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The Document Folders service (dman) provides a powerful document storage
and management system for community members. To use dman you must first
subscribe to the Document Folders service. Once subscribed you will be
able to create and browse document folders, create new documents, view and
modify existing documents and search for documents.
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Document FoldersIndex
Browsing Document Folders
There are two ways of finding and accessing documents in dman. One method is to explicitly search for documents. However, by far the most common method is through navigating and browsing a folder hierarchy.
Browsing document folders in dman is very similar to navigating file systems on a disk. Folders, like directories, will contain sub-folders (sub-directories) and documents (files). However, that is as far as the analogy goes. In dman documents are stored in a single document pool where a unique id identifies each document. A folder can contain references to documents within the pool. A folder hierarchy is therefore just a logical view of that document pool. It will contain references to some or all of the documents within the pool. Some documents may be referenced many times, but a document cannot be referenced more than once in any folder. Each subscriber has a home folder, and this provides an opportunity for users to build their own view of the document pool. The home folder of the ‘dmanadmins’ user acts as the root of a shared folder hierarchy that other dman subscribers can access (subject to permissions).
Browsing through document folders is straightforward. For the folder that
you are currently viewing (the Current Folder
) you will be shown a
list of subfolders and documents within that folder.
Subfolders are listed with either the
icon (for a
non-image-library folder) or the
icon (for an image
library folder), together with the folder's Name and the folder's
Summary if it exists.
-
To navigate down into a sub-folder, click on the folder name.
-
To navigate back up to the parent folder click on ‘parent folder’ (represented by
) -
To view the Properties of the folder select the
icon
next to the folder. -
To sort the folder listing use the drop-down list above the list of sub-folders to choose which folder field to sort on and the icons
and
to switch between
ascending and descending order.
The menu at the top of all dman templates provides an easy means of moving between your home folder, the shared root folder and the ‘current’ folder. If you are a member of more than one group that is subscribed to dman clicking on the login name will take you to the Change Login page where you will be able to change your current dman persona. Clicking on the link View categories will take you to a page where you can view, edit and create custom property definitions.
Documents may be represented in different ways depending on the state of
the document. Ordinary documents are shown with different icons depending
on their type, for example:
or (for an image)
. Also shown are the
document's title and comment.
If a document is shown with an
icon, it means that the
document is locked. You can download and view information about the
document but you will not be able to make any changes to it (unless you
hold the lock). Click here for more information
about locking documents.
You can sort the list of documents in the same way that you can sort the folder list, but you can also sort documents on the custom properties that are defined. The sort options that you select can be remembered by the site, if you have selected this facility in your preferences.
If the current folder is part of an image library, you can choose whether to have thumbnail images displayed (the default) or to have the the more detailed view that you see when you are in a non-image-library folder. You can switch easily between the two views by following the link to the right of the “View:” label, which will be either “Detail” if thumbnails are currently displayed, or “Thumbnail” if the non-image-library view is current. The thumbnail image provides a link to the full-size image.
The
default image thumbnail is displayed if for some reason a thumbnail is not
available for a particular full-size image. If you have Manage
access for the image (or are its owner), you can either upload your own
thumbnail image or ask dman to create one automatically.
The
default document thumbnail is displayed to represent any non-image
document which has been uploaded (or copied or moved) to an image library
folder.
Selecting the icon
next to a document will take you to the
Properties page for that document. Clicking on
the document name will allow you to view or
download the document.
Whilst browsing it is possible to register an interest in changes that may
occur in a folder by enabling notifications for it. You do this by
selecting the 
icon,
which then changes its appearance to
. Having done
so, when you as a user are informed of what has changed on the site, you
will be told of any change that has occurred in those folders of interest
and the date/time the change occurred. Currently, changes you can be
notified on are the creation/modification of documents and the creation of
sub-folders. You can disable notifications again for a folder by
selecting its 
icon, which then changes its appearance to
.
Click here for further
information about notification in general.
The folder browsing view may also contain links for other main dman functions, such as:
Viewing Documents
When you click on a document in the folder browser, the document will either be downloaded to your computer or displayed within a dman template depending on the MIME type of the document and how dman has been configured/customised.
Note How your browser treats documents that you download will depend on the MIME type of the document being retrieved and how your browser is configured to handle that type. For example, text and HTML files may be displayed within the browser, whereas word processor document may be saved to disk. For further information consult your browser's help documentation.
Searching
Searching allows you to search for a document by document properties, such as title, or by document content. (When indexing images, the comment field is taken as the content, and thus becomes the principal search field.) In order to search the document store the additional Teamware Pl@za Search product must be installed on the site.
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