AX1182

Assigning task panes to users

You can assign task panes to users and roles using the Startup tab in Axiom Software Security. When a user starts Axiom Software, their assigned startup task panes will automatically open.

Alternatively, you can also grant permission to access one or more task panes in the Task Pane Library directly, at the user or role level. This allows users to open task panes on demand.

Assigning as startup files

To configure a task pane to open on system startup for a particular user or role, use the Startup tab of Security. Any task panes listed on the Startup tab will open automatically when the user starts the Excel Client or the Windows Client. Task panes do not apply to the Web Client. For more information on assigning startup task panes, see Assigning startup files (Startup tab).

When task panes are assigned as startup files, users do not otherwise need to be granted access to these files. The files will open automatically at startup.

When assigning the startup file, you may want to use the Shortcut Parameters to designate the task pane as non-closeable. This ensures that the task pane will always be available to the user. This option is provided so that users do not accidentally close the task pane and then have no way to reopen it (because they do not otherwise have permissions to the file).

In most cases, you will configure startup task panes on a per role basis. For example, you might have a Budget User role, and you want all users in this role to see a simple task pane tab that presents the handful of items that they need to access. Alternatively, if all users in a system need to see a particular task pane on startup, you can configure it for the Everyone role.

Startup task panes display in the Axiom Assistant area when opened, in the following order:

1. Task panes assigned to the Everyone role.
2. Task panes assigned to other roles that the user belongs to (multiple roles are sorted in alphabetical order).
3. Task panes assigned to the user.

Keep in mind that the visibility of a startup task pane may depend on whether the task pane has any content to display. For example, the built-in Process task pane is assigned to the Everyone role by default and therefore it opens at startup for all users, but if a user does not have any process tasks then the task pane does not display for that user.

Access to the Task Panes Library

If desired, you can grant users read-only access to files in the Task Panes Library, using the Files tab of Security. This allows users to access the library from the Explorer task pane, and then open task panes on demand. You can also link to task panes from within a task pane or a ribbon tab, and in this case the user must have read-only access to the task pane in order to open it using the link.

You might do this if you have some task panes that users only need to access occasionally, when performing certain tasks. In this case it may not make sense to open these task panes at startup. When users want to open one of these task panes, they can double-click on it in the Task Pane Library, and it will open as a task pane in the Axiom Assistant area. They can then close the task pane when they are finished with it, by clicking on the X button on the task pane tab.

In most cases, end users do not need to edit task panes and therefore do not need read/write access to these files. However, if you have non-administrator users who need to create and edit task panes, those users must be granted the Administer Task Panes permission as well as read/write access at a file or folder level in the Task Panes Library.