Files module

Files home page

The
Files
 module provides information and file management features for the files added to each site but, not all of these features are available to every user in a given site. Depending on how a site is configured, unique access rights can be given to different groups of users for designated folders and files.

Page layout

On most devices, the
Files
 module is laid out with two panels:
  • A folder navigation panel is on the left. You can also change the size of the left navigation panel by hovering over the edge of the panel, then selecting and dragging.
  • A list of files and subfolders in the currently selected folder on the right
Folder navigation
The left panel of the
Files
 module contains a view of all of the folders on that site. The top-level folder is always given the name of the site. Users with
View Folder
 rights can use the folder tree to navigate through the folders they have access to.
The folder panel of the
Files
 module will be displayed in tree or list format.
When viewed on a desktop computer, the tree format will be shown. When viewed on a mobile device, the folder panel will be shown in the list format.
If you want to select several or all folders/files you can use keyboard commands such as
Ctrl+A
 to select all, or
Ctrl+click
 several items to select.
Tree format
On a desktop computer, the folder panel is similar to the Windows Explorer view of the files and folders on a computer.
Click on the
arrow
 icon next to a folder to view the related subfolders and click the
icon again to hide the subfolders. If a folder contains files - the number of files is displayed in parentheses after the folder name.
Click on a folder name to select it. The folder name will change colour and the contents of that folder, including any subfolders and files, will be revealed in the right panel. To navigate to a subfolder, click on the subfolder name in the left panel or click the name of the subfolder in the right panel.
Tree format on a device
On a phone or tablet device, to view the folder list, select
Browse
 to go to your folder tree.
The
Browse
 section works the same as on a desktop. Select the arrows to navigate through the folder tree, or select on the folder name to open that folder.
Folders on a device
The folder panel is not displayed on a device to ensure enough room to display the files. In this scenario, you can select the dropdown menu to go to another folder within the hierarchy:
File and subfolder panel
The right panel displays a list of the files and subfolders in the selected folder.
The
Files
 module can be displayed using one of four views:
  • List view
  • Column view
  • Thumbnail view
  • Index view
You can select either
List
,
Column
 or
Thumbnail
 view via the
View
 menu.
The default view is
Column view
.
Column view
To access the column view, navigate to
View
 >
Column view
:
The
Column view
 will be displayed, showing:
  1. Name
  2. Status
  3. Pages
  4. Size
  5. Author
  6. Last modified
Here, you can:
  • View / download a file
     - Click on a file name to view that file in the document viewer. You can also download the file by clicking the
    Download
     icon next to the file:
Clicking on a subfolder name will display the contents of that folder.
  • Current folder
     - The currently selected folder is listed. Use the drop-down menu to view the parent folders of a folder.
To view the contents of a subfolder in the current folder, click the name of the subfolder.
  • Multi-File Actions
     - The actions available at the top of the panel will vary based on your permissions and whether or not certain features have been enabled for the Files module
    • Add
       - Add a file (a placeholder file is used to manage files. e.g. you could section the files module and use a placeholder file as the headers of each section), multiple files, a new folder or bulk upload files and folders (the latter three actions are only available if you have folder admin permissions or higher).
  • Additional Actions
     - These actions relate to files(s) and/or subfolder(s) that have been selected using the checkboxes to the left. First, select the files(s) or subfolder(s) and select
    Action
    :
Then you can either choose to
Download
 the file, Move or Copy the file,
Add tags
 to the file or Delete the file.
To select all of the files and subfolders in the current folder, click the checkbox at the top of the list of files and folders:
To deselect all of the items, click the checkbox again.
  • Metadata
     - Metadata for each file and folder is displayed in the files module.
The standard metadata fields include:
  • File type (or folder) icon
     - This will allow you to (at a glance) determine what type of file or folder the file is
  • File or folder name
     - The name can include additional information, such as auto-numbering - if it has been enabled on the site
  • Status
     - If a DocuSign document is Sent for signature you can check the status of the signatories. Click here for more information,
  • Size
     - This is the size of the file. This measurement can be in B, KB, MB or GB
  • Author
     - Displays the author of the file
  • Last modified
     - This shows you the date and time that the file was last modified
Ready for signature status
You can now change the status of a document to 'Ready for signature', which enables other users to see at a glance that the document is ready for signing. To change this status, select the document you want to change the status of and click
Actions
 >
Edit status
.
The
Edit status
 screen open.
Here, you can select
Ready for signature
. Select
Save
 to save your changes.
  • More actions
     - For each file and folder you will have access to several options:
    File actions
     - To access the files menu, select the
    More actions
     ellipses.
The available file options are based on your role and the permissions you have been granted to the folder or file, as well as on the features that have been enabled for that site. File options that are commonly available include:
