Document Management

The details of every request and task include the section titled Documents (or Attachments). This space makes it easy to associate documents at any time to a request or task.

Overview of Document Management

You can collect or create, in one place, all the files related to each request and task. And you can do more than that. Each document you add, can be individually tracked and controlled according to its content.

The documents can be any file that you store on your desktop or on a shared drive—Word and Excel files, PDF files, graphic, video, audio files or plain text files. Some formats like HTML, EML, and Word Perfect files can be uploaded and managed within ArkCase. However, they must be converted to PDF for viewing and redaction via the ArkCase Viewer. This configuration can be set in the Admin module, which converts these formats automatically on upload.
Structure of the Documents (and Attachments) section

The Documents (or Attachments) section is tree structure similar to Windows Explorer, in which you can create folders, create documents, manage and secure documents, and upload files. At the top level of the structure is the root folder.

By default, the root folder is collapsed when you open a section.

To open the folder, click the Expand (arrow-right) button next to the folder icon.

Adding Folders, Sub Folders, and Moving Folders

Create a top-level folder

The root folder is the container that stores all added folders and files. The highest-level folders are created from the root folder.

1. Right-click the root folder icon to open the menu of options.

2. Select New Folder.

3. Type a name in the New Folder box and click Enter. A top-level folder is created.

In addition to creating sub-folders and documents, you can cut, copy, and delete these folders.

Create a sub-folder

Additional actions are available to all folders that you and others create.

1. Right-click the folder icon to open the menu of options.

2. Select New Folder.

3. Type a name in the New Folder box and click Enter. A sub-folder is created.

In addition to creating sub-folders and documents, you can cut, copy, and delete these folders.

Move a folder

Use drag and drop to move folders.

1. Select and, holding down left mouse button, drag the folder onto the destination folder icon.

Adding Documents and Correspondences

You can create form-based documents, you can upload and move documents, and you can paste files from the clipboard.  Depending on your local business process, you can assign a Type to every document you associate to the request.

Create a document

1. Right-click the folder icon to open the menu.

2. Click New Document to open the list of available document types. See the example below.

3. Select a document type from the list. A form-based document will open in a new window or Windows Explorer will open to your shared drives.

The document type list lets you categorize all new documents you create for the request.  The example list of documents are the types in the Out of the Box (OOTB) ArkCase FOIA.  Form-based documents have pre-defined completion fields, and, depending on local business process, can initiate a workflow for review or action.

Create a correspondence

1. Right-click the folder icon to open the menu.

2. Click New Correspondence to open the list of available correspondence types. See the example below.

3. Select a correspondence type from the list. Then the current correspondence template from admin will be used to generate and populate the metadata for that template.

Move a file to a new folder

To move a file from one Documents (Attachments) folder to another, select the file and, holding down right mouse button, drag the file onto the destination folder icon.

The file and its metadata move to the new location.

Move a file from your desktop

1. Open both your shared folders and files (for example, Windows Explorer) and the ArkCase Documents.

2. From your desktop or shared drive, select the file in Windows Explorer and, holding down the right mouse button, drag the file onto the destination folder icon.

3. When you release the mouse button, the Drag and Drop pop-up box opens for assigning a document type to the file.

4. Open the File Type drop-down list and select a type.

5. Click OK.

Paste a document

Use the Paste menu option to add files from the clipboard to the folder.

Paste works when copying and cutting files stored in the same request or task. You can also paste files within the same request container–between requests and between tasks–but not between request containers. You cannot paste files from Windows–files cut or copied to the clipboard from your desktop and drives.

The Paste option is available when a file is on the clipboard. If the clipboard is empty, Paste is dimmed on the menu.

Document Actions

The document menu lists the available actions.

To open the sub menu:

1. Right-click on a Folder.

2. Right-click on a File.

Open – Opens the file in the Document Viewer.

Edit – Opens the Word of PDF format document in Online edit mode.

Open in Microsoft Office Online – Opens any word format files in an Online collaboration edit mode.

Email – Crafts an email for sending messages or message/documents.

New Task – Allows user to create a workflow task around one or many documents.

Check Out – Downloads the document to allow offline editing of a document

Check In – Checking the offline edited document back in to the application.

