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Revolutionizing Documentation

Making it Seamless, Automated, and Fun!

Bill Florio

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Speaker Intro

SF MVP HOF
NYC NP User Group
Salesforce Nonprofit How-To Series

2024

@NEDreamin

#NEDreamin

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The Whys:

Selfish	Selfless
	Growth
Control	Transparency
Hands out of garbage	Stewardship

2024

@NEDreamin

#NEDreamin

I’m not built to be a great documentor.

The value is never felt in real-time.

As coming from a working class background I value picking up hammer and nails over doing paperwork.

Sometimes documentation feels like a bullshit job - if you’re not familiar with David Graeber’s work

WHOS READ BULLSHIT JOBS PRIZES

Duct tapers - it just feels like a work around! Steve Jobs no instruction booklet quote
Box tickers - It can feel like your doing things because it’s something to do, writing up things no one is going to read.
Taskmasters, who create extra work for those who do not need it. Sometimes documentation exists to cover for middle management who refuse to really learn things and require things so it’s easy to replace you.

To overcome my dislike of doing this work I adjust my attitude to how it helps myself and my users and coworkers.

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Agenda

Training

& Documentation

Metadata dictionaries

Charting

Discussion and Idea Share

2024

@NEDreamin

#NEDreamin

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Salesforce is a website.

“It just works.“

Steve Jobs

2024

@NEDreamin

#NEDreamin

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Salesforce is a website.

Title

Release Chatter Group

Transparency with releases
Automate membership
@Call out business users
Include general upcoming updates.

2024

@NEDreamin

#NEDreamin

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Salesforce is a website.

Help Tab

Use conditional sections, links, display text.
Summer 24 allows conditional tabs.

2024

@NEDreamin

#NEDreamin

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Salesforce is a website.

Lightning Messaging Utility

Salesforce Labs Package
Create lightning callouts contextually on record pages.

2024

@NEDreamin

#NEDreamin

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Salesforce is a website.

Basics

Hep text on fields
Emojis on fields
Dynamic Forms - Rich Text Placement
Commenting complex formulas and validations.

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Salesforce is a website.

Conditional Formatting Winter ‘25

2024

@NEDreamin

#NEDreamin

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Salesforce is a website.

Help & Training Link

Possibly the logical place for general help links.

In-App Guidance

Great for new feature callouts.
Walk-Through option for limited “training steps”

2024

@NEDreamin

#NEDreamin

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Live Training and Videos

Mileage may vary - A must for larger organizations.
Ideally operations should handle business process training.
Last resort

Change Management
Basic onboarding

2024

@NEDreamin

#NEDreamin

In my current role in my current organization, there are not many users who need a lot of training. Either we have power users who have very clear role in how they use the system, or we have flows and forms that guide everyone else to do their part.

For everything else, for example the development team, there is a strong operations arm who manage the data as well as those who need to populate it. If your organization has capacity let others do the training for whatever their boss thinks important.

THIS IS NOT YOUR STARTING POINT - sure we want to be inclusive and respectful of learning styles, but this can easily lead to failure as it takes so much more work to deliver good content. Reserve for large initiatives and basic onboarding - Think selfish here - you should not be doing repetitive live trainings, but you should also not be a tv station

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Live Training and Videos

2024

@NEDreamin

#NEDreamin

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Doodading

Text Extractor
Always On Top
Advance Paste
Color Picker
Fancy Zones
Image Resizer
Pointer Crosshair, Spotlight

2024

@NEDreamin

#NEDreamin

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Agenda

Training

& Documentation

Metadata dictionaries

Charting

Discussion and Idea Share

2024

@NEDreamin

#NEDreamin

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2024

@NEDreamin

#NEDreamin

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Salesforce is a website.

Report on Field Metadata

Custom Report types allow reporting on Entity Definition and Field Definition

Does not allow customization
Has a few limitations/bugs.

2024

@NEDreamin

#NEDreamin

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Salesforce is a website.

Access Field Metadata with Flow

Build your own app around metadata.
Transform and USF components make automation easy.

2024

@NEDreamin

#NEDreamin

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There’s an app for that.

Plus - Metadata Dictionary

Converts metadata to data with minimal effort.

Elements Cloud

Copies Salesforce Metadata to custom database/CMS.
Has deeper level of features, a system within itself.

2024

@NEDreamin

#NEDreamin

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Documenting Salesforce Flow

Salesforce Flow Metadata Downloader + Claude is great for documenting flows.

2024

@NEDreamin

#NEDreamin

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Agenda

Training

& Documentation

Metadata dictionaries

Charting

Discussion and Idea Share

2024

@NEDreamin

#NEDreamin

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There’s an app for that.

2024

@NEDreamin

#NEDreamin

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There’s an app for that.

Mermaid Diagrams

Simple markdown entry
Multiple templates for all types of diagrams
Export to most formats
Integrations available (Confluence)

2024

@NEDreamin

#NEDreamin

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There’s an app for that.

