Types of documents

Documents related to a case are accessed via the case's Documentation tab.

These include many different types of documents, such as:

• plain text documents created entirely in Case Manager
• formatted text documents also created entirely in Case Manager and with text formatting, images, tables, and so on

These are also referred to as a rich text documents.

• emails that are created and sent from Case Manager
• Word documents that are managed by Case Manager but created and edited in MS Word
• documents that are brought into the system from elsewhere, including emails received in MS Outlook

When you create a document in Case Manager you start by selecting a suitable template. For most types of documents this can also contain merge fields, which enables faster and more accurate document creation, including emails.

You can drag files from Windows Explorer or MS Outlook and drop them into the Documentation grid. They will be listed in the grid and stored in the Case Manager system.

Note that this is a one way process: documents cannot be dragged from Case Manager to the desktop.

Case Manager can create and send case emails from its Documentation tab.

Emails that you receive in MS Outlook can be dragged into the Documentation tab, which displays a preview of the content of the email.

Emails are indicated by the icon. A record is kept of the details of both incoming and outgoing emails.

Case Manager is designed to work well with Microsoft Word for Windows.

You create a Word document by first selecting a Word template. Any merge fields in the template are customised using values from the case and the new Word file is saved. You then edit the document in Word as described below.

Word documents are stored in a separate folder outside the Case Manager database so that Word can access them easily.

When you edit them a document locking system may operate behind the scenes to protect against multiple users trying to change the same Word document at the same time:

Video credits

As the video shows, you will rarely notice document locking in action. You simply need to make sure that you close the file in Word before returning to Case Manager, as you will do in Lab - Word documents.

Further information about icons in the Locked documents window is at Locked documents.