Ask Tao, the AI helper

Tao, a small turtle in the bottom corner of every dashboard page on a computer. Ask it how to do something in DiveOps and it answers from this help centre, then shows you where it is on screen. It can also look up today's trips, medicals, money and the record you have open, and get three everyday jobs started for you.

When you'd use this

You know what you want to do but not where it lives ("How do I add a boat?").
A new member of staff is finding their way around.
You want a quick answer without leaving the page you are on.

Tao works on a computer only: a screen at least 1024 pixels wide. It doesn't appear on phones or tablets. Tao is still being built and tested, so tell us what works and what doesn't.

Asking a question

Click Ask Tao in the top bar, or click Tao himself, bottom right. He pops out of his shell, the Ask Tao panel opens and he pops up beside its title.
Type your question and press Enter, or pick one of the example questions.
The answer appears as a short line and numbered steps, with the button and field names in bold, and the help article it came from. Click the article to read it in full in a new tab.

While it is looking you can press Cancel to stop it. Tao rubs his chin while he thinks.

To clear the chat and ask about something new, press Start again at the top of the panel.

Asking in your own language

Ask in any language and it answers in that language. Menu and button names stay in English, as the screen shows them, and the help article links stay in English. Its own short messages ("I can only help with using DiveOps", the step captions, Next and Done) come in English, Thai, Spanish, German, French and Indonesian.

Speaking your question

On Chrome, Edge and Safari a microphone button sits next to the question box.

Pick the language you will speak in from Voice above the box. It remembers your choice in this browser.
Tap the microphone and speak. Your words appear in the box as you talk.
Tap the microphone again, or press Esc, to stop. Check the words, fix anything it misheard, then send. It never sends by itself.

The first time, your browser asks to use the microphone. If you said no, allow it in your browser's site settings and tap the microphone again. Firefox can't turn speech into text, so there is no microphone there.

Privacy: your browser's speech service may receive the audio to turn it into text: Google on Chrome, Microsoft on Edge, Apple on Safari. DiveOps never receives audio, only the words you choose to send.

Questions about your own centre

It can also look up a few things in your centre's records and answer from them:

What does today look like? (or tomorrow): the trips on the Trip Sheet, with each boat, time, dive sites, how many divers and who leads each group.
Who hasn't done their medical? (today or tomorrow): the divers with no medical form, and how many are waiting on a doctor or were told not to dive, as the Ready to dive card on Home shows.
What have we made this month? (or last month, the last 30 days, this year): revenue, cash collected, profit and what is still owed, as the Finance page shows.
What's owing?: the bookings not fully paid, as the Not fully paid filter on Bookings shows.
Explain this booking (or this customer, or this boat): asked from that record's page, a short summary of it.

For a long list it gives the count and the first few, and the page shows the rest. Under the answer, Check these figures links to the page each figure came from, so you can see it for yourself. It only looks up what your access level can already see: if you can't open Finance, it can't read Finance for you either, and it says so. It only ever looks in your own centre's records, never another centre's, and it never looks up staff pay, payroll or commission for anyone. Looking things up never changes, sends or deletes anything.

Show me

When the answer is about a button or page, a Show me button appears.

Click Show me. The panel closes and Tao goes to the right place: a short way he swims, further he dives and comes up beside the caption, already pointing.
Each step dims the page and highlights one control, with a short caption, and Tao points at it. It goes all the way: the menu item, the button that opens the form, then the fields to fill in, even when the form opens in a window or on a new page.
Click Next to move on, or Done on the last step. When a step's caption says Press it to carry on, press the highlighted button yourself and the next step follows. Typing in a highlighted field moves it on too.
It never clicks anything for you. You press the button yourself.

To stop part way, press Esc or click the × on the caption.

If a step needs a page your access level can't open, or an area your centre has switched off, it says so and stops.

Getting a job started

Ask it to do one of these and a card appears under the answer. Nothing happens until you tap the card, and you finish the job yourself.