Mermaid Diagrams

Simple markdown entry
Multiple templates for all types of diagrams
Export to most formats
Integrations available (Confluence)

2024

@NEDreamin

#NEDreamin

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LLM + Mermaid

Enter Proposal Approval Record: A user enters a proposal approval record for a General Accounting Unit (GAU) from an opportunity. Create GAU Approval Records: Two GAU approval records are created and linked to the opportunity. Approval Process: Monitor the approval status of all GAU approval records. If User is Executive then Create If User is not executive update the existing Approval Record New GAU Record: Once all approvals are set to an approved state, a new GAU record is created with the correct parent. Reconnect Approvals: All approval records are reconnected to the newly created GAU for future reference. This process ensures that the GAU records are accurately tracked and linked for accountability and reference.

2024

@NEDreamin

#NEDreamin

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Agenda

Training

& Documentation

Metadata dictionaries

Charting

Discussion and Idea Share

2024

@NEDreamin

#NEDreamin

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Q & A

2024

@NEDreamin

#NEDreamin

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Training Resources

Windows Powertoys

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/

Snag It

https://www.techsmith.com/screen-capture.html

Screen Pal

https://screenpal.com/

PikPick

https://picpick.app/

AI Prompts for Video Creators

https://github.com/SFDO-Community-Sprints/Nonprofit-Salesforce-How-To-Series/wiki/AI-Prompts-for-Video-Content-Creators

Bullshit Jobs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs

Lightning Messaging Utility

https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N3A00000G12j9UAB

MS Loop

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-loop

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Metadata Resources

Schema Lister - This tool uses the Salesforce Metadata API to build a list of objects, fields and field attributes from within your Salesforce Org.

https://schemalister.herokuapp.com/

Elements Cloud

https://elements.cloud/

Salesforce to LucidChart ERD

https://help.lucid.co/hc/en-us/articles/16471565238292-Create-an-Entity-Relationship-Diagram-in-Lucidchart

Gearset

https://gearset.com/

Plus Metadata Dictionary

https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N4V00000FpUSdUAN

Create Reports from Data Classification Metadata

https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.data_classification_report.htm&type=5

Field Trip

https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N30000003HSXEEA4

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Charting Etc

Mermaid Live Diagram Editor

https://mermaid.live/

Import Graphics into Visio

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/import-or-insert-graphics-into-visio-drawings-f05e556d-a158-4e16-9bd8-5d45071c9b8c

Draw.io

https://app.diagrams.net/

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CMS /Platform Resources

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Mermaid Flowchart Prompt

An Opportunity node connects to the Award node with a dotted line. The Award node connects to the Project node with a solid line. The Project node connects to the Asset(s) node with a dotted line which is labeled "0 or more". A solid line connects the Asset(s) node a QA node. QA then connects via a dotted line to the Publication node with a label of "0 or 1".

MERMAID CHART:

```

flowchart LR

Opportunity -.-> Award

Award --> Project

Project -.0 or more.-> Assets

Assets --> QA

QA -.0 or 1.-> Publication

```

=====

First, at the top is a box labeled "Salesforce" which contains within it two nodes: Proposal and Award, which are connected with a solid arrow labeled "won". The Award node then connects to another box labeled "Workday" which contains a single node called Project.

MERMAID CHART:

```

subgraph Salesforce

Proposal -- won --> Award

end

subgraph Workday

Award -- create --> Project

end

```

=====

Start with "Identify opportunity" which branches out to 3 parallel nodes: "Register in tracking system (PIF, etc.)", "Proposal development", and "Budget development". Each of these 3 nodes then connects back to a single node called "Coordination. Then we have a linear list of the following, which all connect sequentially: Proposal approval, Submission to client, Initiate contract, Finalize contract terms, Issue PPT, Project kickoff. Then the Project kickoff node branches into the following parallel nodes: HSPC review, Project staffing, Finalize budget. These 3 nodes come back together at the "Manage project" node. Then another linear list of the following nodes: Develop final product, QA (internal or external), Deliver final product, Close our project.

MERMAID CHART:

```

flowchart LR

A["Identify opportunity"] --> B["Register in tracking system, (PIF, etc.)"]

A --> C["Proposal development"]

A --> D[Budget development]

B --> E["Coordination"]

C --> E

D --> E

E --> F[Proposal approval]

F --> G[Submission to client]

G --> H[Initiate contract]

H --> I[Finalize contract terms]

I --> J[Issue PPT]

J --> K["Project kickoff"]

K --> L[HSPC review]

L --> O

K --> M[Project staffing]

M --> O

K --> N[Finalize budget]

N --> O["Manage project"]

O --> P["Develop final product"]

P --> Q["QA (internal or external)"]

Q --> R["Deliver final product"]

R --> S["Close out project"]

```

=====

<INSERT YOUR CHART DESCRIPTION HERE> For example... First I open the Fridge. Then from the Fridge, I pull out in parallel: Cold Brew, Creamer, Milk. Then these items combine back into Drinkable Coffee. Then Enjoy Coffee.

MERMAID CHART:

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