Providing enhanced functionality in an interactive electronic technical manual

An apparatus for displaying a data source of data found in technical documentation for an item via an interactive electronic technical manual system (IETM) configured to provide electronic and credentialed access to the technical documentation for the item via an IETM viewer, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to:

• provide a window for display via the IETM viewer executing on a user computing entity being used by a user signed into the IETM, the window comprising (1) at least one of textual information from the data and an illustration related to the data and (2) a selection mechanism;
• receive input of a first type of selection of the selection mechanism or a second type of selection of the selection mechanism, wherein the first type of selection of the selection mechanism or the second type of selection of the selection mechanism is performed by the user via the IETM viewer;
• responsive to receiving the input of the first type of selection of the selection mechanism, generate a data source window comprising a relevant section of the data source in which the relevant section relates to the at least one of the textual information from the data and the illustration related to the data being displayed on the window;
• responsive to receiving the input of the second type of selection of the selection mechanism, generate the data source window comprising the data source;
• and
• provide the data source window for display via the IETM viewer.

A non-transitory computer storage medium comprising instructions for displaying a data source of data found in technical documentation for an item via an interactive electronic technical manual system (IETM) configured to provide electronic and credentialed access to the technical documentation for the item via an IETM viewer, the instructions being configured to cause one or more processors to at least perform operations configured to:

• provide a window for display via the IETM viewer executing on a user computing entity being used by a user signed into the IETM, the window comprising (1) at least one of textual information from the data and an illustration related to the data and (2) a selection mechanism;
• receive input of a first type of selection of the selection mechanism or a second type of selection of the selection mechanism, wherein the first type of selection of the selection mechanism or the second type of selection of the selection mechanism is performed by the user via the IETM viewer;
• responsive to receiving the input of the first type of selection of the selection mechanism, generate a data source window comprising a relevant section of the data source in which the relevant section relates to the at least one of the textual information from the data and the illustration related to the data being displayed on the window;
• responsive to receiving the input of the second type of selection of the selection mechanism, generate the data source window comprising the data source;
• and
• provide the data source window for display via the IETM viewer.