Make a booking, for example "book Ana Lopez on Open Water tomorrow". The card shows the customer and service it found. If more than one customer or service matches, pick the right one on the card. Open the booking form opens the normal Add booking form filled in. Check it, then press Save on the form. Nothing is saved until you do. If no customer matches, the card links to Add a new customer.
Put a diver on the Planner, asked from a booking's page, for example "put her with Tom". Open the Planner opens the board on the booking's own day and points at the booking. You drag it into the group yourself, so the board's own checks (gear, qualifications, numbers) still run. Asked from any other page, it opens the board on the day.
Send the medical link, asked from a booking's page, for example "send her the medical link". Make the link makes the booking's details link (medical, waiver and diver details), the same link as the booking's own Details link panel. If the booking already has one, you get that same link. Then Copy link or Email it to the customer. The email goes straight away and can't be unsent. A quick second tap doesn't send a second email.

The card only offers what your access level can already do on that page. It never takes a payment, gives a refund, cancels, deletes or changes a setting, so it won't offer those.

Did it help?

Use the thumbs under each answer to say whether it helped. This tells DiveOps which answers need work.

When it doesn't know

It only answers questions about using DiveOps. If the help centre doesn't cover your question it says "I don't know that one yet. Shall I send it to DiveOps support?" with Send this chat to DiveOps support straight under it. If an answer didn't help, the same link sits under every answer. The whole chat goes to the DiveOps team as a support ticket, and the reply appears on your Support page.

Moving the helper

You can drag Tao anywhere on the screen. It remembers the spot for you in this browser. If your device is set to reduce motion, Tao changes pose without swimming, stretching or blinking.

How many questions you can ask

Tao has fair-use limits, so one busy day or a stuck button can't use up the questions for everyone else:

About six questions a minute for each person. Ask faster and Tao asks you to wait a minute.
About 60 questions a day for each person, and about 300 a day for the whole centre.
A monthly amount for each centre. Most centres never come near it.

When a daily limit is reached Tao rests until tomorrow, and a monthly one until next month. Either way Send this chat to DiveOps support stays under the message, so your question still reaches us.

What it sends

Your question, the chat so far, the chat's language, your access level, your centre's switched-on areas and the names of the buttons on the page. It never reads anything on your screen.

When you ask about your own centre, it also sends what it looked up for that question: counts, dates, services, booking numbers, money figures, and divers by first name and last initial. Never a phone number, email, date of birth, note, certification number or medical answer, and never the name of someone waiting on a doctor or told not to dive. Chats are deleted after 90 days.

When it shows a card, it notes which kind of card it was and which booking, and whether you made the link and emailed it. That note sits on your own chat line and is deleted with it.

Troubleshooting

Symptom: I can't see Tao or Ask Tao → Cause / fix: Tao shows on screens at least 1024 pixels wide. On a phone or tablet, use a computer. On a computer, make the browser window wider.
Symptom: it says it can't look that up for you → Cause / fix: your access level can't open that page. Ask someone who can, or ask your owner to change your access.
Symptom: "I can't see it on this screen" → Cause / fix: the control is on another page or folded away. Open the page it is on and ask again.
Symptom: "The microphone is blocked for this site" → Cause / fix: your browser was told not to use the microphone here. Open the site settings (the icon left of the web address), allow the microphone, then tap it again.
Symptom: it writes the wrong words → Cause / fix: check Voice is set to the language you are speaking.
Symptom: "Open the booking first, then ask me again" → Cause / fix: the medical link needs a booking. Open the booking's page, then ask.
Symptom: "This booking has no customer, or it is cancelled" → Cause / fix: a details link needs a customer on a live booking. Add the customer to the booking first.
Symptom: "Emailed a moment ago" → Cause / fix: the same link was emailed just before, so it was not sent twice. To send it again, wait a minute.
Symptom: "You're asking faster than I can keep up" → Cause / fix: more than about six questions in a minute. Wait a minute, then ask again.
Symptom: "I'm resting until tomorrow" or "until next month" → Cause / fix: a daily or monthly limit is reached. Send the question to DiveOps support with the link under the message.
Symptom: "That didn't send" → Cause / fix: the ticket didn't reach us. Try again in a minute, or use the Support page.

support.md · raising a support ticket yourself.
getting-started.md · first login and finding your way around.