Four years ago, we published a small series of blog posts discussing tips and tricks for navigating DocsOnWeb, our old help documentation website. Now that the Help Center has permanently replaced DocsOnWeb and those posts have been rendered obsolete, we thought it would be a good idea to revisit and update them where necessary. For starters, we’d like to re-introduce one of the most useful tools in your arsenal for quickly finding information about specific fields: The Mnemonic Dictionary.
There are clients and employees who squeal with delight whenever I mention this resource. I’m not even joking.
For those just joining us, mnemonics are alphanumeric codes (typically consisting of 6 characters) used to designate data entry fields in our system. The Mnemonic Dictionary is…exactly what it sounds like: A huge list of mnemonics organized by Core Services record category. Each page of the Dictionary contains a table that displays mnemonics within the given record. Additional information is provided when available, including links to documentation for each mnemonic’s corresponding field. In the example below, you can see the Mnemonic Dictionary page for the Loan Master LN (FPLN/CFLN) record:
While a master list of mnemonics is pretty handy by itself, the real usefulness of the Mnemonic Dictionary comes from its searchability. Using the dictionary to look up mnemonics is a fast, efficient, and easy way to find information about specific fields.
Let’s illustrate this process with an example. Say you want to use the Help Center to learn more about the First Due field on the Loan Account Detail screen in CIM GOLD (GOLDPoint’s desktop-based loan management software). You hover your cursor over the field to see its mnemonic (LN1DUE), as shown below:
In real life, you’d probably just press F1 to go directly to Help Center documentation for this screen, but we’re learning about the Dictionary today. So, you know. Humor me.
You could try searching for this mnemonic using the Help Center’s unfiltered search bar, but the system would return broad results:
Nobody has time for that.
Search using the Mnemonic Dictionary filter, however, and only one result is returned: The Loan Master LN (FPLN/CFLN) page:
Mnemonic Dictionary filter: One mnemonic, one search result. Perfection.
See how easy that was? You could then click on the single search result to be taken to LN1DUE in the Loan Master table (highlighted for convenience). Here, you would find a link to help documentation for the First Due field, as well as a list of CIM GOLD screens where the field is located:
Many GOLDPoint clients already know about the Mnemonic Dictionary and love it. Many other clients need the Dictionary in their lives but don’t know about it. Tell your employees and coworkers about the Dictionary so it can make everyone’s lives easier!
The Dictionary is located under the main Resources tab in the Help Center. The Mnemonic Dictionary filter can be applied to the search bar using the search filter button (see below):