Cancel Editing – Allows a user to cancel offline editing, which checks the document back in to the application.

Participants – Allows user to set participant permissions on a document.

Cut – Removes the file from current folder and allows the user to paste in any other folder location.

Copy – Copies the file from the current folder and allows the user to paste in any other folder.

Paste – Inserts the file from the clipboard into a folder in this or another case file document folders.

Rename – Allows the user to rename the file.

Delete – Allows the user to delete the file.

Download – Downloads the document to the users download folder.

Replace – Creates a new version of the file with content of the new file the user just uploaded.

Declare as Record – Designates that the document is an official record and moved to the ECM records management folders.  (Note: this functionality is only available for customers using Records Management functionality as part of the ECM implementation. i.e. RMA from Alfresco)

 

Steps to Perform Document Actions

Open a file

1. Click Open from the menu or double-click the file name to open the file in the document viewer.

Edit

1. Click Edit from the menu and the Word or PDF will open in the native format and the user can edit and save directly back to the application without checking it out locally.

Open in Microsoft Office Online

1. Click Open in Microsoft Office Online from the menu and the Word document will open in an online Microsoft editing window and one or many users can edit the same document at the same time.  All changes are auto-saved during the collaboration session.

2. Once all changes are made, close the editing window and the document will be version controlled.

Email

1. Select one or many documents by clicking the checkbox in the document folder tree.

2. Right Click and select Email from the Document menu to open the Add Recipients people search dialog box.

3. Select Recipients and search for user/people by typing a full name (or another search entry such as a first or last name, or one or more letters with a wild card) in the search box and click Search. Results will return in a list.

4. A set of facets (filters) appears in the left column of the screen. Use the facets to further narrow a list of multiple results.

5. Click in the list to highlight a name.

6. Click Send Email when the distribution is complete.

New Task

1. Click New Task from the menu and the Task window will open and all the user to start a new workflow task associated to the one or many documents selected.

Check Out

1. Select the Check Out and the document will download in your browser track and the document will be locked to your user.

Check In

1. Select Check In and browse and find your locally saved document that you originally checked out and edited offline.

2. Once document is selected, enter in a detailed note and click check in. Then the document will be unlocked by your user.

Cancel Editing

1. Select Cancel Editing and the document will be unlocked by your user.

Participants

1. Select Participants and view the existing participants on that document and then add new participants if needed.

Cut

1. Select Cut and then select new folder and click

Copy

1. Select Copy and then select new folder and click

Paste

1.Select Cut or Copy and then select new folder and click Paste and the document will be pasted in the new location.

Rename

1. Select Rename and the type in new name and click enter.

Download

1. Select Download and the document will download in the browser tray and will also be available in the user download folder.

Replace

The Replace action creates a new version of the selected file, the version number increments by one major version number.  Replace does not delete or over lay the existing file, it simply adds the file and makes it the active version. The previous version remains available.

1. Click Replace to open your local windows Explorer.

2. Select a file from your desktop or a shared folder and click open.

3.The replacement file can have another name or be in a different file format.

Declare as Record

Declaring a recorded can be done manually be right clicking and select ‘Declare As Record(s)’.  Also, records can be setup to declared all files as record automatically.  This feature is based on back end configuration rules.  In either case the document(s) declared as records are moved to the File Plan folders within the records management tool.

Manual Declaration of Record(s)

1. Select Declare as Record and the file will be marked as a record.

Automatic Declaration of Record(s)

The out of the box (OOTB) configuration for declaring records automatically is setup on the case status change.  For example when a case is changed to a closed state, all files are marked as records and moved to the records management folders.

Other Actions:

File drag-and-drop

You can also replace a file using drag and drop. To replace an item, drag the new file on the existing file name. The replacement file can be from the Documents section or from your shared folders.

When the replacement is a new file, the drag and drop dialog box opens as soon as you release the mouse button. Select the Replace document option, select the document type, and click OK.

Change the active version of a file

The active version of the document shows in the metadata included with the file name that appears in the Documents (or Attachments) section.

To make another version of the file active (for example, to view it, edit it, make it the document of record), select it from the Version drop-down list.

Document-level Control

Each file stored in the folders can be individually managed. For example, you can apply security settings to each document by assigning a permission level to every participant.  Documents are tracked as versions, each of which can be viewed and reinstated. The Document Viewer displays each file and the document-level controls.

