Working with folders in Xtendis 8

Working in Xtendis revolves around working with the documents that are available in the system.

On a typical working day, you might want to focus on a specific set of documents, such as documents that need some kind of action from you, documents that have been added recently that you want to be aware of, documents that other users have shared with you, and so on.

One way of working with these documents is through the use of folders through which the documents you want to work on can be accessed.

This article describes how to work with folders.

The following topics are discussed:

• Folders versus dossiers
• Folder basics
• Opening a folder
• Creating a folder
• Copying a folder
• Editing folder settings
• Marking a folder as favorite
• Refreshing the folder content count
• Deleting folders
• Creating a folder report
• Advanced use of folders
• Additional actions

Folders versus dossiers

In a way, folders and dossiers are very similar in the fact that they both group together documents.

There are minor differences though in their functionality and therefore in the way they are used:

• Folders group any document in the system, whether they are related or not. They are typically based on a search query as explained below, made personal for your use only, or shared with other users.

• Dossiers can only group documents that are related to each other, such as an employee, or a project. Dossiers also hold specific properties such as the date of birth of an employee or the type of employment. Documents that are added to the dossier automatically inherit these properties.

Folder basics

The typical way of working with folders is that the documents that are shown when opening the folder are based on a search query.

Example: A folder can be based on a search query that looks for all documents of a particular company or customer, or all documents that have been added in the past week.

Note: Such folders are also referred to as 'Search folders'.

Most, if not all, folders that you work with in Xtendis will be a folder of this type.

Opening a folder

Folders that you have access to can be quickly accessed by clicking them via the Dashboard:

• Folders that have been marked as favorite (see below) are shown below the quick search field. When the folder contains documents, the total number is shown as a badge.
• An overview of all folders is accessed by clicking 'Go to folder overview' on the Dashboard. Here, hover the mouse pointer over a folder title and click 'Open folder →' that appears.

Figure: The Dashboard with folders marked as favorite, and the option for accessing the full list of folders.

Figure: Viewing the full list of folders.

Note: It is not possible to use the search features (such as those for searching for documents) to search for folders and to open them from the search results.

Filtering the Folder overview page

As mentioned above, the Folder overview page gives an overview of all folders for all archives that you have access to.

When opening the page, all folders for all archives are shown, while system folders are hidden.

The search and filter options in the top right corner can be used to narrow down the results:

1. Search box. Enter (part of) the name of the folder you are looking for.
2. Click the Archive menu to choose the archive in which you want to search.
3. Click the system folder toggle to show or hide system folders.

Additional search parameters

Sometimes, the query that searches for the documents to show in a folder needs additional information such as a time period or the name of an employee or project.

When this is the case, a panel appears when opening a folder in which this information needs to be entered.

Figure: An example of entering a value when opening a folder. Here, the subject for the documents need to be specified.

Clicking Find then searches for the documents based on that information and opens the folder.

Refreshing a folder

To refresh the content of a folder while having the folder open, do one of the following:

• Hover the mouse pointer over the folder icon to the left of the folder name and click the Refresh icon that appears.

• Click the folder name and from the menu that appears, choose Refresh.

Creating a folder

Step 1. Do one of the following:

• On the Dashboard in the Add menu, click New folder.
• Access the Folder overview by clicking Go to folder overview on the Dashboard and click Add new.

Tip: Creating a search folder can also be done in Advanced Search by clicking the Store as search folder option.

The New folder panel appears.

The options in the panel are grouped in tabs.

Step 2. In the General tab, set the options as described below.

Step 3. Access the Query tab and define the search query that finds the documents that should appear in the folder. For details about how to do this, see Using criteria when searching in Xtendis 8.

Step 4. (Optional, only when the Shared folder option has been enabled in the General tab) Access the Permissions tab and define the settings for sharing the folder with other users or user groups. For details, see Folder settings in Xtendis 8.

The settings in the Columns tab can only be changed after the folder has been created.

Step 5. Click OK to save the folder.

Step 6. (Optional) Configure how the columns that appear in the list of documents or dossiers that are shown in the folder by doing the following:

Step 6a. Do one of the following:

• On the Dashboard, hover the mouse over the folder, click the 3 dots that appear and choose Configure from the menu that appears. In the Configure folder panel that appears, click the Columns tab.

• Open the folder by clicking it on the Dashboard. Click the 3 dots above the column view and choose Edit layout from the menu that appears.

The panel contains the following options:

Step 6b. Set the options as needed and when done, click Save to save the changes.

