In this lesson, we’ll demonstrate how to install the Upchain for Office plugins and log in. Once we’re logged in, we’ll explore the plugin user interface and upload a document to a project.
You must be invited to Upchain and have at least a Team license to perform the tasks demonstrated in this lesson. You must also be added to a project to be able to manage documents within that project.
In this video, we will:
Transcript
00:05
In this video, we will install and log into the Office plugins and explore the user interface.
00:11
Let's take a look.
00:16
The Upchain for office plugins enable you to work with documents stored in the Upchain cloud,
00:21
collaborate with others and manage your assigned tasks, all without leaving your preferred workspace.
00:27
Please note that you need to be assigned a team or professional license to use the Office plugins.
00:33
You will not be able to log into any Office plugin without the appropriate license.
00:38
The Office plugins are specifically for Word, PowerPoint and Excel applications.
00:46
Let's get started by installing the plugins.
00:49
First, you must log into the Upchain web application.
00:53
Once logged in, click the "user profile" drop down button and select plugins.
01:02
On this page, scroll down until you find Upchain for Office.
01:09
Click the "download" button.
01:12
Decide where to save the installation file,
01:23
and then follow the installation instructions.
01:30
The plugin is now installed for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
01:35
When you first open an Office application, you'll notice a new tab along the menu ribbon bar named Upchain.
01:42
Click this to access the plugin menu.
01:46
First thing you'll want to do is log in to the plugin.
01:50
To do this, you can either click the "sign in" button or you can click the "toggle pane" button.
01:56
Both of these actions open the Office plugin on the right hand side.
02:03
Click the "log in" button.
02:07
If you were already logged in elsewhere, such as the web application, you wouldn't need to enter your credentials again.
02:14
Otherwise, you will be redirected to a web browser to log in.
02:20
Close the browser once you're logged in, and you're now logged into the plugin.
02:31
The ribbon bar along the top provides some common functionality to use when you have a document open,
02:37
including some document control functions, including checking in, checking out, or canceling a checkout on a document.
02:46
This will be frequent functionality to use to make changes to a document and commit them back into Upchain.
02:52
You can import a document to the general documents category in a project.
02:59
There is version control that allows you to ensure you're working with the latest version of a document and access previous ones.
03:07
Tools to view linked documents, follow or unfollow a document, so it appears in the plugin homepage, and create a markup if necessary.
03:17
And lastly, you can toggle the main plugin open and closed.
03:22
Let's take a look through the plugin user interface.
03:26
You'll want to begin by selecting a project in which to work.
03:31
By selecting a project, you set the context for the rest of the tabs in the plugin.
03:36
Otherwise, most will stay empty.
03:39
This drop down menu shows you your favorite projects first, followed by all additional projects that you have access to, including public ones.
03:52
We'll select our drone project.
04:01
Now that we have a project selected, we can explore the different tabs along the left.
04:07
The first tab is the home tab that shows you all documents that you have followed.
04:14
You can follow a document in the web application or from the ribbon bar if you have a document open.
04:22
This makes it easier to access documents you would access frequently without having to locate them in different projects first.
04:33
The next tab is the bill of materials tab.
04:37
This is where you can view the bill of materials within your selected project.
04:42
Later on, you'll learn how to link an item or an entire bill of materials to a document.
04:48
When no project is selected, this page is empty.
04:53
Also note that the Excel plugin has additional functionality here to work with a bill of materials.
05:01
The Assignments tab shows you any assignments you have within your selected project.
05:07
These assignments may or may not be related to documentation depending on your role within that project.
05:14
When no project is selected, this tab shows you all assignments you have across all of your projects.
05:25
You can also click on an assignment to load its details in the lower pane for further information.
05:36
The Documents tab shows you all documents associated with the selected project,
05:42
shown in the document categories that were configured by your tenant administrator.
05:47
This is where we'll spend most of our time in this course, becoming familiar with how to interact with project documents.
05:55
Again, when no project is selected, this page is empty, so be sure to select a project before looking for any data here.
06:10
The Teams tab shows all team members on the selected project for you to use as a reference,
06:15
should you wish to assign any tasks to someone on your team.
06:20
Again, when no project is selected, this page is empty.
