Each Aptify form includes an Attachments tab so users can attach related documents directly to a record. This section describes how to add attachments to a record, update attachments, open attachments, and group attachments.
A user's ability to work with attachments depends on his or her permissions to the particular service. For example, if a user does not have delete access to the Persons service, then he or she cannot delete attachments from Persons record by default. Note that administrators can configure attachments security settings as needed. See Modifying Security Settings for Attachments for details.
This topic covers the following sub-topics:
- Adding an Attachment Using Drag and Drop
- Adding an Attachment Using the Right-Click Menu
- Opening an Attachment
- Saving an Attachment to Your Local Computer
- Updating an Attachment
- Deleting an Attachment
- Renaming an Attachment
- Working with Attachment Categories
Adding an Attachment Using Drag and Drop
Follow these steps to add an attachment to a record by dropping the file (or files) onto a record's Attachments tab.
- Open a record and select the Attachments tab.
- Select a category for the attachment, if applicable.
- See Working with Attachment Categories for more information on categories.
- On your computer locate the file or files you want to attach to the record.
- Select the file or files and hold down the left mouse button.
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While still holding the left mouse button, drag the files to the left-hand pane of the record's Attachments tab making sure that the pointer of the mouse is over the category in which you want to add the files to as shown below.
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See Working with Attachment Categories for more information on categories.
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See Working with Attachment Categories for more information on categories.
- Release the left mouse button to add the file (or files) as an attachment to the record (in the category you selected in Step 2 above).
- The file name appears in the Attachments list under the Category that you specified, and the Category is now selected (if not previously selected). Note that the attachment only appears after you have selected the category to which the attachment belongs. If you selected multiple files, each file is added as a separate attachment.
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Save the record.
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When one or more attachments have been added to a record, the number of available attachments appears to the right of the Attachments tab title. This is a visual indicator that the record has attachments.
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When one or more attachments have been added to a record, the number of available attachments appears to the right of the Attachments tab title. This is a visual indicator that the record has attachments.
In addition, you can add emails to a record by dragging and dropping messages from Microsoft Outlook to a record's Attachments tab.
Adding an Attachment Using the Right-Click Menu
Follow these steps to add an attachment to a record using the attachment tab's context menu:
- Open a record and select the Attachments tab.
- Select a category for the attachment, if applicable.
- See Working with Attachment Categories for more information.
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Right-click in the attachments area of the tab and select New Attachment from the pop-up menu.
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In addition, if you select a category for the attachment, you can create a new attachment by right-clicking the category and selecting Add Attachment from the pop-up menu.
- An Add File dialog appears.
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In addition, if you select a category for the attachment, you can create a new attachment by right-clicking the category and selecting Add Attachment from the pop-up menu.
- Use the Add File dialog to locate the file or files you want to attach the record. Select the file(s) and click Open.
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The file name appears in the Attachments list. Note that the attachment only appears after you have selected the category to which the attachment belongs. If you selected multiple files, each file is added as a separate attachment.
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The file name appears in the Attachments list. Note that the attachment only appears after you have selected the category to which the attachment belongs. If you selected multiple files, each file is added as a separate attachment.
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Save the record.
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When one or more attachments have been added to a record, the number of available attachments appears to the right of the Attachments tab title. This is a visual indicator that the record has attachments.
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When one or more attachments have been added to a record, the number of available attachments appears to the right of the Attachments tab title. This is a visual indicator that the record has attachments.
Opening an Attachment
Follow these steps to open a record attachment:
- Open a record and click the Attachments tab.
- You can easily identify if a record has an attachment by looking for the paperclip icon to the left of the Attachments tab title.
- Do one of the following:
- Double-click the attachment.
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Right-click an attachment and select Open Attachment from the pop-up menu.
Your computer must have an application that supports the attachment's file type to open the attachment.
Saving an Attachment to Your Local Computer
Aptify supports the following methods to save an attachment to your local computer:
Saving an Attachment Using Drag and Drop
Follow these steps to save an attachment by dropping the file (or files) to your computer or to a location on your network.
- Open a record and select the Attachments tab.
- Open the local or network folder where you want to save the attachments.
- You can also save the attachment by dropping the file to your Desktop.
- Select the attachment or attachments you want to save to your computer and hold down the left mouse button.
- While still holding down the left mouse button, drag the attachment(s) to the specified location on your local computer or network.
- Release the left mouse button to save a copy of the file to the specified location.
Saving an Attachment Using the Right-Click Menu
Follow these steps to save an attachment to your computer or to a location on your network.
- Open a record and select the Attachments tab.
- Click the attachment you want to save to your computer and select Save Attachment from the pop-up menu.
- A Specify Save Location dialog appears.
- Use the Specify Save Location dialog to specify a location to save the attachment. Select an existing File name or rename the attachment as needed and click Save.
- The system saves a copy of the file to the specified location.
- The system saves a copy of the file to the specified location.
Updating an Attachment
You can update an attachment with a new version of the same file. Follow these steps to update an attachment to a new version:
- Open a record and select the Attachments tab.
- Do one of the following:
- Use drag and drop to update the file.
- Locate the new version of the file on your computer.
- Drag and drop it to the Attachments control (see Adding an Attachment Using Drag and Drop for drag and drop instructions).
- When prompted, click Yes to update the existing file. To add the updated file as a new attachment, click No.
- Use the Update Attachment menu option.
- Right-click the attachment you want to save and select Update Attachment from the pop-up menu. A Select File dialog appears.
