Providing training for Helix users is a priority for us. After taking over the day-to-day operations of Helix in June of 2002, we began working on ways to start the training program again. Our first training session was held in February of 2003 and was attended by 17 people, including those who showed up for a meeting with Gil Numeroff of QSA ToolWorks on Saturday following the sessions.
In January, 2006 in the Washington DC area, 5 people attended, including Ryan Wilcox, one of our engineers, who came away with lots of ideas on how to make Helix even more user friendly. We’ve already incorporated some of them in subsequent Helix releases.
At the end of November, 2007, a session called "Getting Ready for OS X" was held on Long Island and attended by a dozen Helix users from far and wide. The purpose of the session was to familiarize users first-hand with the kinds of changes they should expect when upgrading their collections to the first "OS X UserMode" versions of Helix. Presentations moved back and forth between RADE in Classic and OS X Engine and concluded with an examination of individual collections attendees were urged to bring with them to the sessions.
The next training will be held in Houston, TX, April 10-11, 2008. It will cover Helix Basics (outlined below). It will be held at the LaQuinta Inn in Stafford, TX. The address is 12727 Southwest Freeway, Stafford, TX, which is in Southwest Houston. Phone: 281-240-2300. We are not offering a rental option for this session, so please bring your own computer. You can reserve a place in this class in The Helix Store.
Training is conducted at various places (primarily in the United States) on an "as needed" basis. If you are interested in attending training, contact Gil in the sales office so he can put you on the list and let you know when the next session is scheduled.
If you are interested in hosting a training session, please contact us! Private training is available for any size group, or we can open the training to other Helix users and offset the cost to you. We recommend hosting an open training session: the dynamic of working with people of various backgrounds and needs results in everybody thinking of new ways to put Helix to use and training becomes much more effective.
Our recent training sessions have been led by Chuck Hinkle. Chuck is a long time Helix developer, consultant, trainer, and public speaker, whose breadth of experience in other products enables him to bridge any communications gap that may exist and to "speak your language," making his training truly effective.
Future sessions may use other trainers, depending on the situation.
The format for each course is a mixture of lecture, discussion and step-by-step exercises, and it is appropriate for all but the most advanced Helix application development professionals. The advanced techniques class is currently available on DVD from the Helix Web Store.
Day 1
- Database Definition
- Relations
- Fields
- Templates — data editing (enter, retrieve, modify and deletion)
- Views
- Templates — report design
- Indexes
- Static and Dynamic Popups
- Query
- Abaci — simple tiles
- Abacus uses
- Power Query
- Get Info
- Inert Fields
- Templates
- Sequences
- Buttons
- Conditional Sequences
- List processing
- Posting
- Menus
- Security/Passwords
- Types of users (Prototypes)
- Design and User Modes
- Helix Client/Server
- Subforms
- Passed Values
- Performance
- Miscellaneous Tricks
- Data Import and Export
- Publish & Subscribe
(Available on DVD)
- Effective use of color
- Assigning unique record IDs
- Hidden ID dynamic popups
- Validation techniques
- Controlling subform behavior
- Distant linking
- Inert forms
- Global preferences
- Deletion confirmation
- Report center
- Creating charts and maps
- Security and control
- Using a button bar
- Print suppression
- Complex reports
- Conditional printing
- Optimizing search
- Self-joins
- Complex (custom) searches
- List processing tricks
- Creating static web pages
- Changing keys and values
- Debugging tricks
- Conditional post actions
- Design methodology