Green Star Central – Help

Key Principles

File Structure

“File Structure” refers to where you store your submission files such as credit PDFs reports etc. It is independent to “Database Structure”.

  • Every project has the following structure which is created automatically:
    • Project Root\
      • R1 Working: Multiple PDF documents which will be combined. Put your ‘in progress’ files here.
      • R1 Ready: One-PDF-per-credit which is produced from “R1 Working”. Ready for submission. Do not edit these: use R1 Working and recreate.
      • Reports: Dated set of reports serving as a snapshot.

There is a R2 set of these directories too.

File Naming

  • All files should be in PDF format
  • All file names has a defined format which ensures each document can be uniquely identified.
Credit Code Document Code Title Extension
Man-1 A GSAP Certificate pdf
 

Use a dash. Always a category and number.

Anything without spaces is fine. Usually a single letter. Used to idenitfy the document within the credit. Anything is fine.
  • Valid examples:
    • Man-6 DD A great document.pdf
    • IEQ-10 A This is the end.pdf
  • Invalid examples:
    • Fruit-1 DD There is not fruit category.pdf
    • Man-1 A This is not a PDF.doc
    • Man-1 My_document_has_no_doc_code.pdf

Database Structure

“Database structure” refers to your project data such as what points you are targeting. It is the project’s “meta” data and is independent of the project’s files (such as PDFs).

Some points to note:

  • By default your projects (but not their files!) are stored in “GSC-Var.accdb” (typically in C:\Program Files (x86)\Green Star Central\).
  • You can share your projects with colleagues by putting this data on a network drive (eg. x:\esd\gsc\). This process is automated for you – just select Setup\File Locations.

Top Tips

  1. Press the Escape key to abort what you’re doing, or if you are “stuck.”
  2. Select Contextual Help from the ribbon and read the help!
  3. Call Brett.

Help

Open / New Project

Select your existing project or New Project.

  • If your project is unlicenced it still is exists but is unviewable. Press Licencing to request a licence.

Green Star Central – Main Tab

This form is divided into three areas:

  1. Credits – Select the credit from the Man-1 dropbox box.
  2. Sections – If only one section no section titles are shown. For example VOCs usually have multiple sections.
  3. Docs – The datasheet displays the documents and you can edit them below.
  • Points are entered on a per-section basis (not per credit). The Base case is show. Use All Points to edit different cases’ points.
  • The Outstanding and Round filters (in the ribbon) determine which documents are displayed. The tab selection (Round 1 Round 2) does not affect the display.
  • The Coversheets will have the basic information (credit name, etc) plu
    • Round 1 > Compliance Desciption : so tell the assessor how the credit was specifically achieved
    • List of Documents : any document with Submit checked (the default) is added to the list. Page numbers etc are automatically calculated.

Disciplines and Emailing

This form lets you send emails and set names and company for each discipline. You can select which reports to send to whom email multiple people

  • Each document can be assigned to one discipline (eg. Mech Engineer) using the main tab.
  • You can rename anything and add/delete disciplines (eg. rename Mech Engineer to Mech Man)
  • The email name and company values are used in pre-formatted emails and reports.
  • You can set multiple emails and names separating with semi-colons (;). For example:
  • Set name to : Brett GSC
  • Reports checkboxes
    • One Discipline is really useful: it sends that discipline a list of only their document
    • Remember you can hover over the label name (eg Dashboard) to get a description
    • Select which reports to send each discipline.
  • Emailing:
    • For individual emails click that discipline’s button
    • If View Before Send is selected you’ll see Outlook open. You must then check/edit the email and click send yourself.
    • If View Before Send is not selected you can see emails in Outlook by checking your Sent folder
    • Send All does just that. Only disciplines with one or more reports checked are emailed

Points Summary

Here you set the points for each credit.

  • Press Esc to exit a credit.
  • You actually set each section’s points.
  • You can set up to three options. Use Setup Project to change the option names.
  • The first option is used in reports etc.

Revised Credits

Use this if you need to use a ‘revised’ credit or change to an alternative credit.

  • For advanced users only.
  • On the LHS remove the existing credit from the project.
  • Then on the RHS add a newly revised credit.

Project Setup

Configure the project here.

  • Note you cannot change some project properties once created.
  • Hover over labels to get help
  • To change the logo (used on all report):
    • click on the image then the paperclip and attachment a new image
    • best to use a square image with a white background at least 300×300 pixel

Documents

Displays every document from each credi and enables filtering bulk edits

Project Notes and Log

Mainly for internal use to keep track of events of the project. Since all reports can easily be PDF’d and dated (PDF Report) you can also see previous project states.

  • Project Notes are shown on the front page of some reports (eg Credits and Points). We might list current key issues etc relevant to the whole project.
  • You can record a diary (log) of events which is helpful to track major changed (eg. 1/1/2015: Received instruction to target 7 stars. Advised this would be difficult.)

File Documents

At the bottom of the form are two boxes for drag-and-dropping files and emails. After dropping them the files will be displayed for you to check and then file.

Note that:

  • Drag a file from Windows Explorer to Drop Files …
  • … or drag an email (not the attachment but the email) from Outlook to Drop Emails
  • The file/s will appear in the list above.
  • Edit Doc Code / Credit / Doc Title as necessary.
  • The Destination Filename will be created from these three components.
  • Check File / File All to copy the file to the appropriate directory.
  • Upon filing the Status of that file will be updated to AutoAdd

For ten or more files you may choose to use the AutoAdd directory.

AutoAdd Directory

In the project directory you’ll see an AutoAdd directory. Use it to bulk-import files:

  1. Copy any number of suitably named (eg. Man-1 C My top file.pdf) files here.
  2. Click Advanced > Process AutoAdd
  3. Your files will be moved to the necessary credit directories and the Statuses updated.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *