General Guidelines

When logging a help desk ticket, please make sure you provide as much information as possible, specifically we have found the following information to be valuable:

  • Environment Information - please describe the operating system, web browser, database server, including the version numbers and whether 32-bit, 64-bit. For on-premise installations of our web-based tools, both the server and client environments should be provided.
  • Error Messages - please provide as many error messages as you can find that relate to the error. Sometimes multiple errors are logged and the more useful one will not be the first one you see. So please look for all the related errors and include them with the ticket. If you see a short error message on the application screen, getting the more detailed logged message will be important and will save time if you can provide it with the original ticket.
  • Screenshots - please send us screenshots of the application if it's not performing as you expect. Please include several screenshots if that will illustrate more clearly the behavior, especially if no error message is shown. Please DO NOT CROP the images, we often are looking for version information, the name of the user role or other clues to what is happening. Cropping the image will more likely result in us asking for you to resend it again un-cropped!
  • Videos - videos are fine to send (please compress or zip if they are large), however please send accompanying information in written form. Our support personnel are not mind readers and watching a video without context usually results in us asking for more information, which again takes more time.
  • Unusual Things - this can be one of the most frustrating areas in support, where a customer will have performed an unusual activity (e.g. changing the server name, or using a special version of a web browser) and not reveal this to us. This will often waste several days of your time as we try and piece together what happened. Even someone did something not recommended, we'd rather you tell us upfront!
  • Steps to reproduce - specific sequence of steps to reproduce the issue, if any certain sequence is required to get the particular result.

Helpful Tools

One helpful tool you can use that comes with all versions of Windows since Windows 7 is the Microsoft Windows Steps Recorder.

Steps Recorder (called Problems Steps Recorder in Windows 7), is a program that helps you troubleshoot a problem on your device by recording the exact steps you took when the problem occurred. You can then send this record to a support professional to help them diagnose the problem.

To record and save steps on your computer

  1. To open Steps Recorder, select the Start  button, and then select Windows Accessories > Steps Recorder (in Windows 10), or Accessories > Problem Steps Recorder (in Windows 7 or Windows 8.1).
  2. Select Start Record.
  3. Go through the steps to reproduce the problem you’re trying to diagnose. You can pause and resume the recording at any time.
  4. (Optional) As you record, select Add Comment, use your mouse to select the part of the screen that you want to comment on, type your comment, and then select OK.
  5. When you’re done, select Stop Record.
  6. Review the record of the steps you followed to make sure it shows what you want it to show. Select Save, name the .zip file, choose where to save it, and then select Save. Now you can attach and send this .zip file to the person helping you troubleshoot the problem on your PC. It can be viewed in any web browser.

You also can use a Windows Snipping Tool to highlight the areas that you’re referring to while explaining the case:
- Capture a screenshot: Press Windows Key + Shift + S at any time.
- Edit a screenshot: Select screenshot from pop-up that appears in the bottom right of the screen.
- When you’re ready to save a screenshot, press the Save as icon at the top of the Snipping Tool window.

Sometimes, when troubleshooting complex issues related to performance or UI issues we need more information to narrow down the problem.
In that case we might need to get a capture from the browser that is called HAR file.
To know how to generate it refer the KB254 - How to generate a HAR file in Chrome or Firefox article.