE user, it is important to learn how to utilize the on-line Help manual itself. The following are the fundamentals you will continuously encounter while using on-line Help.
How Do I?
The primary goal of on-line Help is to provide step-by-step instructions for performing actions in NCAWARE. These actions can be anything from adding employer data to a Person record to issuing a Warrant for Arrest. Most actions have a dedicated Help page called a topic. Each topic contains related step-by-step instructions, basic rules, field descriptions, glossary definitions, and linked topics. The topics (where possible) are named to answer this simple question: How Do I?
An Example Topic
Imagine yourself using NCAWARE and asking the following question: How do I...view a Business?
After accessing the View a Business topic in one of several ways (detailed later), the following on-line Help screen displays:
This is the format of most on-line Help topics. At the top is a brief description of the topic. Below that is a box entitled Before you start, where the most important rules concerning the topic are listed. Typically, these are rules of the "show-stopper" variety, where a lack of the listed data, rights, etc. will disallow the action. Also, consequences of the action that may not be obvious and alternative actions will sometimes be listed.
After the Before you start section, the steps to perform the action are displayed. Each step can contain any number of the following:
Links - Boxed (for illustration purposes) and highlighted blue in the above example is a link. When clicked, a link will display the highlighted topic or subject related to the current topic. Click here for a quick example.
Popups - Boxed (for illustration purposes) and highlighted red in the above example is a popup. When clicked, a popup will display a definition of the highlighted text as a small text bubble (example) or, if the subject is lengthy, a small window (example). Most popup definitions are also listed in the Glossary.
Field descriptions - Also boxed and highlighted red, but bolded, is a field description. These contain a definition, rules, and requirements related to the highlighted NCAWARE field and behave like normal popups. For example: Legal Business Name.
Buttons, Field, and Page Names - Also consistently formatted are button, field, and page names. Buttons and fields (without popup definitions) named in a topic will be bolded. A button that leads directly to the next step is called an action, and will appear like this. Any NCAWARE screen names appearing in a topic will display LIKE THIS. To illustrate this, in the above example, examples of each are boxed green.
The section following the final step (prefaced by * * * * * * * ) contains the final results of the completed action. Also, this section may list further options and a link to all the associated business rules for the topic.
Finally, in most topics, a button entitled Related Topics displays below the final results. By clicking this button, closely associated topics are listed and can be easily accessed by clicking a topic name.
Here is an example: 
Accessing Topics
One of several ways to access a topic has already been introduced: by a link. Here are some other typical ways to access topics.
Context-Sensitive Help
This is the most used method to access on-line Help topics. While on any NCAWARE screen, the Help link can be clicked to reveal the topic directly related to that screen. For example, let's say you're on the business details screen and have a question on a field. You would simply click the Help link appearing in the Navigation Bar (boxed in red in the example):
The View a Business topic would display as follows. If additional information is needed, consider the other available Help sources Table of Contents, Glossary or Index, which are detailed below.
Table of Contents
The on-line Help Table of Contents (TOC) is where all NCAWARE Help topics can be viewed and accessed. The TOC is a folder/file organization familiar to most computer users. Broad subject areas are made into folders that contain related individual files (topics). Here's a simplified example.
Let's say the NCAWARE TOC contains only two subject areas and two introductory topics. After the on-line Help is accessed, this is what would display:
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Note: Some browsers will display Help topics with a Show link. Click this link to display the Table of Contents:
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On the left, boxed in red, is the Table of Contents (notice the Contents button is selected). In the example, the Welcome topic is displayed by default. Let's say you're looking for the past example topic, View a Business. You know that it's contained in the Master Name section, so you click that folder:
Notice the Master Name folder now reveals all the related Master Name subjects. Now you click the Master Business folder and then the revealed View a Business topic:
The View a Business topic displays.
Help Index
An index of Help topics, terms, and NCAWARE actions can be accessed by clicking the Index button from the displayed Help manual. Once displayed, the Index can be searched to find a specific subject. Once the subject is found, it can be clicked to display the related topic. As an example, let's say you're wondering How do I...view a Business?
From the displayed Help manual, the Index button is clicked:
The Index displays. The word "business" is entered into the keyword field (boxed red). As it is being entered, the Index list will bring terms containing that word into view:
Once the "Business" entry is found, clicking on it will reveal all related topics in a small window. View a Business is then clicked from this window:
The selected View a Business topic is then displayed:
Search Note: In many cases, a topic may be related to multiple Index terms. For instance, the word "view" will also display View a Business as topic option.
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