  • Edit
  • Info
  • Add version or Check Out/Check In
  • Add comment or Add task
  • Download
  • Send to
  • Delete
  • Move
  • Copy link or Share via email
Folder actions
 - A separate actions menu exists for folders, but there are fewer options available:
Many of these actions are only available to administrators. They include:
  • Edit details
     - Typically this is limited to renaming the folder and adding or editing its comments
  • Move
    ,
    Copy
     and
    Delete
  • Share the folder
     - Either by copying a link to the folder or sharing it via email
  • Sorting contents
     - Via
    Edit details
     >
    Settings
    :
Users will have the ability to change how folders and files are sorted, but by default, the files and subfolders will be shown in descending order by last modified date.
  • Add to favourites
     - To add a file or folder to your favourites, click
    Add to favourites
    .
  • Folder Email Address
     - If enabled by the site administrator, every folder will have a unique email address to which files can be sent as attachments. Only users with folder admin permissions (and greater) see the email address and can use this feature.
  • Search
     - To search, type the beginning of your search criteria in the search field and all files and/or subfolders in the current folder with a name that matches the search text are listed. The match must occur at the beginning of a word. For example, typing 'agree' will match the file 'Merger Agreement' but typing 'ment' will not produce a search result. All searching is case insensitive. To search the full text of all of the files within the site, enter your search criteria and press enter. The results will be displayed in the search results page
    • Click on the arrow next to the search box to reveal extra search options:
  • File types
     - This dropdown menu allows you to filter the files in the selected folder by file type. The drop-down menu will list all of the file types found in the folder:
Select one of the file types to filter the files in the folder.
You can also filter your search by
Tags
.
Finally, you can also filter your search by
Author
:
  • Advanced search
     - Use the
    Advanced search
     options to filter your search even further.
Hiding the folder pane
To increase the viewing space for the folders and files, click the
Hide
 arrow at the top left of the file and subfolder panel.
List view
To access the list view, navigate to
View
 >
List view
:
In the list view, the file and folder metadata is shown beneath the file and folder names, instead of in a column format.
The list view has all of same capabilities as the column view, except the files and folders cannot be sorted by column headers. Instead, navigate to
View
 >
Sort by
.
Thumbnail view
To access the thumbnail view, navigate to
View
 >
Thumbnail view
.
In the thumbnail view, file and folder metadata are shown alongside the file thumbnail. Folders are sorted as mini folder thumbnails.
Index/bulk download view
Select
Index
 in the left pane to view the files module in the
Index
 view:
The
Index
 view is only available if the Show file index option has been enabled for the site. (Otherwise, only administrators have access to this view.)
The index view provides features that are not available with other views:
  1. The entire file and folder structure can be viewed on a single page
  • The file index can be printed or downloaded as an Excel file, via
    Print preview
     and
    Export
  • To view the contents of all of the folders on the site, select
    Expand all
    .
To close all the folders, select
Collapse all
  1. All or portions of the file structure can be downloaded in bulk, if bulk downloading has been enabled for the site
Administrative users can determine which folders inherit the security settings of the parent folder from the colour of each folder. The key at the top of the page explains what each folder colour signifies.
Bulk downloading
In the column and list views, any files and subfolders in the current folder can be selected and then downloaded in bulk by navigating to
Action
 >
Download
. No extra step is required.
To provide more granular control of the content to download, and to see additional options regarding the format of the bulk download, you must initiate the bulk download from the index view. Select any files or folders to download and navigate to
Action
 >
Download
.
Selecting a file or folder will not automatically select the top-level folder (aka the
root folder
, which has the same name as the site) and neither will selecting a file or subfolder automatically select the parent folder as well. Unless you expressly choose to include the full folder path, only the selected files and folders will be included in the bulk download.
Click
Action
 >
Download
 to display the
Select options
 screen.
Infinite scrolling
The
Files
 module employs infinite scrolling. Instead of displaying all files and subfolders in a given folder, only the first 200 files and subfolders will be displayed. As you continue to scroll down the page, more and more files will be listed.

PDF versions of files

If a site is configured so that a PDF version of every file is available, then every compatible file will appear as a PDF file and the default method for accessing and downloading a file will be as a regular, not encrypted, PDF file.
When performing a file search, these files will be listed as having a file type of PDF.
For users with
View File
 permissions, the native version of files will no longer be available and you will only have the option to download a PDF version. For other users, an additional
Download original
 option will be available in the file previewer.
If the default file title link action is to download the file directly, then the
Download PDF
 option will not be displayed and clicking on the file name will download the PDF version directly. The Previewer and the automatic PDF conversion can both be enabled on the same site.

This article applies to:

  • Product: HighQ
  • Subject: Documents, File Exchange