Getting Started

Overview of the module sections

Documents is a module for storing, viewing, editing, and sharing documents, spreadsheets, presentations, fillable forms, images, etc. It contains the following sections:

• My documents is a private storage space, each portal member (with the exception of guests) has this section where he can upload, import or create documents for personal use only;
• Shared with me contains documents that were shared with a portal member by other members;
• Favorites contains documents and folders that were marked as favorites by the current user. Users can hide or show this section in the Common Settings of the Documents module. This section is not available for guests;
• Recent contains all the files recently opened in the editor by the current user (excepting encrypted documents and files from third-party clouds). Users can hide or show this section in the Common Settings of the Documents module. This section is not available for guests;
• Private Room is a special section for secure work with documents. This section is only available in the server version. Work in the Private Room is only available via Desktop Editors;
• Common is a common storage space containing files and folders available to all portal members;
• In projects contains folders corresponding to existing projects and represents a storage place for all documents from the 'Projects' module;
• Trash is a section where all deleted files are stored and can be restored or removed later.

Adding/creating files and folders

To transfer all your files to the Documents module, you can upload existing documents from your computer hard disk drive or integrate your Google Drive, Box, Dropbox, OneDrive, Nextcloud, ownCloud, SharePoint, OneDrive for Business, kDrive, or Yandex Disk account with the online office.

Uploading files and folders

To upload a file,

1. open the needed section or folder to which you want upload your files to by selecting corresponding options at the left-side panel,
2. click the button in the left upper corner within the 'Documents' module,
3. select the Upload files option from the menu,
4. choose the files you want to upload to the online office in the file manager window and click the Open button.

Or simply drag-and-drop a file or several selected files from your computer to the working area to upload documents to your portal even more easily.

The uploading process will start. If the file format differs from the Office Open XML one, the file will be converted into the .docx/.xlsx/.pptx format for faster editing. The notification window will appear where you can select if you want to save both files (a file in its original format and a file in the Office Open XML format). If you don't need files in an original format on the portal, you can uncheck the Save the file copy in the original format as well box. It'll be taken into consideration during the next uploading operations, and a converted file will be placed as a new revision of the original file rather than as a new separate file. It's also possible to enable or disable the Save the file copy in the original format as well option in the Documents module Common Settings.

If an original file is protected with a password, the password will be required to convert the file. You can click the Enter password option in the notification window and enter the password in the field below. It's also possible to click the Convert & Open icon to the right of the uploaded document in the file list; in this case, a new window will open where you need to enter a password.

To upload a folder that contains nested subfolders and documents:

1. click the button in the left upper corner,
2. select the Upload folder option from the menu,
3. choose the folder you want to upload to the online office in the file manager window and click the Open button.

This can also be done by dragging the necessary folder from the file manager window to the portal working area.

To integrate your Google Drive, Box, Dropbox, OneDrive, Nextcloud, ownCloud, SharePoint, OneDrive for Business, kDrive, or Yandex Disk account with the Documents module, use the corresponding buttons on the left-side menu after reading proper instructions.

Creating new files and folders

You can also create new files or folders within the 'Documents' module. To do that,

1. open the needed section or folder where you want to create a new file by selecting corresponding options at the left-side panel,
2. click the Create button in the left upper corner and select one of the following options:
   • Document to create a new text document
   • Spreadsheet to create a new spreadsheet
   • Presentation to create a new presentation
   • PDF Form to create a new .docxf file that allows editing text and working with form fields. Choose one of the options:
     • Blank to create an empty .docxf file.
     • From portal file to create a .docxf file on the base of an existing .docx document stored on your portal. Select the necessary file and click Create.
     • From local file to create a .docxf file on the base of an existing .docx document stored on your computer. Select the necessary file and click Open.

     To learn more on how to create a fillable form, you can refer to this section.

   • Folder to create a new folder
3. enter a name for your file or folder into the appropriate field and click the icon.

Viewing/editing files

You can view and edit your documents, spreadsheets, and presentations right on the portal using multi-functional Online Editors. You can also view media files stored on the portal in the most popular formats, including avi, mpg, mpeg, mp3, mp4, webm, etc., as well as the bmp, jpg, jpeg, png, gif, tif, tiff, webp images.

To edit a document, just click its title or the icon to the right of the file title, and it will be opened in a new tab of the Internet browser. If a file is currently being edited by another user, you will see the colored pencil icon. Place the mouse cursor over this icon to see who is editing the file at the moment. Click it to open and edit this document simultaneously with other portal users.

To edit a file, you can also click the icon next to it and select the Edit option.

