Online help:
My SAP Notes & KBAs

Contents

Introduction

SAP Notes and SAP Knowledge Base Articles (KBAs) are support documents that answer questions arising from your daily work with SAP software products:

Both are found through numerous applications in the SAP ONE Support Launchpad, e.g. the central search tool, or in applications that list important notes like SAP Security Notes, SAP HotNews (SAP Notes with very high priority), or SAP Legal Change Notes. You can mark the ones that you are interested in as favorites, so you can easily return to them.

Note: In the context of this manual, the term "notes" is used synonymously for SAP Notes & KBAs.

The My SAP Notes & KBAs application provides an at-a-glance view on relevant updates, helps you organize your favorite notes, and allows you to retrieve notes based on advanced selection criteria, especially as a recurrent task. No special authorization is required.

Starting the application

Enter the SAP ONE Support Launchpad.

Figure 1: SAP ONE Support Launchpad with My SAP Notes & KBAs tile

  1. Click the My SAP Notes & KBAs tile on the launchpad. It provides an at-a-glance summary of the volume of the following notes:
    • Favorites updated: Your favorite notes that got updated since you last read them;
    • New: Relevant notes that have been released since your last visit to the application;
    • Updated: Relevant notes that have been updated since your last visit.

    Note: If you have worked with the application before and saved search criteria as default search, the number of new notes that match these criteria will also be displayed on the tile.

  2. If this tile is not shown on your launchpad, use the icon in the launchpad's upper-left corner to enter the tile catalog and add the tile to your home screen. Click the tile to start the application.

Overview of application and main controls

The application interface features four sub-sections that can be accessed using tabs:

  1. New — This section lists all SAP Notes and KBAs which have been released since your last visit to the application, and which are assigned to components that are relevant to you. These components are identified through an analysis of notes recently read by you.

    The default sorting order is by Released On date with the most recently changed note at the top.

  2. Updated — This section lists all SAP Notes and KBAs which, since your last visit, have been updated to a newer version, and which are assigned to components that, according to your history of recent notes searches, are relevant to you.

    The default sorting order is by Released On date with the most recently changed note at the top.

    Note: To avoid conflicts with separate applications that list these important notes, no SAP HotNews (i.e. priority-1 notes), SAP Security Notes, or SAP Legal Change Notes will be listed in the New or Updated sections.

  3. Expert Search — In this section you can retrieve notes based on advanced selection criteria. Furthermore, you can save these queries for future use.
  4. My Favorites — This section lists notes that are of particular interest to you and which you would like to keep readily available, e.g. for further review or future reference.

Upon launching the application, the tab New is preselected.

Figure 2: Overview of the My SAP Notes & KBAs application and its main controls

  1. Once a sub-section has been selected, the respective notes are listed below the tab strip. Default sorting order is by Released On date with the most recently changed note at the top.
  2. The headline indicates the number of items in the current sub-section.
  3. The SAP Note/KBA Number input field allows you to access a particular note by entering its number and clicking the Display icon (or pressing the Enter key).

Working with the Expert Search

The Expert Search is a powerful tool that lets you retrieve lists of notes based on advanced selection criteria. Furthermore, you can save these queries for future use. This feature is extremely helpful if you carry out regular analyses of relevant notes, for instance identify important notes regarding legal changes towards the end of your company's billing cycles.

Overview of the Expert Search interface

On the application's overview screen:

Figure 3: Overview of the Expert Search sub-section and its main controls

  1. Select Expert Search from the tab strip.
  2. Use the filter bar to specify your selection criteria. For many criteria, multi-selection is supported. See below for an explanation of the various options.
  3. Click the Go button to retrieve all notes that match the selection criteria.
  4. The result list is displayed below the filter bar. Unread notes are displayed using bold fonts. Using standard browser functionality, e.g. right-clicking the link, you can open a result in a separate browser window.
  5. Click Sort to sort the list by Released On date, number or, if you have specified a search term, relevance.
  6. Click Export List as CSV File to download the result list to a local CSV (comma-separated value) file.
  7. You can collapse the filter bar by clicking Hide Filter Bar. If hidden, click Show Filter Bar to expand it again.
  8. Clear resets all search and filter fields to the system default (i.e. fuzziness threshold is set to "0.9 – Close Match", no other criterion is specified).
  9. When working with a variant, i.e. queries that you have saved before, Restore resets all fields to the variant's search and filter settings.
  10. The Filters link gives access to the filter dialog. Here, filters are arranged in a vertical layout. You can specify filter criteria, choose which filters shall be displayed, and save filter criteria for future re-use.
  11. The variant selector allows you to switch between variants, i.e. queries that you have saved before, and manage them. Unless otherwise specified, the default variant is Standard, and no filter criteria are preselected.
    When you modify filter criteria, an asterisk (*) next to its name indicates that the variant has been changed.

