Installing help files locally

By default, help files are not installed together with Sage CRM. When a user clicks the Help button, Sage CRM displays help files hosted on dedicated web servers. To access these help files, client computers must have access to the Internet. You can change this default behavior at any time by installing help files locally on your Sage CRM server.

For example, you need to do so if:

• Client computers in your environment have limited or no access to the Internet.
• You want to customize the Sage CRM help files.

If your environment includes multiple Sage CRM servers, you need to install help files only on one of them. Other Sage CRM servers will automatically get access to the help files once they are installed.

After installing help files locally, you can always switch back to using help hosted on web servers.

To install help files:

1. Locate the Sage CRM 2023 R2 Help Setup file in the root of the Sage CRM Setup package.

   The Help Setup file name has the following format:

   SageCRM_<VersionNumber>_HelpSetup.exe

   where <VersionNumber> is the Sage CRM version the setup is for.

2. Copy the Help Setup file to the Sage CRM server on which you want to install help.
3. Run the file and complete the Setup Wizard. You will be prompted to enter administrative credentials for the Sage CRM database.

Sage CRM help files are installed to the following locations:

Help	Location on a Sage CRM server
User Help	<Sage CRM installation folder>\WWWRoot\Help\ EN\Main Menu
System Administrator Help	<Sage CRM installation folder>\WWWRoot\Help\ EN\Administration

Where <Sage CRM installation folder> is the folder you specified when installing Sage CRM. By default, this is %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Sage\CRM\CRM.

Local help files include context-sensitive help, which users can access by clicking the Help button in the Sage CRM UI. The language in which context-sensitive help is displayed depends on the user’s language preference. For more information, see Setting up a new user. If the help file in the user’s chosen language has not been installed, help is displayed in system default language.

After installing help files, you can edit the files or replace them completely.

Sage CRM help is created using Madcap Flare. If you have the expertise and licenses to create a customized help project which mirrors the Sage CRM help file structure, you can replace parts or all of the standard Sage CRM help with your customized project. Alternatively, you can create help using the help authoring tool of your choice and replace part or all of the standard Sage CRM help.

If you use a customized project, ensure the following:

• The default initial file for the User Help and System Administrator Help is named Default.htm and located in the corresponding folder (Main Menu or Administration) specified in the table above. Sage CRM looks for that file if no context-sensitive link has been set.
• The help content files are HTM files located in the corresponding folder (Main Menu or Administration). Only files meeting these criteria can be selected from the Inline Translation tool used to set up the context-sensitive links. For more information, see Customizing help links.