Uploading and Attaching Documents
Communigram makes it easy to attach documents to manage your deliverables. Through an integrated document server, various versions of your documents can be managed so that all participants of a deliverable automatically have access to the latest documentation.
Communigram allows you to define links to documents in two manners:
- Documents to describe the expected deliverable of the activity, the subproject or the project (Target Icon), such as such as a list of duties or templates which need to be filled out: these are added via Communigram and can be accessed (read only) via myCommunigram
- Finished deliverables (Attachment Icon): they are added to the column by the deliverable supplier via myCommunigram
- The Columns for Deliverable Description Documents (Target Icon) and Finished Deliverables (Attachment Icon)
You may add as many documents as you like to each activity, subproject and project. In order to add a link to a document, simply double-click in the Deliverable Description column (Target Icon), and a dialog box opens in which the currently available documents are listed. From here, you can link further documents using the buttons "Link to Document Server" and "Link to Local Document".
- "Deliverable Details" Window in Which Documents May Be Added (see next illustration)
Link to Document Server
If you want to use the integrated Document Server of your Communigram system, simply click on the first button "Link to Document Server" (see above). This will bring you to the window shown below.
- The Document Manager Window: click on the first button "Add Document to Server" to choose a document and upload it to the server
What you see in this window are the documents (organized in folders) that are already on the Communigram document management server. This server manages the versions of the documents if you or somebody else changes a document so that all users always get the latest version of each document. If a document already exists on the server, you can also simply create a new link to it by selecting it and clicking on "Relate". The corresponding link is automatically generated and the thus attached document appears in the document list. Documents can be attached in the same manner in "Deliverable Description" (Target Icon, via CommunigramPlanner) as in "Finished Documents" (Attachment Icon, via myCommunigram).
To add a new document to the server, click on the first button "Add new document to the server" to select the document on your local hard drive or network and upload it to the document management server. You will be asked to give the document a name as it will appear for other users (the name as stored on your local hard drive or network is suggested by default).
- This window shows the documents already present on the Communigram document server
- You can choose any name you like for the document you are uploading (its original name on the file server is suggested by default)
Editing Documents (for documents on Document Server only)
If you want to make changes to a document, simply click on "Check Out". This loads the document from the document server and opens it in the appropriate application (e.g. if the document has the suffix ".doc", it will be opened in Microsoft Word or OpenOffice, depending on your computer's default settings). To avoid anybody else making modifications to the same document while you are working on it, the system automatically blocks all other users from checking out the same document until you check your version back in. You can now simply make any changes within the application.
After you have finished working on your document, save it and close the application. Then, in Communigram, click on the "Check In" button to upload your new version to the server. In doing so, your new version is added to the server into the same "slot" as the former document, so that any references to the document are still valid. From now on, all users will access the new document by default.
Note: if you make a mistake and accidentally check out a document that you did not want to, you can click on "Uncheck Out" to remove the block on checkout. This means that other users can now check out the document to make modifications.
- To "check out" the file, click on this button
- The "checked out" document opens in the appropriate application (MS Word in this case). All you need to do is save the document in the application and then check the document back in.
Link to Local Document
If instead of using the integrated document server, you wish to link directly to a document, you can do so with the button "Link to Local Document". This can be useful if you wish to link to a document that is on a "network drive", i.e. a network location that is available to all people in the company via a specific drive letter such as "S:\" or "Z:\".
Note: Avoid creating links to local locations such as "C:\" or "D:\", because other users will not be able to access the document you are linking to.
If you link to a document on a network drive, this means of course that only people that have access to that network location will be able to open the document. Also, if anybody changes the document by accessing it directly on the network drive, it will of course be changed for all users of Communigram.
NEW: Full search on documents
When you upload a document to the document server of Communigram, its contents are automatically "indexed", i.e. each word is analyzed and put in an index so it can be found quickly if a user searches for it using the Communigram search engine.
- Research of documents containing the key word "vue"
- Result
Note: this does not work if you simply link a "local document" on a network drive to a deliverable
NEW: Definition of access privileges to documents
You can define who exactly has access to each individual document by clicking on the checkboxes next to each document. When you select a document, you will find a list of names and checkboxes to tick for read and write access privileges.
Communigram includes a document server that you can use to make documents available to people that have access to project data via CommunigramPlanner or myCommunigram.
Alternatively, you can also create links to an existing network drive (i.e. without using the document server).