Introducing ‘Ask Vic’

VisualSP is excited to introduce Ask Vic, the newest member of the VisualSP family of in-context learning applications.

What is Ask Vic?

Ask Vic brings VisualSP's well-known in-context learning application to the rest of the web. That means you are no longer limited to providing help and guidance only to Microsoft 365 applications.

With Ask Vic, our help tab can be your user's constant companion as they navigate anywhere on the web. In additional to our already defined application scopes (such as SharePoint, Dynamics, Salesforce, or a custom application), you can configure Ask Vic to appear on any site on the web to provide help content with a custom All Application application scope and a URL filter.

How does that benefit me as a platform owner?

Every organization probably has dozens of different web applications (both enterprise and outside consumer sites) that their users have daily interaction with who could benefit from specific, in-context help. For example, an admin assistant who only occasionally logs onto Workday can benefit from inline help to guide her through the steps to fill out a vacation request. Then when she visits a .gov site, Ask Vic is there to guide her to find some important statistics she needs for a report.

With Ask Vic, your ability to provide help at your user's moment of need is now world-wide (web)!

Provide custom content through URL filters

You can create custom content for sites other than your own through the simple use of URL filters. You can use the full range of media types that you normally can with our regular VisualSP application:

• Banners
• Custom embed tags
• Documents
• Images
• Rich HTML
• Videos
• Walkthroughs
• YouTube Videos

How do I get the application?

The Ask Vic application can be downloaded from the Chrome store.

The Edge extension is available here.

Once you have activated the extension by visiting a M365 application within your organization, you can configure Ask Vic to appear anywhere on the web.

How do I create a custom help item in Ask Vic?

If you are already familiar with the VisualSP Editor, then you already know how to create your own custom help item. For those that are new to our product, it is super easy. Follow these tutorials and see how quickly you can create your first custom help item at the web page location of your choice:

• Create a Walkthrough
• Creating a Multi-page Walkthrough
• Using the new Help Editor
• Display a video as a Help item
• Add an Image to a Help Item
• Create a Help Item that will Auto Show on Load with Every Page Visit
• Properties / Options available for Help Items in VisualSP

We recognize that as an Administrator you probably don't want a help tab appearing literally everywhere, which is why we give you the option to block or enable URLs.

Block or Enable URLs

Ask Vic enables you to either block or enable the Ask Vic help tab from appearing with a simple toggle switch. You can find this setting by first clicking on Applications  (1) then by clicking the Ask Vic tab (2):

By default, the Block or Enable URLs toggle will be On, meaning you first need to add the URLs where you want Ask Vic to appear.

Alternatively, if you toggle the button to Off and then add URLs,  Ask Vic will appear everywhere except for those URLs.

With the button toggled On, you will also see some additional configuration options:

If you expand the Advanced Properties section (1) and then click Hide VisualSP Tab for the selected URL (2) and toggle it to Yes, then the Ask Vic tab will only be visible to subscription admins and editors for the selected URL. Inline help and auto-load help items with still load for all users.

When toggled to No, you can add text into the Tab Text for the selected URL field (3) to change the text in the Ask Vic help tab.

You also have the option to add CSS to the tab in the Custom CSS for the selected URL (4).

Remember to Save your changes before closing.