Once you edit a document, spreadsheet, or presentation and save the changes made, both revisions of your file will be available, so you can restore the previous one if necessary. The available revisions can be grouped into the versions. To learn more, please refer to this article.

If you have no rights to edit the document, clicking its title will open it with the corresponding online office Viewer. The image files will open in the same window, and the text files will be shown in a new tab of your Internet browser. The online office Viewers offer standard tools to zoom in/out your files, adjust their size, navigate between pages, and download or print them.

To view a file, you can also click the icon next to it and select the Preview option.

When viewing media files with the online viewer, you can use corresponding buttons to start or pause the playback, adjust volume level or switch to the full screen mode, go to the previous or next media file, or download or delete the file.

When viewing image files with the online viewer, you can use corresponding buttons to zoom in or zoom out the image, go to the previous or next image, display the image's actual size (if the image has been zoomed in or out), rotate the image clockwise or counterclockwise, go to the previous or next image, and download or delete the file.

Managing files and folders

To quickly find a necessary document, make use of the filter at the top of the document list.

Click the button and specify the necessary filter parameters:

• To filter items by TYPES choose one of the following options: Folders, Documents, Presentations, Spreadsheets, Images, Media, Archives, or All files.
• To filter items by AUTHOR click the User or Group option and choose the necessary user or group.
• To exclude subfolders from search, click the No subfolders option in the SEARCH section.

Enter a document title, entirely or partially, in the filter field and press the Enter key to display the found item(s). The search location is displayed above the search results. If necessary, you can exclude subfolders from search by clicking the all subfolders link. If you want to go to the folder where the found file is located, right-click the file and use the Open location option. To go to the parent folder that is one level up from the current folder, use the arrow.

By default, all the files are sorted by Last modified date in descending order (later dates to early ones). If necessary, you can sort the items by Creation date, Title, Type, Size or Author opening the Sort by drop-down list to the right of the Filter field and choosing the necessary option. To change the sorting order from Descending to Ascending click the icon.

Use the buttons on the right to switch between the available display modes: Thumbnails view, Common view, and Compact view. Thumbnails are not generated for connected third-party services.

You can perform the following operations with your documents:

• Save as PDF Form - this option is only available for the .docxf forms
• Fill in the form - this option is only available for the .pdf fillable forms
• Share several documents at once for the portal users
• Copy the Quick external link to a file with default permissions for people outside the portal. The default access type is specified in Settings/Common/Default access rights in sharing settings/Default access rights for a specific file type.
• Copy the link to a file or folder to clipboard for portal users
• Send a file by email
• Sign a file with DocuSign
• Show version history and restore one of them
• Finalize the current version of a file and create a revision for a new one
• Block a file for further editing by other users with the corresponding editing rights
• Mark a file as favorite
• Download a file in the original format to your computer hard disk drive
• Download as a file in the selected format to your computer hard disk drive
  If several files are chosen for download, they will be packed in a .zip or .tar.gz archive (depending on the option you specified in the Common Settings of the 'Documents' module) and saved onto your hard disk.
• Move to another section or folder within the Documents module
• Copy a file and move the created copy to the selected section of the Documents module
• Create a copy of a file in the current folder
• Rename a file
• Delete a file, moving it to the Trash section of the Documents module

Group operations with files can be performed using buttons on the top or the contextual menu. To share, send by email, mark as favorites, download, move, copy, or delete several files at once,

1. open the needed section of the Documents module by clicking the corresponding option at the left-side panel
2. check the boxes next to the files you want to manage
3. click the needed button at the top depending on the operation you want to perform, or right-click one of the selected files and use the contextual menu options

Some operations can be performed with a single file only using the contextual menu. To rename, sign with DocuSign, block for co-authors, finalize, view the version history of a file, or copy the link to it (or perform any of the above-mentioned operations),

1. open the needed section of the Documents module by clicking the corresponding option at the left-side panel
2. find the needed document and click the icon next to it
3. select the corresponding option depending on the operation you want to perform. To learn more about the available context menu options, please read this article.

To rename a document stored in the Documents module, you can also check the box to the left of the necessary file in the list and press the F2 key. It's also possible to rename a document from the editor interface directly while editing. To do that,

1. click the File tab of the top toolbar and select the Rename... option,
2. in a new window that opens, enter the necessary File name and click OK.

Adding documents to Favorites

The Favorites section contains all files and folders marked as favorites from all sections of the Documents module. To add a file/folder to Favorites:

1. open the needed section of the Documents module by clicking the corresponding option at the left-side panel,
2. find the needed file/folder and click the icon next to it,
3. select the Mark as favorite option.

OR

1. open the needed document from the Documents module,
2. click the Mark as Favorite button in the upper right corner.

The file will be available in the Favorites section and marked with the icon in the file list.

