Page Comparison

Phocas is organized into three areas; the Phocas menu, the top bar and the content area, which initially displays your homepage.

Phocas menu

Use the Phocas menu on the left of your screen to move around your site. This menu is collapsable, allowing you to get a better view of whatever page you open. Hover over the menu to display and click the Collapse button. The menu options are still available, they just take up less space. You expand the menu in the same way.

The menu contains the following items:

• Home - Click this item to return to your homepage.

• Analytics, Financial Statements, Budgets & Forecasts, Rebates and CRM - Click a module to either open its homepage or view a list of its items - the outcome depends on the module. If a module is not enabled for your site: [not sure if we should say this]

  • Phocas users - information about that module displays instead.

  • Epicore users - the module does not appear in the menu.

• Recents - Click this item to view a list of theitems you have last opened in Phocas. The Recents menu allows you to see where you've been and get back there quickly, to pick up where you left off. Click an item to open it in the corresponding module.

• Favorites - Click this item to view a list of your favorites. A favorite is an analysis point, such as a chart or particular view of a grid, that has been saved for quick reference. You can filter the list by keyword and click a favorite to open it in the corresponding module.

• Dashboards - Click this item to view a list of your dashboards. A dashboard is a custom page with a collection of widgets that contain content such as charts, lists, nested tables, text, images, videos and web content. You can filter the list by keyword and click a dashboard to open it.

• Administration - Available only if you are an administrator, click this item to open the Administration module, where you can manage users and databases, configure your Phocas site, and more.

• Resource Centre - Click this item to launch the Resource Centre, where you can access Phocas QuickStart, which has in-product tours, video tutorials and links to this user documentation site. The content is contextual, so depending on whether you are on your homepage or in a database, the Resource Centre menu will show you relevant content. It’s a great way to get started with Phocas.

• Give Feedback - Click this item to launch a feedback form, where you can provide feedback and comments to help us improve Phocas.

Top bar

The bar along the top of your screen displays the following items:

• Build status (colored dot) of the database, where applicable. The color of the dot indicates the status: Green = Available, Yellow = Queued, Blue = Building and Red = Failed. You can hover over the dot to view the status information.

• Title of the page you are viewing, such as the favorite, dashboard or database you have opened.

• Actions menu - Click the chevron to display a context menu of related actions you can take. The options that are available depend on the page you are viewing and your user permissions. Common actions are setting your default view, saving favorites, and adding content to dashboards.

• User menu - Click the blue button with your initials on it to open access links to your account settings page and sign out.

Content area

The content in this area is dynamic, it displays whatever page you are on, which could be a favorite, dashboard, database, or a module such as Budgets and Forecasts or Rebates. Typically, this is where you view and analyze your data.

Keyboard shortcuts [to be tested - ask hamish if we should keep]

Here’s a list of handy keyboard shortcuts you can use in Phocas:

• Alt+/ - Activates Help

• Alt+C - Custom mode

• Alt+H - Goes to Home page

• Alt+i - Displays Information dialog

• Alt+R - Reset

• Alt+S - Advanced search

• Alt+Up, Alt+Down - Switches between dimensions

• Ctrl+C - Copy from the grid

• Ctrl+P - Dashboard print

• Ctrl+Space - Focuses on a selection

Mobile devices [to be tested - ask hamish if we should keep]

The basic navigation on a mobile device is essentially the same as on the desktop, with easy alternatives to keyboard and mouse selection. Phocas automatically detects the screen size on your device and optimizes your view. 

On a device you will typically see the grid without all the surrounding options, to maximize screen space. You can either stay in Mobile view or choose Desktop view for all or part of a browsing session. 

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The following touch gestures can be used to make selections and instead of right-clicking on rows to access further information and filtering. They are supported on iOS, Android and Windows touch.

• A single touch followed by a double touch select or deselects.

• To select multiple rows, tap to select the first row in the desired selection and then double-tap on the last row. Every row in between will be selected. 

• To deselect multiple rows, tap to deselect a currently selected row and then double-tap on the last row to deselect. Every row in between will be deselected.

• A long touch (hold) acts as a right click.

• To open the help menu, tap and hold on a cell for half a second.

FAQs - old versus new navigation

Yes, some things have changed or moved! We released the new look Phocas navigation on XX. We put a lot of thought into creating a more intuitive design and layout but here are answers to some questions you might have…

1. Where is the Actions (star) menu gone?
   The Actions menu is still there! It’s in the top bar, next to the page title, accessible via the new blue chevron icon.

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2. Where’s the databases menu? How do I open a database?
   You now open each database via its corresponding module menu. For financial databases, use the Financial Statements menu and for all other (non-financial) databases, open the Analytics menu. We retired the original Databases menu.

   

3. My Recents used to be in the Actions menu, where are they now?
   In the new Recents menu.

   

4. Where is the Add Dashboard button gone?
   You can now add a new dashboard via the Dashboards menu. We retired the Add Dashboard options that were previously in the top bar and Actions menu.

   

5. The Navigate to (global search) box is gone - how do I get around my Phocas site now?
   We retired this feature. Use the enhanced Phocas menu to enable you to quickly get where you need to go. Each menu item has a search box you can use to filter the list of items and find what you need.

   

6. The Help button is gone - how do I turn on the in-product help?
   We retired the contextual help feature, as the content was no longer being updated nor was it available for every module. This User Documentation site has all the latest information. You can also use the Resource Centre.

7. The Help button is gone but I want to access the links to the product Documentation, Academy, Support and Release Notes. What can I do?
   Open the Resource Centre from the bottom of the screen. It has links to all of those items and more!

8. How can I add comments now?
   We retired the comments feature, which was previously available in the top bar and Actions menu. This feature was underused. If you would like to add comments, notes or other information to a dashboard, you can use the text widget instead.

9. What happened to the New experience toggle for the homepage?
   We moved it into the User menu in the top bar, so you can continue to switch between the two homepage layout options. Coming soon is a new homepage layout, which will replace both versions that are currently available.

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