06:28
The last few tabs along the left at the bottom will open the Upchain Help documentation,
06:37
provide notifications for any new assigned tasks or out-of-date information, and allow you to sign out of the plugin.
06:45
The bottom button allows you to collapse the plugin.
06:52
You should now be able to install the office plugins, log into an office plugin, and briefly describe what you can find in each section.
07:01
Keep going to learn more.
00:05
In this video, we will install and log into the Office plugins and explore the user interface.
00:11
Let's take a look.
00:16
The Upchain for office plugins enable you to work with documents stored in the Upchain cloud,
00:21
collaborate with others and manage your assigned tasks, all without leaving your preferred workspace.
00:27
Please note that you need to be assigned a team or professional license to use the Office plugins.
00:33
You will not be able to log into any Office plugin without the appropriate license.
00:38
The Office plugins are specifically for Word, PowerPoint and Excel applications.
00:46
Let's get started by installing the plugins.
00:49
First, you must log into the Upchain web application.
00:53
Once logged in, click the "user profile" drop down button and select plugins.
01:02
On this page, scroll down until you find Upchain for Office.
01:09
Click the "download" button.
01:12
Decide where to save the installation file,
01:23
and then follow the installation instructions.
01:30
The plugin is now installed for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
01:35
When you first open an Office application, you'll notice a new tab along the menu ribbon bar named Upchain.
01:42
Click this to access the plugin menu.
01:46
First thing you'll want to do is log in to the plugin.
01:50
To do this, you can either click the "sign in" button or you can click the "toggle pane" button.
01:56
Both of these actions open the Office plugin on the right hand side.
02:03
Click the "log in" button.
02:07
If you were already logged in elsewhere, such as the web application, you wouldn't need to enter your credentials again.
02:14
Otherwise, you will be redirected to a web browser to log in.
02:20
Close the browser once you're logged in, and you're now logged into the plugin.
02:31
The ribbon bar along the top provides some common functionality to use when you have a document open,
02:37
including some document control functions, including checking in, checking out, or canceling a checkout on a document.
02:46
This will be frequent functionality to use to make changes to a document and commit them back into Upchain.
02:52
You can import a document to the general documents category in a project.
02:59
There is version control that allows you to ensure you're working with the latest version of a document and access previous ones.
03:07
Tools to view linked documents, follow or unfollow a document, so it appears in the plugin homepage, and create a markup if necessary.
03:17
And lastly, you can toggle the main plugin open and closed.
03:22
Let's take a look through the plugin user interface.
03:26
You'll want to begin by selecting a project in which to work.
03:31
By selecting a project, you set the context for the rest of the tabs in the plugin.
03:36
Otherwise, most will stay empty.
03:39
This drop down menu shows you your favorite projects first, followed by all additional projects that you have access to, including public ones.
03:52
We'll select our drone project.
04:01
Now that we have a project selected, we can explore the different tabs along the left.
04:07
The first tab is the home tab that shows you all documents that you have followed.
04:14
You can follow a document in the web application or from the ribbon bar if you have a document open.
04:22
This makes it easier to access documents you would access frequently without having to locate them in different projects first.
04:33
The next tab is the bill of materials tab.
04:37
This is where you can view the bill of materials within your selected project.
04:42
Later on, you'll learn how to link an item or an entire bill of materials to a document.
04:48
When no project is selected, this page is empty.
04:53
Also note that the Excel plugin has additional functionality here to work with a bill of materials.
05:01
The Assignments tab shows you any assignments you have within your selected project.
05:07
These assignments may or may not be related to documentation depending on your role within that project.
05:14
When no project is selected, this tab shows you all assignments you have across all of your projects.
05:25
You can also click on an assignment to load its details in the lower pane for further information.
05:36
The Documents tab shows you all documents associated with the selected project,
05:42
shown in the document categories that were configured by your tenant administrator.
05:47
This is where we'll spend most of our time in this course, becoming familiar with how to interact with project documents.
05:55
Again, when no project is selected, this page is empty, so be sure to select a project before looking for any data here.
06:10
The Teams tab shows all team members on the selected project for you to use as a reference,
06:15
should you wish to assign any tasks to someone on your team.
