In today’s fast-paced business environment, providing seamless user assistance is essential to ensure your team can quickly learn and use your applications effectively. Model-Driven Apps in Microsoft Power Apps offer powerful tools to manage and automate business processes, but sometimes users need additional guidance to navigate the features. This is where creating Custom Help Pages and Panels comes into play. In this blog, we’ll explore the steps to build tailored help solutions for your users, making it easier for them to use the app efficiently.
Why Customize Help Pages?
While standard help documentation covers general app functions, your business processes are unique. Customizing help pages offers several advantages:
- Tailored Assistance: Provide specific instructions or walkthroughs relevant to your app’s functionality and workflows.
- Reduce Support Requests: Offer self-service help to users, minimizing the need for external support or training.
- Enhanced User Experience: Embed help directly into the app, providing users with the context they need when they need it.
- Flexible Content Delivery: You can include videos, screenshots, step-by-step guides, and FAQs to ensure users fully understand each feature.
How to Enable Custom Help in Model-Driven Apps?
Before adding custom help content, you’ll need to enable the Custom Help feature within your Model-Driven App. Follow these steps:
- Open Power Apps and navigate to the app you want to modify.
- Go to Settings > Advanced Settings.
- In the Administration section, select System Settings.
- Scroll down to the Set Custom Help section and toggle the option to Enable Custom Help and Guided Task.
- Click Ok to Save
This setup ensures your app is ready to display custom help content wherever required.
Customizing Help Pages
Once the feature is enabled, follow these steps to begin customizing the help section:
- Return to the app and perform a hard refresh (Ctrl + F5).
- Click the three dots next to the question mark icon in the app and select “Edit.”
- Use the WYSIWYG editor to create custom sections, adding text, images, and videos as needed.
- You can also insert tooltips and coach marks to provide in-context guidance on specific buttons or fields.
Incorporating Tooltips (Balloons) and Coach Marks
Tooltips and coach marks are valuable features for guiding users through your app:
- Tooltips (Balloons): Attach tooltips to buttons or other UI elements to provide brief descriptions of their functions. For example: “Click here to generate a report.”
- Coach Marks: Use coach marks to draw attention to specific screen elements, such as drop-down menus or fields, offering visual cues to help users navigate and interact with the app.
Saving and Deploying Help Pages
After you’ve created your help content:
- Click Save to store the help page.
- The help pages are automatically linked to the corresponding screen or section, offering contextual guidance to users.
- You can also transfer these custom help pages between different environments (Dev, QA, Prod) as part of a solution.
Conclusion
Custom help pages and panels within Model-Driven Apps are a game-changer for enhancing the user experience. Whether you’re guiding users through complex workflows, troubleshooting issues, or offering on-the-go support, tailored help content can significantly reduce confusion and improve overall productivity. By following the steps outlined in this blog, you can create and deploy custom help solutions that are relevant, accessible, and easy to maintain.
Incorporating custom help into your Model-Driven Apps ensures your users have the information they need at their fingertips, streamlining their experience and reducing support demands.