DD Suite System Overview

Contents

Requirements

Browsers

DD Suite 6 requires JavaScript to be enabled (usually the default) in your browser.

DD Suite uses pop-up dialog boxes for some notifications, errors and confirmation messages. Browser pop-up blockers could affect your ability to use DD Suite.

All users should have one of the following browsers: Internet Explorer v. 11.0+, Mozilla Firefox 3.0+, Google Chrome 4.0+, Safari 3.0+, or another browser that is comparable to the standards and performance of the ones just listed. DD Suite may work in other browsers, but no guarantees are made, and we may not be able to provide support to users with browsers other than those listed above.

*Note: DD Suite does not support multiple windows open on the same browser, effectively creating a shared session. For example: a user should not have two DD Suite sessions open in different tabs of Internet Explorer or even two separate Internet Explorer windows. If really necessary, a second session could be opened with a different browser like Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, or Safari.

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User Accounts

All users must have the proper credentials to access DD Suite. Each user must create an individual account on DD Suite. Each DD Suite Organization has at least one administrator account. That administrator is responsible for allowing others to join their DD Suite organization. If you do not have a user account, or you do not know what your user account is, please contact your DD Suite Organization Administrator.

*Note: Although DD Suite allows multiple users to be on the system at the same time, you should be careful not to have staff working on the same sections of DD Suite at the same time. When saving data, DD Suite will store the version of the data that exists at that moment in time. If a second person is also working on the same section, there is a risk that their work will be lost.

Page Header

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DD Suite Title

Selecting DD Suite "title" in the banner, will direct you back to the home page. You will not be logged out from your session and may navigate back to your Dashboard at any point.

Dashboard Link

Selecting the "Dashboard" link will direct you back to your user dashboard, which is the basic overview page for your account.

My Account Link

Selecting the "My Account" link will direct you to the User Account page, where you can check your user status, edit your profile, change your password, and join or create an organization.

Login/Logout Link

Select the "Login" link and provide your account credentials in order to login to the system. Selecting the "Logout" link will end your session and direct you back to the home page.

*Note: Make sure you have saved all your data before logging out. For your protection, please log out and close your browser whenever you spend time away from your computer and/or have finished using your DD Suite account.

Help Link

Selecting the "Help" link will direct you to the Help Modules page, where you can find step-by-step instructions on how to use DD Suite and submit a Technical Assistance request form.

Account Organization Name

After you have joined or created an Organization, it will appear on the header when you are logged in to that user account.

*Note: This feature may be especially helpful for user accounts that belong to several Organizations.

Entering Data

Red Asterisk

Any field with a red asterisk * in the label designates required information and must be completed before saving or submitting any form.

Entering Dates

Dates must be entered in a Year-Month-Day (2020-09-30) format. You may use dashes (-) but not slashes (/) to separate the numbers. You may also choose the appropriate date in the pop-up calendar by toggling to the appropriate year and month and choosing the day.

Entering Numbers

When entering numbers, you may use commas to separate orders of magnitude, and you must use a decimal point to separate fractional values.

Using the Tab Key/Moving Between Fields

All modern browsers use the following convention: The Tab key will move the cursor from field to field in a form. Generally, the Enter/Return key will close (submit) a form. In DD Suite, you may use the Enter/Return key to continue typing only within a multi-line text field. Do not use the Enter/Return key when in a single line text field.

Large Text Fields

Large text fields have a little dotted corner which can be clicked on and "pulled" to expand the size of the field on the screen.

Browser Navigation

When using DD Suite, you should generally use the links provided to navigate from section to section. Using the browser's back and forward buttons around a data entry form will cause you to lose data. The "breadcrumbs", or links at the top of each page, display all related pages that are available to be accessed for the user. (See the green highlight around the links in the figure below.)

