Navigating The PD² Desktop and Using PD² Advisor

Navigating The PD² Desktopand Using PD² Advisor SPS Spotlight Series August 2015

Overview • Desktop Layout PD2 • Desktop Containers • Tool Bar • Menu Access • Using PD2 Advisor • Accessing PD² Advisor • Contents • Navigation • Searching

Desktop Layout in PD2 • PD² is similar to any Windows environment and incorporates basic Windows capabilities. However, since PD² was developed to assist with contracting functions, it has its own unique desktop structure. • The PD² Desktop is designed to recreate an office environment electronically. PD² uses cabinets, file folders, envelopes, an inbox, an outbox, and documents to accomplish this. • All of the desktop objects are placed into two categories: Containers and Documents.

Containers • The PD² containers include: • Cabinets • Folders • Inbox • Outbox • Envelopes

Desktop Configuration Typically, all cabinets are located at the bottom of the PD² screen. Occasionally, cabinets may disappear from sight. Select Window Arrange Icons to display them.

Desktop Containers There are two types of cabinets, “personal” and “team.” The personal cabinets are yellow, while the team cabinets are gray.

Desktop Containers When opened, the personal cabinet shows the contents, i.e. folders or documents within it.

Desktop Containers The cabinet name is shown in the title bar of the cabinet so that it is always known which cabinet is being accessed.

Desktop Containers Two or more cabinets may be open at the same time. Just like in a “Windows” environment, folders and documents may be dragged from one container to another.

Desktop Containers Team cabinets operate similarly to personal cabinets except that you cannot use, or even “see” a team cabinet unless you are a member of that particular team.

Desktop Containers Folders are containers that are kept within the cabinets. They are usually yellow, unless they have been “workload assigned,” in which case they will be blue.

Desktop Containers Documents are items that are stored within a folder i.e. Standard Forms, DD Forms, Attachments, etc.

Desktop Containers When a folder is open, a representation of this is seen inside the cabinet that contains the folder.

Desktop Containers The actual open folder will be opened for viewing of the contents within it.

Desktop Containers Unlike the “Windows” environment, you may not drag an item onto a folder. You must open the folder and drag the item from window to window.

Desktop Containers Another type of container is the “Envelope.” Envelopes function just like folders but are typically used to send (route) documents from one user to another.

Desktop Containers Finally, two other very important containers are the “Inbox” and the “Outbox.” While a user can have multiple cabinets and folders, each user account will have a single Inbox and a single Outbox.

Desktop Containers The Inbox is used to receive documents sent from other users. Note: You may NOT work on items while they are in your Inbox. You must first drag the document or folder to another location on your desktop.

Desktop Containers The Outbox is used to send or “route” documents or folders to other users. Simply drag the item to the Outbox, select a user, then the system will send the item to that user.

Desktop Containers Inbox with stack of papers Empty Outbox A quick way to know if there are documents in your Inbox or Outbox is to look at the icon. If there are documents within them, the icon will display a stack of papers.

Tool Bar • Now that we have viewed the Desktop and various methods of storage, let’s take a look at getting around in PD2. We use “Menus” and “Tools” to do the day to day functions in the system. We will first take a look at the Tool Bar.

Tool Bar The “Tool Bar” is not a complete path to all items within PD2, but is a “quick access” method for some of the most commonly used items.

Tool Bar If you “mouse over” an item, without clicking it, you will be given the name of that particular item or its function.

Menu Access Now let’s look at menu access. All users will not have all menu options available. Menu access is controlled by your System Administrator based on the needs of your specific position.

Menu Access Using a particular menu will give access to the various documents, actions, and areas that are needed to perform specific functions within PD2.

Menu Access First there is the “File” menu. Here you can do general items that are common to most File menus. Notice that there are also “hot keys” or shortcuts that give you another way to access these menu options.

Menu Access The “Edit” menu has only three items. Notice once again, that the normal windows shortcuts are available to be used.

Menu Access The “Procurement” menu will house the majority of the normal day to day contracting functionality. Here it is possible to create forms and attachments, perform Pre-Award and Post-Award functions, and even access reporting functionality.

