How does floating a floating license work?

[Swede]

Our company is getting additional Help+Manual licenses. Four staff members already use H+M on a daily or weekly basis, and another six staff members will use H+M a bit more seldom. I'm thinking about getting a floating license for the six seldom-users. Would this be a good solution or are there any technical aspects to take into consideration? How many users can use H+M simultaneously with the same floating license?

[Tim Green]

Hi Swede,

The server/floating licenses now work differently. Help+Manual no longer needs to be installed centrally on a server share (this is still possible but not recommended) and floating licenses are no longer bound to your local network. Help+Manual is installed on each user's computer and the licenses can now be used anywhere, including offline, for example on a plane or a train. You can also give licenses to temporary employees like translators, who just need to complete a single job with the program. Afterwards, you can revoke these licenses using the PIN mechanism (see further below). 

HOW MANY USERS ARE SUPPORTED

You can give your floating licenses to an unlimited number of users. The restriction is the number of users who can work at the same time. This is determined by the number of licenses you purchase. If you have 3 Floating licenses then a maximum of 3 users can use the program at the same time.

If more than 50% of your users often need to work at the same time then Professional licenses are the better choice, because they have the same functionality as the Floating licenses and will then cost less per user.

ACTIVATING YOUR LICENSE POOL TO GET STARTED

When you first receive your licenses, you as the administrator must register them all together on one computer. This establishes your "pool" of licenses and the number of available license slots for your users. To get started, you must install Help+Manual once on your own computer and activate at least one license, which opens your pool. You can then activate all the remaining licenses with Help+Manual itself, or take the opportunity to get started with this license administration tool and activate the remaining licenses with that.
 
GETTING THE ADMIN TOOL

The admin tool also shows you which licenses are currently in use and by whom and allows you to free up licenses if necessary. The download link is included with these instructions when you purchase. There is no installation, just unpack and run it. Before using it, activate at least one floating license from within Help+Manual. Then you can activate the manager with this key and use it to add all the other licenses to the pool, if you have not already done so with Help+Manual. 

GIVE EACH USER THE SAME LICENSE KEY

Once you have set up your license pool you then give each of your users the same floating license key -- just use the first key in your list for all users. The individual licenses are only needed to define the size of the pool. After that, the same key can be used by all users as authentication. It simply shows that they are entitled to use a slot from the pool.

Each user registers his/her computer with the key once when they start the program for the first time. After that, a license slot is checked out when the program is run, and automatically checked back in when it is closed, freeing up that license slot for other users. You need an internet connection if you work this way.

WORKING OFFLINE WITH FLOATING LICENSES

Users who need to work offline with floating licenses can also do this. To do this they must "pin" their license before going offline, using the Pin tool that appears on the Help tab if you have a floating license. Then the license will remain checked out for them until they pin it, or automatically after 8 days if they do nothing. This allows you to work in airplanes and trains and anywhere else where there is no active network connection.  

FREEING LICENSE SLOTS WITH THE ADMIN TOOL

In addition to seeing who is using the licenses you can also use the license manager to release licenses that are in use, subject to the following restrictions:

A normally used floating license can only be released by the administrator after two hours have passed since the user started Help+Manual.

A floating license that has been pinned for offline use can only be released by the administrator after eight days have passed since the license was pinned. However, you can see who is using it so you can contact them to unpin it before that...

REVOKING LICENSES WITH THE PIN OPTION

The management tool includes the ability to enter a PIN code for your license pool. You don't need this for normal operation, It is provided for when you want to stop users who once had access to the program from continuing to use it. For example, you might make a license available to a temporary translator for a limited time. If you want to prevent that user from continuing to use the license after the job is finished you just enter a PIN. All users will then be asked to enter the PIN once the next time they start the program. Once they have entered it once they won't need to enter it again, however. You can also change the PIN with the admin tool at any time for the next time this happens. 

SUMMARY

So, to sum it up:

* You register all keys once as administrator.* Each user installs Help+Manual on their own computer.
* You give each of your users the same key with which they can then activate their HM installation the first time they run it. This establishes their permission to use a license slot. 
* An internet connection is required for normal work, so that the license can be checked out at startup and checked back in at shutdown.
* For offline work, employees must "pin" their license before going offline.
* A license pool PIN is only needed if you want to revoke licenses for individual users.