Actions on a single object

Actions on a single object are invoked by selecting the action’s entry in the object’s action menu action menu.

Some of the entries in the action menu are specific for a particular type of object, e.g., the actions offered for a folder and a document are different.

Depending on what level of proficiency you have chosen for yourself, you may see fewer than the complete set of possible action menu entries for a given type of object. Further­more, BSCW does not show action menu entries that you cannot use, because you do not have the necessary access rights for a specific object or a complete folder or workspace. Actions offer­ed in the action menus include the following actions.

action menu  Open  opens and displays the object (folder, document, calendar etc.).

action menu  History  shows all events that took place since the creation of the object.

action menu  Info  shows the info page of the object.

action menu  Contents  shows an indented list, holding not only the objects directly contained in the folder, but also the contents of subfolders, sub-subfolders, etc.

action menu  Catch up  indicates that you have taken note of recent events which happened to the object. The corresponding event icons are removed.

action menu  Edit  lets you edit text documents and notes (plain text and HTML) directly on the BSCW server. Under certain conditions, Microsoft Office files can also be edited this way. Other types of objects may also be edited using this action, e.g. search queries, polls, tasks and flow folders.

action menu  Replace  uploads a file from your local computer system that replaces the current docu­ment. The replaced document is overwritten and no longer accessible.

action menu  Version Control  imposes version control on a document. You may enter a description of the base version, initial version number and state.

action menu  Revise  adds a local file as a new version to a document under version control. Older ver­sions are still accessible via the document info page.

action menu  Resubmit  lets you specify one or more dates when you want to receive an email reminder to attend to a document again.

action menu  Convert  lets you produce a new document by converting the given document into another format (MIME type). Select the target format from a menu of converter programs installed on your BSCW server.

action menu  Extract  extracts the documents from Zip/Winzip or Tar archives or from the attachments of an email message (MIME type message/rfc822) into the clipboard.

action menu  Send  lets you forward an object (folder, document) via email or fax (only available if BSCW server is configured accordingly).

action menu  Archive  generates a Zip/Winzip, Tar or RFC822 archive offering several encoding types and puts the archive into the clipboard.

action menu  Export  transfers the object to an FTP host.

action menu  Rate  allows you to rate the quality of a document or an object referred to by an URL on a 5-point scale. A rating will replace your previous rating, if any. All ratings by the members of the workspace are displayed in the info page of the object. The median rating is displayed in iconized form in the ‘Rating’ column of the object’s entry.

action menu  Change    Name  changes the name of the object.

action menu  Change    Description  changes the description of the object.

action menu  Change    Banner  lets you create or change a banner for a folder or workspace.

action menu  Change    Type  changes a document’s MIME type. This may become necessary when the uploading process did not detect the MIME type correctly. Here, you may also generate a PDF representation of the document, which is maintained along with the original document.

action menu  Change    Event Filter  lets you configure the events concerning the given object that you want to be informed of by, e.g., icons or the daily workspace activity report.

action menu  Attach    Note  lets you create an annotation to a document or URL. The annotation is repre­sented by a note icon after the object name in the object entry; click this icon to display the annotation.

action menu  New    Note  creates a new note within a discussion. This note does not reply to any earlier note, but it may start a new thread.

action menu  Access    Add Role  lets you define a new role based on standard templates or action classes.

action menu  Access    Edit Role  lets you change the access rights of an existing role, given that you have the permission to do so.

action menu  Access    Assign Role  allows you to assign a new role and thus new access rights to another member, if you have the necessary permission.

action menu  Access    Set Lock  locks the document to avoid inadvertent modification or deletion of the document. You should enter the reason for setting the lock. This text is displayed when the lock icon in the ‘Share’ is clicked; at this occasion, you may unlock the document again; other members may also ‘steal’ the lock from you.

action menu  Access    Public Access  turns the folder or discussion into a public workspace. For en­hanced control, you may specify the permitted actions (i.e. add document/folder/discussion/ note/URL) for anonymous access. For security rea­sons, the default is read-only ac­cess.

action menu  Cut  transfers the object to your clipboard.

action menu  Copy  transfers a copy of the object to your clipboard.

Note: To copy a folder means to recursively copy all objects contained in it, including all sub­folders, sub-subfolders, etc. In some cases, a link or cut action serves the same pur­pose, but may save a lot of storage space.

action menu  Paste  transfers the object from the clipboard to a folder.

action menu  Delete  transfers the object to your trash.

action menu  Link to Clipboard  creates a link to the object in your clipboard (only possible if you are a manager of the object) from where you may paste it to another folder. A link to an object works like any other folder entry referring to the object. Links serve the purpose of having entries in different places of your folder hierarchy that all refer to the same object without the necessity to copy the object. Destroying a link does not destroy the object as long as there are other links, i.e. entries referring to the object.