The ‘Check Out/Check In’ feature is a facility for taking application documents out of Document Manager (‘check out’) to be edited and then returned to Document Manager (‘check in’). This feature is much like a library system, which allows only one person at a time to have full editing ability of a document.
While the document is checked out, other Document Manager users who access the document are informed it is checked out and given the option to open a read-only copy.
Once the user has finished working on the document, he or she can check in the document, and update the Document Manager database with the changed document. The option is also given to check in as a new version, or to cancel the check out.
It may be company policy to require all documents to be checked out prior to editing. If this is the case, the System Administrator specifies the appropriate setting in the Administration Module.
The ‘Check Out/Check In’ feature only works for application documents, for example, Microsoft Word documents. Image documents cannot be checked out. If the document is read-only, the option to check the document out is unavailable.
NOTE: It is not possible to check out externally referenced documents because these documents are not wholly controlled by and stored in the Document Manager database. To check out a document:
1. Right-click on the document and select Check Out from the pop-up menu.
2. The Select location for the Checked-out document dialog box displays. Specify where the document will be checked out to (this defaults to the last location used). Manually enter the path or click the browse button(…) to navigate to the location:
3. Click OK.
4. When the document is checked out, the Properties column for the document refreshes to display ‘Checked Out.’ There will also be a small red ‘tick’ mark through the document icon.
11.10.1
Opening a Checked-Out Document
When a user tries to open a document that has been checked out, a warning message details who has the document checked out and states that the user can only open a read-only version (see Figure 27 below). The document will open as normal; however, the user will not be able to make any changes.
Figure 27: Opening Checked Out Document Message
NOTE: If your organisation uses the ‘Application Document Preview’ feature and the setting Double-Click will use Document Manager viewer for Application documents is selected in User Settings, application documents are rendered as images and opened in the Image Viewer. Documents cannot be edited in the Image Viewer and checked-out documents cannot have annotations applied.
11.10.2
Checking In a Document
When a user has finished working on a checked-out document, it can be checked back in to Document Manager.
To check in a document:
1. Right-click on the checked-out document in Document Manager and select Check In from the pop-up menu.
2. A message displays and asks whether to delete the local copy of the document once it has been checked back in. Choose Yes or No:
A prompt displays to confirm whether to check in the document as a new version:
3. Choose Yes (Major), Yes (Minor), or No. (For more information on version control, refer to 11.11 Version Control on page 94.)
The document’s Properties column will no longer display ‘Checked Out’ and the small red ‘tick’ mark through the document icon disappears. The document is now checked in.
11.10.3
Undo Check Out
If the System Administrator has granted a user the ‘Undo Any Check Out’ permission, the user will be able to undo another user’s document check-out. This restores the document contents as if no edits had been made. A document’s check-out might be undone if:
•
A document has been checked out and changes made to it, but the changes made were not accepted.•
The person who checked out the document is unable to check it back in (for example, they are on sick leave). Undoing a check-out will allow immediate access to the document. The danger of undoing another person’s document check-out is the user who checked thedocument out will no longer be able to check it back in. The only course of action that the user can take is to import it into Document Manager as a new document. This might disrupt that person’s versioning of the document, which may or may not be important. Before undoing another user’s document check-out, let that user know, if possible.
To undo a check-out:
1. Right-click on the document in Document Manager and select Undo Check Out from the pop-up menu.
A prompt displays to confirm whether to delete the copy from the check-out directory:
2. Choose Yes or No.
The document’s Properties column no longer displays ‘Checked Out’ and the small red ‘tick’ mark through the document icon disappears. The document is now checked in.