Changes to your TIER experience. 

Creation date: 5/5/2023 2:55 PM    Updated: 5/7/2024 3:13 PM

In general, TIER will run as a “Remote App”, within an “invisible” virtual desktop. Though it will look like a normal program, it is actually running on a server in the cloud. While the overall look, feel, and functionality of TIER will barely change with the new IT infrastructure, there are a few small things to note.

To watch a video tutorial of the changes, click<HERE>

Logging in


The TIER icon should be on your desktop. Double-click it to open.



When you first open TIER, you’ll be prompted to “Enter your credentials”. Use your domain password (i.e. the one you log into your computer with. Don’t add the SHC\ in front) and not your TIER password. If your name is not showing on the top line, press “More choices” and select your name or if not there, “Use a different account”

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Then press “OK”. You may be prompted to allow security settings – if so, check any “do not show this again” type messages” and press Allow/OK. They will then not show again going forward.

You’ll then be prompted to sign into TIER. Note: depending on the last time you used it, your Username may not be automatically stored:


Appearance

We haven’t found this to have any effect on functionality, but you will notice that TIER looks boxier and the oval gradient buttons are gone



Opening Documents from TIER

If you open a document from TIER it actually opens within the “invisible” virtual computer and so will show in a different group in your task bar with the little >< circle icon on it



In opening any files for the first time, you may be prompted to do initial setting changes. Always choose “Use recommended settings” or similar and it shouldn’t popup again



If the following window shows, just choose “No”


and then press OK



See the Saving/Scanning Documents section below about where to save any external documents (word/pdf/excel/etc.) edited from TIER.

Saving/Scanning Documents

Using CamScanner will not change. However as TIER is now in a remote app, it will not by default show your actual computer’s shortcuts. Additionally, you can no longer drag and drop files onto the TIER Image Center form. Instead you have to press Import and locate the file from that window.

With that in mind, we highly recommend the first time you save or scan something from/into TIER, you save the locations of your SSYAF Desktop, Documents, Downloads, S:, I: and any other location you use frequently to your Quick Access list.

If you select the virtual environments quick access or desktop locations, you should see several files marked “DO NOT SAVE ANY DOCUMENTS HERE” – that is your prompt to not save there and instead save to the new quick access



Updating your Quick Access list

This applies to both where you are importing files from and where you are saving files to. These screenshots are from the Import section of a scanned doc in TIER, but you can also make these changes from a save prompt in Word/Excel/Pdf/etc. within the TIER remote app, it just may look slightly different.


First – unpin all the pinned items as they point to the virtual TIER environment and not the SSYAF one:


Word saving prompt:


Right-click on each icon and select “Unpin from Quick access” (If is a save prompt from word/excel/pdf/etc. right click each option from the quick access side instead)

Next, add in all your SSYAF locations, this can be a bit time consuming, sorry :/…

1. Click “This PC” and scroll down to Redirected drives and folders and double-click  “C on …”


2. Next choose the following folders: “Users”->”[Your username]”->”OneDrive – Stanford Sierra Youth & Families

3. For each of your locations, right click on the icon and select “Pin to Quick access”.


4. Repeat this for all locations you access from this area - Desktop/Documents/ Pictures/etc. (note: downloads will now go to a different folder to be found in step 6 below)

5. Next add in any S: or I: folders you regularly access by finding the location, right-clicking and selecting “Pin to Quick access”


6. Finally, Downloads will now go to the download folder found via “This PC”->redirected drives… “C on …”->“Users”->”[Your username]”->”Downloads”

7. Now when you go to quick access, it should be easier to navigate to the locations you are uploading from/saving to


Signature Pad connection

If you’ve started TIER prior to connecting your signature pad you will need to “Disconnect” from the remote app TIER is running in. Disconnecting will not close TIER, it will continue running on the remote server, so when you reconnect, you’ll still have all your TIER screens open.

Click the up arrow from the bottom right of your taskbar

Right click on the little RDP icon and select “Disconnect from RDSH…”.


Connect your signature pad, then when you open TIER again, it will be the exact place you were previously, and the signature pad will work.

Printing


Unfortunately, by default TIER printing saves as a PDF. However there is a workaround to print to your default printer:

1. After pressing Print button on a form, Select Screen and press Next >

2. Press the “Printer Setup” button in the top toolbar of the preview screen


3. Check the “No Printer..” box, and press ok.


4. Press the “Printer Setup” button again in the top toolbar of the preview screen again and then recheck the box and press OK


5. 1.Then press the print button and it will print to your default printer. If your default printer is not where you want to print to, you’ll need to change your default printer following the steps below and then may need to disconnect from TIER and then reconnect (see Signature Pad Connection above for instructions), and then print again.

Changing your Default Printer

1. In the search bar next to the windows button, start typing printer and then select the “Printers & scanners option

2. If “Let Windows manager my default printer” is on, toggle it to off


3. Press the arrow on the printer you want to make default/print to in TIER


4. Press “set as default”


Outlook Emails

Initialized Outlook emails can no longer be opened from TIER. The buttons will still be there, but when pressed the “Email Text” form will open for you to copy and paste the information into an Email


Force quitting TIER


If TIER freezes or you need to restart it and every time you open it, it goes to where you were before, you will have to force restart your remote app via a program downloadable from the following website: https://rds.ssyaf.org/RDWeb/Pages/en-US/login.aspx?ReturnUrl=/RDWeb/Pages/en-US/Default.aspx

Enter your domain/username, which should be “SHC\[username]” and the password you use to log into your computer (and not TIER), then press “Sign In”


Next double click “Force Logoff TIER session” and that will download a rdp file that should show at the bottom or top of your browser



You can either open it, or if you prefer to avoid downloading this again, you can press the up arrow and select Show in folder. Then you can move the file to your desktop or another easy location to access.


I moved it to my desktop and renamed it so that I can run the script whenever needed. 


Open the file and when prompted check the “Don’t ask me again…” box and press Connect.


Enter your credentials and press ok and your session will be restarted


Downloading TIER on a non-work computer

Go to the same website as the force quitting TIER section above: https://rds.ssyaf.org/RDWeb/Pages/en-US/login.aspx?ReturnUrl=/RDWeb/Pages/en-US/Default.aspx


Note: If attempting on a Mac, you may need to first download the Microsoft Remote Desktop app from the app store and install it first.

Enter your domain/username, which should be “SHC\[username]” and your password you use to log into your computer (and not TIER), then press “Sign In”


Next double click “TIER” and that will download a rdp file that should show at the bottom or top of your browser


You can then click the up arrow and select show in folder and move the file to a convenient location. Now when you want to open TIER, just open that file.


Changing Resolution

To Change your resolution in TIER (i.e. make the forms/text larger or smaller), you have to change the display resolution on your laptop first and then (re)open TIER

This can be done by right-clicking on your desktop and selecting Display setting


Or typing “Display” into the search bar next to the windows button and selecting it there
there is both a Scale option and a Display Resolution option. The scale option is great for changing the size of windows/text change outside of TIER, but you have to change Display Resolution to change the size for TIER

By default, your display resolution should be 1920 x 1080. If you want TIER to be as large as possible, you’ll want to change that resolution to 1366 x768. It may make things slightly less crisp, but will still work and make TIER forms/text larger






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