- Use the Select File dialog to locate the file you want to attach the record. Select the file and click Open. The system overwrites the attachment with the updated version of the file.
- Use drag and drop to update the file.
- Save the record.
Deleting an Attachment
Follow these steps to delete an attachment from a record:
- Open a record and select the Attachments tab.
- Do one of the following:
- Select the attachment you want to delete and press the Delete key.
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Right-click the attachment you want to delete and select Delete Attachment from the pop-up menu.
- Click OK to confirm the deletion.
- Save the record.
Renaming an Attachment
Follow these steps to rename an attachment:
- Open a record and select the Attachments tab.
- Do one of the following:
- Select the attachment you want to rename. Then, wait a moment and select it again.
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Right-click the attachment you want to delete and select Rename Attachment from the pop-up menu.
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When the cursor appears in the attachment's name field, enter the new name.
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Microsoft reserves certain characters/symbols for the user by the file system. These characters cannot be used within filenames (\ / : * ? < > and |). When a user attempts to rename a file attached to an Aptify record that includes one or more of these invalid characters listed above, the following message is displayed, and the file reverts back to its original name.
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Microsoft reserves certain characters/symbols for the user by the file system. These characters cannot be used within filenames (\ / : * ? < > and |). When a user attempts to rename a file attached to an Aptify record that includes one or more of these invalid characters listed above, the following message is displayed, and the file reverts back to its original name.
- Click the Enter key to apply the change.
Working with Attachment Categories
Users or system administrators can create attachment categories to group related attachments together. Categories are particularly useful to organize attachments in a record that has a large number of attachments. In addition to it a user can secure attachment categories and the attachments in those categories so that they are visible only to authorized users. A user's ability to create, edit, delete, and see attachment categories depend upon the user's specific attachment security permissions. See Modifying Security Settings for Attachments for details.
The following sections describe how to work with attachment categories:
- Creating a New Category
- Deleting a Category
- Renaming a Category
- Opening an Attachment Categories Record
- Moving Attachments Between Categories
Creating a New Category
In general, an administrator will create categories and sub-categories for you. However, advanced users can create their own categories, following these instructions:
- Right-click within the category tree and select New Category from the pop-up menu to open a new Attachment Categories record.
- To create a new top-level category, right-click the Categories heading at the top of the tree.
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To create a new sub-category, right-click the category that will be the new category's parent.
- Enter a Name and a Description for the category.
- Modify the Parent field, if necessary.
- If you opened this new Attachment Categories form by right-clicking on an existing category, the Parent field fills in automatically with that existing category's name. This means that the new category will appear as a sub-category of that existing category.
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To create a top-level category, leave the Parent field blank.
- Select the Scope for the category.
- If you want this category to appear in the Attachments tab for all forms, change the Scope set to Global.
- If you want this category to appear in the Attachments tab for only certain services, leave the Scope to Entity and follow these steps:
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- Make a list of the services whose forms should include this category in the Attachments tab.
- Click the Entities tab.
- Click the New icon or right-click in the gray area and select New from the pop-up menu to open a new sub-type record.
- Enter a service from your list in the Entity field. This category will appear in the Attachments tab for all records in the service you specify. Enter comments, if desired, and click OK.
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Create additional sub-type records for the rest of the services on your list.
The Track Versions field is reserved for future use.
- Set the category's security as desired. Users who do not have access to the category will not see the category on the Attachments tab and will not have access to the attachments contained in that category. See Modifying Security Settings for Attachments for details.
- To apply the service's standard attachments security (based on a user's access to the service to which the attachment applies), leave the Group Permissions and User Permissions tabs blank. For example, if a user does not have delete access to the entity, then the user will not be able to delete attachments in the category or delete the category.
- To apply specific security to the category, specify the groups and/or users who should have access to this category on the Group Permissions and User Permissions tabs. For each user or group, specify the access rights to grant for attachment categories:
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- Read: The ability to see the category and its attachments.
- Create: The ability to create sub-categories and add attachments to the category.
- Edit: The ability to edit the attachments in the category or edit the category itself.
- Delete: The ability to delete attachments in the category or delete the category itself.
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If adding multiple Group Permissions and/or User Permissions, you can utilize the OK and New button to save the record and open a new Group/User Permissions record in one step.
To prevent a user or group from accessing the category and its attachments, do not add a Group Permissions or User Permissions record for that party (or you can create a record without selecting any of the options).
- Click Save and Close to save the new category and close the form.
Deleting a Category
To delete a category, do one of the following:
- Select the category in the category tree and press the Delete key.
- Right-click the category and select Delete Category from the pop-up menu.
When prompted, click Yes to confirm the deletion.
Note that you cannot delete categories that contain sub-categories or attachments. You need to delete or modify these sub-categories or attachments first before you can delete a parent category.
Renaming a Category
To rename a category, do one of the following:
- Select the category in the category tree. Then, wait a moment and select it again.
- Right-click the category and select Rename Category from the pop-up menu.
When the cursor appears in the category's name field, enter the new name and then click the Enter key to apply the change.
Opening an Attachment Categories Record
To open a category's Attachment Categories record, right-click the category and select Open Category from the pop-up menu.
Moving Attachments Between Categories
If you want to move an existing attachment to a new category, you can delete the attachment from the first category and then add it as a new attachment to the second category.
Alternatively, advanced users can open the attachment's record in the Attachments service and modify the Category field to specify a different category. Contact your system administrator if you need assistance with this task.
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