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Interactive Guides

FactoryThread includes interactive guides that walk you through key features step by step. Guides highlight UI elements and explain how to use them, making it easy to learn while doing.

Available Guides​

Designer Guide​

What you'll learn:

  • Navigating the Designer interface
  • Adding nodes to the canvas
  • Connecting nodes to create workflows
  • Configuring node settings
  • Previewing your data

When to take it: Take this guide when you first start using the Designer, or anytime you want a refresher on the basics.

Connections Guide​

What you'll learn:

  • Understanding the Connections page
  • Creating a new connection
  • Testing connection health
  • Discovering entities
  • Managing connections

When to take it: Take this guide before setting up your first data source.

Dashboard Guide​

What you'll learn:

  • Monitoring your workspace at a glance
  • Understanding execution statistics
  • Viewing recent workflow executions
  • Identifying failed executions

When to take it: Take this guide to understand how to monitor your workspace.

Insights Guide​

What you'll learn:

  • Reading the Insights page
  • Filtering executions
  • Viewing execution details
  • Understanding status indicators
  • Debugging failed executions

When to take it: Take this guide after you've run a few workflows and want to understand monitoring.

Templates Guide​

What you'll learn:

  • Browsing the template gallery
  • Finding templates by category
  • Using a template to create a workflow
  • Customizing template workflows

When to take it: Take this guide when you want to get started quickly with pre-built workflows.

First Workflow Guide​

What you'll learn:

  • Creating your first data connection
  • Adding entities (tables/files) from your connection
  • Building a workflow in the Designer
  • Adding transformations to process your data
  • Previewing and saving your workflow

When to take it: This is the ideal guide for new users who want a comprehensive walkthrough of building a complete workflow from scratch. It covers the entire process from connecting to data through to running your first workflow.

Starting a Guide​

From the Usage Guide Page​

  1. Click Usage Guide in the sidebar (under Resources)
  2. Browse available guides
  3. Click Start on any guide

From the Help Panel​

  1. Press ? to open help
  2. Some articles link to related guides
  3. Click Start Interactive Guide to begin

First-Time Prompt​

When you first use FactoryThread, you'll see a "Show me around?" prompt. If you accept, you'll be taken to the Guides page to choose which guide to start with.

If you dismiss the prompt, you can always access guides later from the Usage Guide page in the sidebar.

During a Guide​

Guide Controls​

When a guide is active:

  • Next - Move to the next step
  • Back - Return to the previous step
  • Skip - End the guide early

Highlighted Elements​

Guides highlight specific UI elements:

  • The highlighted area shows what to focus on
  • The rest of the screen is dimmed
  • Some steps allow you to click the highlighted element

Guide Tooltips​

Each step includes:

  • A title describing what you're seeing
  • Explanation of the feature
  • Instructions for what to do

After Completing a Guide​

Guide Progress​

Your guide progress is saved:

  • Completed guides are marked as done
  • You won't see automatic prompts for completed guides
  • You can always replay guides from the Usage Guide page

Next Steps​

After completing a guide:

  • Try the feature yourself
  • Refer to documentation for more details
  • Take related guides to learn more

Tips for Learning​

Take Guides Early​

New to FactoryThread? Take guides in this order:

  1. First Workflow Guide - The best starting point for new users
  2. Connections Guide
  3. Designer Guide
  4. Dashboard Guide
  5. Insights Guide

Follow Along​

Guides are most effective when you:

  • Read each step carefully
  • Perform the suggested actions
  • Experiment after completing the guide

Revisit When Needed​

Don't remember how something works?

  • Guides are always available
  • Replay any guide from the Usage Guide page
  • Supplement with help articles

Next Steps​