Explanation of the various selection criteria

The following criteria are offered:

Good to know: If you restrict your selection by software component, software component version, or support package, the result list will contain SAP Notes, no KBAs.
A restriction by product version will launch a list of KBAs, but no SAP Notes.

Working with saved filter settings ("Variants")

If you carry out regular analyses of relevant notes, you can save filter settings for future use as so-called "variants".

Saving variants

Figure 6: The Save Variant dialog

  1. Use the filter bar to specify your selection criteria.
    An asterisk (*) next to the variant's name will indicate that the current variant has been modified but not saved.
  2. Click the variant selector.
  3. Click the Save button if you want to overwrite the current variant's selection criteria.

    Note: The default variant Standard cannot be modified, hence the Save button is grayed out and only Save As is offered to store your filter settings.

Alternatively:

  1. Click the Save As button if you want to store a new variant. The Save Variant dialog is displayed.
  2. Specify a meaningful name for your search query.
  3. Select Set as Default if this variant shall be pre-selected the next time you launch the application. (You will still have to click the Go button to retrieve notes.)

    Note: The number of new notes matching your default variant's selection criteria is displayed on the launchpad tile.

  4. Select Execute on Select if the variant shall be executed immediately when selected, i.e. without the need to click the Go button.
  5. Select Notification if you want to be notified about new notes matching this variant's search criteria. A prominent "bullhorn" icon in the launchpad header will then alert you about these updates. Furthermore, in the launchpad's central Notification Center, you can opt to receive e-mail notifications.
    (With the help of some common use cases, an SAP Community blog summarizes how to benefit most from the Expert Search combined with launchpad notifications.)
  6. Confirm with OK (or revert with Cancel).

Changing or deleting variants

To change the selection criteria of a particular variant, proceed as follows:

  1. Select the variant from the variant selector. The filter bar shows this variant's selection criteria.
  2. Adjust the selection criteria.
  3. Click the variant selector, then click the Save button to overwrite the previous filter settings with the new ones.

To change the name or behavior of a variant, do the following:

Figure 7: The Manage Variants dialog

  1. Click the variant selector icon.
  2. Click the Manage button. The Manage Variants dialog will be displayed.

    To change a variant, you have the following options:

  3. Change the name of a variant.
  4. Select the variant that is preselected upon entering the application by clicking its Default radio button.
  5. Change the variant's behavior when it is selected by checking or unchecking the Execute on Select checkbox.
  6. Enable or disable notifications for the variant by selecting of deselecting the Notification checkbox.
  7. You can also delete a variant by clicking the Delete icon next to it.
  8. Confirm your changes or deletion with OK (or revert with Cancel).

Customizing the filter bar

You can hide selection criteria that are not relevant to you. You can then add this setting to an existing variant.

Figure 8: Customizing the filter bar

  1. Create a variant or select one from the variant selector, then click Filters.
  2. Alternatively, first click Filters. Then, in the Filters dialog, choose a variant from the variant selector.
    The selected variant's filter criteria will be shown.
  3. Tick the Add to Filter Bar checkboxes for those filter criteria that shall be offered in the filter bar.
  4. Click Save to store these settings. Other actions are:
    • Click Go to retrieve all notes matching your filter criteria.
    • Click Clear to remove all filter criteria.
    • Click Restore to revert changes that you have made.
    • Click Cancel to leave the dialog without saving any changes.

Working with favorite notes

While reading it, you can mark any SAP Note or KBA as a favorite using the Mark as Favorite icon in the note's header:

By doing so, you add the note to the My SAP Notes & KBAs application.

Figure 10: Overview of the My Favorites sub-section and its main controls

  1. Access the list of your favorite notes by selecting My Favorites from the tab strip.
  2. The list of all your favorite notes, along with important attributes, is displayed in table format. Default sorting order is by Released On date with the most recently changed note at the top.
  3. Favorite notes that have been updated since your last visit are highlighted using bold font and a Changed icon.
  4. Using the Remove icon, you can unmark a note as favorite, thus remove it from the list.

Note: You can also find and maintain the list of your favorite notes in the User Profile section under the Favorites tab.

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