In most cases using the format specification files provided with the DeltaV software is straightforward. The files generally contain the minimum number of fields necessary to bulk edit alarm help-related information.
The Module_AlmHlp.fmt file supports all alarms that appear in non-SIS modules created from DeltaV library module templates. Each of the alarms has several fields associated with it. The format file has more than 100 fields. In export files, a large number of these fields contain <NULL> because the fields do not apply to a module. The SIS_Module_AlmHlp.fmt file supports the alarms that appear in the SIS_DEFAULT DeltaV library module template.
If your configuration contains a small subset of modules based on library module templates, you may want to create one or more of your own format specification files.
If your configuration contains modules that are not based on library module templates, you must create format specification files for alarm help as explained in the following section.