Menu Access • The “Reference” menu allows access to regulations such as the FAR and DFARS. • Note: Other regulations specific to your branch of service or organization may be added here by your System Administrator. Only the FAR and DFARS are standard to the system.

Menu Access Next we find the “Utilities” menu. These are the various utilities that are helpful to users and System Administrators for daily use. Note: If a menu item is “grayed out” that means that you do not have access to it, per your System Administrator.

Menu Access Next there is the “Window” menu. Change the layout of your open containers, or gain quick access to them from here.

Menu Access A very valuable, yet underused item, is the “Help” menu. Within Help, there are many resources to guide you through the system. There is PD² Advisor, which we are going to discuss in detail as we continue.

Using PD2 Advisor • Accessing PD² Advisor • Contents of PD2 Advisor • Functional User • System Administrator • FPDS Reporting Guide • How to and How do I. . . . . • Glossary • Release Notes • Navigating in PD2 Advisor • Using the PD2Advisor Search Option

Accessing PD² Advisor in the Army Altess Enclave • If you are an Army user, accessing PD² through Citrix, you cannot access PD² Advisor from the PD² Desktop. • Your path to PD² Advisor is from your Citrix Dashboard: Click the PD2 Advisor folder on your Citrix Dashboard.

Accessing PD² Advisor in the Army Altess Enclave • The links to PD² Advisor will appear: Click any one of the links. The first time you click one of these, it opens a Citrix window which we will see on the next slide.

Accessing PD² Advisor in the Army Altess Enclave • Click [OK] in the Citrix window shown here. It will then go through the normal Windows login process, but this window will close when the PD² Advisor window opens. This will take a few minutes to process, but, for me, this only happened once and then when I clicked on other PD² Advisor links, they opened quickly.

Accessing PD² Advisor in the Army Altess Enclave • The Windows Logon screen will disappear and the selected section of PD² Advisor will display. If you return to the Citrix Dashboard and click another section of PD² Advisor, such as the Glossary, it will open promptly.

Accessing PD² Advisor from PD² • As we saw earlier in the presentation, PD² Advisor can be accessed from the Help menu. • PD² Advisor can also be accessed by clicking the question mark “Help” icon in the Tool bar:

Accessing PD² Advisor from your Start Menu • PD2 Advisor can also be launched from your workstation’s Start menu without logging into PD2: Go to Start  All Programs and expand the Procurement Desktop - Defense menu. Choose PD2 On-line Help.

PD² Advisor When you launch PD² Advisor, a browser window will open: Note: If you receive javascript messages or warnings you should be able to click through them to display this page. Each of these items is a link to an area of content within PD2Advisor.

PD² Advisor – Functional User • When you click any of the links (I chose Functional User), you will likely get this box at the bottom of your screen: • Click [Open] to proceed. PD2 Advisor: Functional User opens:

PD² Advisor – Functional User • From this window, you can click to expand any of the displayed topics.

PD² Advisor – Functional User • Once you expand a topic, you can use the Back and Forward icons to navigate. You can Hide the Contents/Search panel, or print a topic if you wish.

PD² Advisor – Functional User • If you hide the Search/Content panel, ‘Hide’ will change to ‘Show’. Click ‘Show’ to reverse the ‘Hide’ action.

PD² Advisor – Functional User • The left pane has 3 tabs: Contents, Index and Search.

PD² Advisor – Contents Tab • The Contents tab displays the topics and allows you to navigate from one to another quickly. Here I have used the contents pane to navigate to Approving Preapproval Check.

PD² Advisor – Contents Tab • In this window, I can click [Yes] or [No] and further information will appear, telling me how to proceed.

PD² Advisor – Index Tab • From the Index tab, navigate by double clicking an item. Here I have selected Delivery Date from the Index and the Entering Delivery Information topic appears in the right panel.

PD² Advisor – Index Tab If a selected Index topic has more than one entry, you will be prompted to select a topic: Select the desired topic and click [Display]. Information for the selected topic will display in the right panel.

PD² Advisor – Index Tab As referenced on the previous slide, the selected topic displays: Click the [Base CLIN] or [Option CLIN] button to display additional information.

Navigating The PD² Desktop and Using PD² Advisor