06:20
Again, when no project is selected, this page is empty.
06:28
The last few tabs along the left at the bottom will open the Upchain Help documentation,
06:37
provide notifications for any new assigned tasks or out-of-date information, and allow you to sign out of the plugin.
06:45
The bottom button allows you to collapse the plugin.
06:52
You should now be able to install the office plugins, log into an office plugin, and briefly describe what you can find in each section.
07:01
Keep going to learn more.
In this video, we will:
Transcript
00:04
In this video, we will upload a document to a project, explore the document section of the plugin, and download a document from a project.
00:13
Let's take a look.
00:18
You can see that once you have a project selected, the documents tab shows you all the document categories configured in your tenant.
00:28
Expanding each one shows you the documents that have already been uploaded into that document category.
00:39
We are writing up a summary report on this project to send to the customer.
00:45
Let's get started by uploading it to our selected project.
00:49
This way others are able to view and comment on it right away.
00:55
To upload a document, you can do this in one of two ways.
01:00
With the document open, click the "import into project" button in the ribbon bar.
01:07
This option does not ask you which document category you wish to upload this document into,
01:13
and simply places it in the general documents category and applies the document numbering rules for that document category.
01:23
You could then move the document to another category in the web application.
01:29
However, if you have different document numbering rules for different categories,
01:34
the document number would not change when you move it to a different category, so this option may not be the correct one for you.
01:44
The other way to upload a document is, again, with the document open, right click on the desired document category and select "import document".
02:06
This option has now uploaded the document to your selected document category, and applies the document numbering rule for that category.
02:16
You can see it here uploaded with the number applied.
02:25
The document is in a draft state.
02:29
And if we click on it, we can see that it starts at Version 1 and does not have a revision level yet.
02:41
Now that we have our document uploaded, let's explore the documents tab a bit further.
02:47
Clicking on any document loads its detail view at the bottom.
02:52
The general tab contains the basic details of the document, including information about its revision level, its number,
03:02
its basic description and change description information, what workflow it has been assigned to, and so on.
03:12
You can also edit the details in this pane for any attributes that are editable,
03:18
and would be where you set the workflow flow to publish this document as well.
03:29
The preview tab displays a preview of the document, if it is available, to help you correctly identify the document you wish to view or work on.
03:43
Within the documents tab, there are different colors and font settings displayed for each document.
03:50
This helps to distinguish between those that are and are not compatible with the application that you have open.
03:57
If the text is bold and black, it means the document is compatible with the application you have open.
04:07
In our example, these are Word documents.
04:12
If the text is not bold and black, this means the document is not compatible with the program that you have open,
04:19
but can still be downloaded to your computer to then open in its appropriate application.
04:26
If the text is bold and red, but struck through, the document has been archived,
04:33
and is compatible with the program you have open so it can be downloaded.
04:37
And if it is red, struck through but not bold, the document again has been archived and is not compatible with the program you have open.
04:46
It can simply be downloaded.
04:51
In addition to the colors for each document, there is a letter beside each one that indicates what its status is.
04:60
D for draft, R for in review, P for published, and A for archived.
05:17
Now, you'll notice that the file name of the document that is still open in the application, the one that we uploaded,
05:23
no longer matches the file name of the document now uploaded into Upchain.
05:28
This is because Upchain assigns the file a new name when uploaded.
05:32
So at this point, you should close the document you have open,
05:37
and now begin working with the document through the plugin that is saved into the cloud.
05:43
To download the document in a read-only state, you have two options.
05:47
You can right click on the document and select "Download", or again, with the document selected, you can click the "Download" icon.
05:59
The document is now downloaded in a read-only state.
06:06
All documents downloaded through the office plugins are downloaded to see users, your computer name, documents,
06:15
Upchain, your Upchain username, DMS, a folder named after the project, and the folder named after the document category.
06:26
This location cannot be changed.
06:31
The document is in a read-only state.
06:33
This means that you can view the document.
06:36
But if you make any changes, they cannot be committed back into Upchain.
06:40
Furthermore, another user would be able to check out this document while you are viewing it to make their own changes.
06:50
Should that happen, you can use the Version Control functions in the ribbon bar,
06:55
to ensure you are viewing the most up-to-date version of the document.