The Document Viewer space provides options for managing each document during its life cycle. To open the Document Viewer, click Open from the Document menu (or double-click the file name).

Change the on-screen view

• Zoom in and out
• Fit in window
• Rotate page left or right
• Collapse thumbnail panel

Move between pages

Use the navigation links to move between pages.

• “Go To” arrows move backward (<<the preceding page or |<< the first page) and forward (>> the next page or >>| the last page)
• Type a page number in the text field

Use the expanded thumbnails panel.

Click a thumbnail to open the page in the viewer.
Don’t see the thumbnail panel?

Click the thumbnail toggle button at the top-right corner of the viewer to show the thumbnails.

 Save and print 

• Save
• Export
• Burn annotations
• Print

Mark up and annotate a file 

Point to an icon to view its tool tip. When adding marks and annotations, first create a new layer. In addition to storing the annotations, layers track individual reviewer’s comments. To consolidate and save the layers into the document, click Burn Annotations.

Click the Layer Manager icon in the viewer sidebar.

Open the Active Layer drop-down list to view and open the existing layers.

Layer buttons

+ add a new layer (opens a text box for naming the layer)

− delete the layer (opens a dialog box to confirm the deletion)

N rename the layer (opens text box for typing the new name)

R redact the layer

Split or merge a file

The options to split a file and to merge the current file with another file are available from the Document Viewer.

Split a document

1. Click the Split icon to open the Split dialog box.

2. Enter where the split should occur and click Enter.

Merge documents

1. Click the Merge icon to open the Merge dialog box.

2. Indicate the target file for the merge.

Add a note

You can create notes that other participants can see.

1. Click the + Add icon to create a new entry line. Your user ID and the current date automatically are added to the record.

2. Click in the empty field in the Note column and add text.

3. When finished, click outside the Notes

To remove a note, click the Delete (trash can) icon.

Document As Searchable Content

Documents associated to requests and tasks become searchable content. Depending on the request criteria, searches will scan the document metadata of the files stored in the Documents (or Attachments) section of the case container and include matches in the results.

Rich Media Support

One of the features in ArkCase FOIA’s document management functionality is video and audio streaming. The document management supports many types of rich media, including, but not limited to video and audio files. ArkCase can then stream the file in a viewer or download these files in native format.

Transcription Functionality

ArkCase’s transcription functionality leverages the Amazon Transcribe service to transcribe audio and video files. The transcription functionality in ArkCase allows users to upload audio and video files within ArkCase and the automated transcription functionality will send the files to the AWS automatic speech recognition (ASR) service, which will produce the transcription files. ArkCase will then process the AWS transcription file and visualize it within the ArkCase user interface. The user interface allows for streaming the rich media file, while viewing the transcription text. This is extremely helpful when manually QAing the transcription text.

What Does ArkCase Transcription Functionality Provide?

The ArkCase user can perform many different actions on the transcribed file:

• Viewing of the File Details
  • Language
  • Total Word Count
  • Confidence Rating of the Transcribed File
  • Transcription Status (In Process, Complete)
• Listen or View to File in a Streaming Viewer
• Viewing Individual Sections of the Transcription Text
  • Each Transcription Text Section Shows:
    • Start Time of the that Section of Text
    • Confidence Rating of that Section of Text
  • Editing Individual Sections of Transcription Text during QA
  • Automatically Compile the Transcription Text in to a Single Document File

Supported Audio/Video Types:

• MP3
• MP4
• WAV

Steps to Transcribe a Audio/Video:

1. Right click on the document folder and select a document type (doctypes in the picture may not match your configuration

2. Browse to the audio or video file and click open.

3. Once the file is uploaded, the transcription services will process the file. When the file is opened in the viewer, you can see the current status of the file.

4. Once the file is fully transcribed, the transcribed information can be viewed in the audio/video viewer window.

5. The transcription text can be reviewed and updated manually by clicking in the text area and changing the text. The user can also mark the text area as corrected by checking the box.

6. Once the text has all be reviewed/updated, the transcribed text can be compiled into a single transcription document by clicking the Compile button.

7. The compiled transcription file can be found in the same folder as the audio/video file.