Copying a folder

When an existing folder has many of the settings set that a new folder should also have, a copy of that folder can be created.

This saves time by not having to manually create and configure the new folder.

Step 1. Access the Configure folder panel as explained in Editing folder settings in the section below.

Step 2. At the bottom next to the Delete button, click Copy.

Step 3. Confirm that you want to create a copy of the folder.

A new folder is created with the exact same settings as the folder that was copied.

Step 4. Adjust the settings as needed.

Editing folder settings

Once a folder is created, its settings can at any time be edited.

Note: The settings 'Entity' and 'Type' cannot be changed once a folder is created.

Do one of the following:

• On the Dashboard, hover the mouse over the folder, click the 3 dots that appear and choose Configure from the menu that appears.

• In an opened folder, click on the folder name at the top of the screen, and from the menu that appears, choose Configure.

The Configure folder panel appears. For details about the options that can be set, see Folder settings in Xtendis 8.

Marking a folder as favorite

Folders that you use often can be marked as 'Favorite'. These then appear on the Dashboard so that they can be easily and quickly accessed.

Setting a folder as favorite

To mark a folder as Favorite, do one of the following:

• In the folder, click the star icon at the top of the screen, to the right of the folder name. The icon changes to a solid star.

• Access the Folder overview by clicking Go to folder overview on the Dashboard and click on a hollow star for a folder in the list to turn it into a solid star.

• Access the Folder overview by clicking Go to folder overview on the Dashboard, select the check boxes for the folders that need to be made favorite, click the Actions button that appears and from the menu choose Add to favorites.

Tip: As an administrator, optionally choose Add to favorites for all for marking a shared folder as favorite for all users with whom the folder is shared.

Removing the favorite status

To remove the favorite status, do one of the following:
 

• In the folder, click the solid star icon at the top of the screen, to the right of the folder name. The icon changes to a hollow star.

• Access the Folder overview by clicking Go to folder overview on the Dashboard and click on a solid star for a folder in the list to turn it into a hollow star.

• Access the Folder overview by clicking Go to folder overview on the Dashboard, select the check boxes for the folders for which the favorite status needs to be removed, click the Actions button that appears and from the menu choose Remove from favorites.

Tip: As an administrator, optionally choose Remove from favorites for all for removing the favorite status from a shared folder for all users with whom the folder is shared.

Refreshing the folder content count

Folders that have been made favorite appear on the Dashboard for quick access.

The total number of dossiers or documents that the folder contains is indicated in the bottom right corner. This number is static and may therefore not always represent the actual number when the folder would be opened.

To quickly refresh the count, hover the mouse over the folder, click the 3 dots that appear and from the menu that appears choose Refresh total.

Deleting folders

Note: Only the folder is deleted; any documents that it contained remain in the system.

Step 1. Access the Folder overview by clicking Go to folder overview on the Dashboard.

Step 2. Select the check boxes for the folders that need to be removed.

Step 3. Click the Actions button that appears and from the menu choose Delete folders.

A message appears to confirm the action.

Step 4. Click Yes.

When the folder is a shared folder, a message appears to inform you that the folder will also be removed for the users with whom it is shared.

Step 5. Click Yes to confirm that you want to proceed.

The folder is removed.

Step 6. When the folder appeared as a favorite on the Dashboard, it may still be visible. Refresh the page to remove it.

Creating a folder overview report

When an overview is needed of the available folders in an archive and their settings, a report in .csv format can be created.

Step 1. Access the Folder overview by clicking Go to folder overview on the Dashboard.

Step 2. To the left of the Add new button, click the three dots.

Step 3. From the menu that appears, choose one of the following commands:

• Download report. Creates and downloads the report.
• Download report with item count. Creates and downloads the report, including a count of the items in each folder.

Step 4. Open the file in for example Microsoft Excel.

Advanced use of folders

Apart from the method of working with folders described in this article, folders can also be used in more advanced ways for performing specific tasks such as indexing documents, splitting documents, and creating a folder report.

Such tasks are typically performed by power users and are therefore described separately.

For more information, see Advanced ways of working with folders in Xtendis 8.

Additional actions

Many of the actions that can be performed in a folder are the same as those when viewing search results. These are described elsewhere. For details, see the following articles:

• Viewing documents in Xtendis 8
• Working with properties in Xtendis 8
• Working with search results in Xtendis 8
• Working with documents in Xtendis 8
• Working with dossiers in Xtendis 8