Our organization has been a Tessitura user for many years, and we have not done a good job of documenting our decisions regarding data entry, use of attributes and constituencies, etc. I am struggling with what format to use to compile various pieces of information that are currently spread out in a number of different places. Does anyone out there have a standards manual that has been useful? Have any of you successfully customized the Tessitura Help system to include site-specific documentation? I’d be interested in any feedback you have, positive or negative, regarding how to capture site-specific Tess customizations or policies.
Hi Jane,
I have been working to incorporate all of our documentation into Tessitura help. Once you do it one time, it's really easy to do. We have one training screencast video I created in Tessitura help on how to do merges. We have other documentation there as well including step step help documentation and even some scripts for our phone room. I'll be creating more screen casts for training as well.
To make it easy for everyone to find our help documents specifically, I use a naming convention that puts 5th at the front of the name of the document. That way, any user can just type 5th in the filter and all our documents show. The caveat to this is you need to have the documents live in a server environment that won't change to ensure the help documents stay active (I suggest in your Tessitura drive). Also, you need to make sure that all help documents are updated based on any changes with new versions. This could become time consuming if you have a lot of custom documentation on Tessitura use for your organization.
I know it's nothing fancy or too innovative, but I've always hated having documentation all over the place and having to remember which folder in which folder in which drive training documents are located. Putting those documents in help is like one stop shopping. You can also put website links in Tessitura help too. It's pretty much limitless what you can put in help.
Chris Cuhel
Database Coordinator, The 5th Avenue Theatre