07:00
You should now have a better understanding of the color scheme and symbols used in the Documents tab,
07:06
how to upload a document to a project and category, and how to download the document to view it.
07:12
Keep going to learn more.
00:04
In this video, we will upload a document to a project, explore the document section of the plugin, and download a document from a project.
00:13
Let's take a look.
00:18
You can see that once you have a project selected, the documents tab shows you all the document categories configured in your tenant.
00:28
Expanding each one shows you the documents that have already been uploaded into that document category.
00:39
We are writing up a summary report on this project to send to the customer.
00:45
Let's get started by uploading it to our selected project.
00:49
This way others are able to view and comment on it right away.
00:55
To upload a document, you can do this in one of two ways.
01:00
With the document open, click the "import into project" button in the ribbon bar.
01:07
This option does not ask you which document category you wish to upload this document into,
01:13
and simply places it in the general documents category and applies the document numbering rules for that document category.
01:23
You could then move the document to another category in the web application.
01:29
However, if you have different document numbering rules for different categories,
01:34
the document number would not change when you move it to a different category, so this option may not be the correct one for you.
01:44
The other way to upload a document is, again, with the document open, right click on the desired document category and select "import document".
02:06
This option has now uploaded the document to your selected document category, and applies the document numbering rule for that category.
02:16
You can see it here uploaded with the number applied.
02:25
The document is in a draft state.
02:29
And if we click on it, we can see that it starts at Version 1 and does not have a revision level yet.
02:41
Now that we have our document uploaded, let's explore the documents tab a bit further.
02:47
Clicking on any document loads its detail view at the bottom.
02:52
The general tab contains the basic details of the document, including information about its revision level, its number,
03:02
its basic description and change description information, what workflow it has been assigned to, and so on.
03:12
You can also edit the details in this pane for any attributes that are editable,
03:18
and would be where you set the workflow flow to publish this document as well.
03:29
The preview tab displays a preview of the document, if it is available, to help you correctly identify the document you wish to view or work on.
03:43
Within the documents tab, there are different colors and font settings displayed for each document.
03:50
This helps to distinguish between those that are and are not compatible with the application that you have open.
03:57
If the text is bold and black, it means the document is compatible with the application you have open.
04:07
In our example, these are Word documents.
04:12
If the text is not bold and black, this means the document is not compatible with the program that you have open,
04:19
but can still be downloaded to your computer to then open in its appropriate application.
04:26
If the text is bold and red, but struck through, the document has been archived,
04:33
and is compatible with the program you have open so it can be downloaded.
04:37
And if it is red, struck through but not bold, the document again has been archived and is not compatible with the program you have open.
04:46
It can simply be downloaded.
04:51
In addition to the colors for each document, there is a letter beside each one that indicates what its status is.
04:60
D for draft, R for in review, P for published, and A for archived.
05:17
Now, you'll notice that the file name of the document that is still open in the application, the one that we uploaded,
05:23
no longer matches the file name of the document now uploaded into Upchain.
05:28
This is because Upchain assigns the file a new name when uploaded.
05:32
So at this point, you should close the document you have open,
05:37
and now begin working with the document through the plugin that is saved into the cloud.
05:43
To download the document in a read-only state, you have two options.
05:47
You can right click on the document and select "Download", or again, with the document selected, you can click the "Download" icon.
05:59
The document is now downloaded in a read-only state.
06:06
All documents downloaded through the office plugins are downloaded to see users, your computer name, documents,
06:15
Upchain, your Upchain username, DMS, a folder named after the project, and the folder named after the document category.
06:26
This location cannot be changed.
06:31
The document is in a read-only state.
06:33
This means that you can view the document.
06:36
But if you make any changes, they cannot be committed back into Upchain.
06:40
Furthermore, another user would be able to check out this document while you are viewing it to make their own changes.
06:50
Should that happen, you can use the Version Control functions in the ribbon bar,
06:55
to ensure you are viewing the most up-to-date version of the document.
07:00
You should now have a better understanding of the color scheme and symbols used in the Documents tab,
07:06
how to upload a document to a project and category, and how to download the document to view it.
07:12
Keep going to learn more.