Within the Favorites section, you can use the Open location option in the contextual menu to switch to the folder that contains this file.

To remove an added file from Favorites, use the Remove from Favorites option in the contextual menu or click the icon next to the file name.

To remove several files at once from Favorites, check them in the file list within the Favorites section and click the Remove button on the top.

You can hide or show again the Favorites section in the Common Settings of the Documents module.

Sharing files and folders

You can share files and folders stored in the My documents and Common sections both with portal users and third-party guests.

To access the sharing settings, go to the Documents module, switch to the corresponding section, check the necessary file or folder in the file list, and open the Sharing Settings window in one of the following ways:

• click the Sharing Settings button on the top;
• click the Share button to the right of the file or folder name;
• click the Actions icon on the right and use the Sharing Settings option.
  

In the Sharing Settings window, you can:

• Share files/folders with your workspace users. Provide access to individual users, a group of users, or portal administrators only. Manage the list of users by adding and removing the necessary ones. Notify users about shared files/folders or get a direct link to share it later.
• Share files/folders with users outside your workplace. Shorten a link and share it via email or social networks by clicking the corresponding icon.
• Get a code to embed the necessary file into your web page. Use one of the size presets or adjust the size manually.
• Provide different access permissions and change them for each user:
  • Full Access – a user has unrestricted access to the shared file or folder.
  • Review – a user can edit the file, but the changes should be accepted or rejected by the file owner.
  • Custom Filter – a user can view .xlsx files as per their own filter.
  • Form Filling – a user can only fill out forms.
  • Comment – a user can comment on the content of the file without editing it.
  • Read Only – a user can only view the file.
• Set additional restrictions. Do not allow users with Read Only & Comment permissions to print, download, and copy documents or change sharing settings (for Full Access).

Changing module settings

The Settings section at the left sidebar allows to change the Documents module settings. It contains several subsections.

Common Settings

This section is available for all users. Guests can also access this section with limited functionality.

Common Settings

• Save the file copy in the original format as well (available for users and guests) - is used when uploading files in formats that differ from .docx/.xlsx/.pptx. When this option is enabled, it allows you to place a converted file as a new separate file. If this option is disabled, a converted file will be placed as a new revision of the original file.
• Display notification when moving the element to the trash (available for users and guests) - is used to hide or show notifications when moving elements to the Trash.
• Download files in .tar.gz format. Otherwise, the files will be downloaded in .zip format. (available for users and guests) - is used to select the necessary format for downloading several files. When this option is enabled, the files will be downloaded in the .tar.gz format. If this option is disabled, the files will be downloaded in the .zip format.
• Trash bin auto-clearing - Delete files older than... – is used to permanently delete files in the Trash folder. After turning the switch on, you can choose the preferable time period: 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, 2 months, 3 months. This period is set individually for each user. The selected time period will be displayed under the file name in the Trash folder.

Storing file versions

• Update the file version for the existing file with the same name (available for users) - is used when uploading a file with the same name. When this option is enabled, it allows to update the version of the existing file. If this option is disabled, a copy of the file will be created.
• Keep intermediate versions when editing (available for users) - is used to create a new intermediate revision every time the user saves the file by using the Ctrl+S key combination or by using the Save icon.

Additional sections

• Display Favorites (available for users) - is used to hide or show the Favorites section.
• Display Recent (available for users) - is used to hide or show the Recent section.

Default access rights in sharing settings

• Default access rights in sharing settings – is used to set the selected access type as a default one for all files shared in the future as well as for specific file types, i.e. spreadsheets. The user can choose one of the following access types: Full Access, Review, Form Filling, Comment, Read Only. To learn more about access types, please read the following article.

Admin Settings

This section is available for the portal owner, full access administrators or the Documents module administrators.

This section allows to change settings for all portal users:

1. Storing file versions

   • Keep all saved intermediate versions is used to make it possible for the portal users to store all intermediate revisions.

2. Third-party accounts

   • Allow users to connect third-party storages is used to make it possible for the portal users to connect third-party clouds.

3. Sharing settings

   • Enable external link access is used to allow sharing files/folders not only with portal users, but also with third-parties using public sharing. This setting is enabled by default.
   • Show social media buttons for external sharing is used to allow users to share files/folders on connected social media accounts using the corresponding buttons, i.e., Facebook or Twitter. If disabled, the users can share links to files/folders using e-mail only.
     This setting is available only if the Enable external link access setting is enabled.

4. Connected clouds

   This section is available for all users (with the exception of guests) if the Allow users to connect third-party storages setting is enabled in the Admin Settings section.

   This section displays all clouds connected to the user's account and allows to connect other third-party clouds.