Character Limits

Character Limits are based on the number of characters entered into the browser’s text field. The definition of 'character' includes all elements of the narrative passage, including, but not limited to: spaces, punctuation marks, internal representations of carriage returns or new lines, non-printing characters, and other special characters. The number of available characters in the text field, as well as the limit, is shown in the yellow box at the top right of that text field.

Saving Your Work

DD Suite will not automatically save your entries! After editing the information on a screen, you must click the "Save" button to submit your edits to the database. If you leave the page you are working on without saving, your edits will be discarded.

*Note: Because of the dynamic nature of DD Suite, you will need to "Save" changed form data before printing a page to get all your latest updates. Otherwise, some forms fields may not show unsaved edits on the printed copy.

Leave Page: New Feature to receive a dialog box telling you that you haven’t saved your recent changes. A dialog box that says you have made changes but have not saved them. If you hit cancel, it will bring you back to the page to save changes. If you try again to leave the page you are working on and haven’t saved, you would get the next dialog box to leave unchecked for creating additional dialog boxes, or check to not receive notifications during that page session. (05-20-2022)

Notification Messages

After attempting to save a form, a color-coded message will appear atop of the page as a dialog box with the caption containing, 'success', 'warning' or 'error'. Please read the text in this message for additional information and instructions on how to proceed.

A success message, also displayed in green, indicates that an action was successful.

A warning message, displayed in orange or yellow, indicates that an action was unsuccessful and any issue(s) will need to be corrected before proceeding. On data entry forms, if an error has occurred on a field, the field will be highlighted in red and a short description of the problem will be provided.

An error message, displayed in red, indicates that an action was unsuccessful and the issue needs to be corrected before proceeding. If an error was a result of a submitted form, the appropriate field where the error occurred will be highlighted in red and a short description of the problem will be provided.

Canceling Your Changes

If you have made edits to a form that you choose to discard, you can click the link labeled Cancel at the bottom of the screen or merely navigate to another page.

*Note: Canceling will remove all changes made since the last time you saved and re-direct you to an "Overview" page.

Search Filters

When you are unsure of the entire/exact text of a search string, you can enter what you know, and surround the search with %s as masking characters. For instance, "%request%" will return all matches containing "request". "19.gr% will return all matches starting with "19.gr" such as "19.GR.1.3.2.a" and "19.GR.1.4.1.A". Most searches are case insensitive.

An underscore will mask one character position.

"%C_F%" will return all matches with a C followed by any other character followed by F.

Most filter values will be saved when you navigate away from a page.

The Reset Filters button will return all filter settings to their default values - in both the current view and the saved filters. The retrieved list will refresh using the default filter values.

Using Microsoft Word

Character and Word Counts

When using Microsoft Word or similar word processing applications to compose your narrative passages, the Word count tool will record a different value than the character counter in DD Suite. DD Suite uses a different method of storing text than Microsoft Word, which may result in more characters being calculated. We cannot alter the manner in which characters are counted in DD Suite, and you must use DD Suite's calculation as final.

Special Characters

If you are composing your narrative in Microsoft Word or other word processing applications, please be certain that you eliminate as much formatting as possible before copying and pasting your narrative into DD Suite. DD Suite does not store formatting code or special characters like bullets, icons, right and left quotation marks, and the like. Wherever possible, DD Suite will convert the unsupported text into the closest approximation of the character as it can. However, if DD Suite is unable to determine a close match, it will be entered as a nonprinting character or saved as a question mark. In order to avoid any problems, it is best to copy text onto Notepad and then paste it onto DD Suite.

Copying and Pasting / Character Limits

When copying and pasting text from Microsoft Word, or other word processing applications, into DD Suite, you may initially be able to insert more characters than DD Suite field limit allows. However, if the characters calculated by DD Suite exceed the limit of the field, your narrative will be truncated at the character limit without notification. Check all copied/pasted text before saving to be sure the narrative has not been truncated.

Time Stamps

DD Suite uses Eastern Time for all date/time stamps in the system.