ARCHIVED: In IU Alfresco Share, how do I upload, preview, edit, share, and download documents?

This content has been archived, and is no longer maintained by Indiana University. Information here may no longer be accurate, and links may no longer be available or reliable.

Note: The Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (Indiana CTSI) retired its implementation of the Alfresco Share document collaboration service on August 31, 2015. Currently, site members have read-only access to their documents; the ability to upload new ones is disabled. For alternatives available to researchers at Indiana University, the University of Notre Dame, and Purdue University who want to store and share their documents using another service, see ARCHIVED: After the retirement of Alfresco Share, what other service should I use to store and share my research documentation? If you have questions about the Alfresco Share retirement, or need help choosing a replacement service, contact Indiana CTSI Support.

In Alfresco Share at Indiana University, you can upload a document to your collaboration site's Document Library, and from there, preview the document, edit it online or offline, share it with site collaborators, and download it to your computer.

To begin, log into IU Alfresco Share, navigate to the appropriate collaboration site, and then click Document Library.

On this page:

Uploading a document

To upload a document from your local computer Alfresco Share, log into your Alfresco Share account, navigate to the appropriate site, and then click Document Library. From here you can either:

  • Select a file from your local computer's filesystem, and drag and drop it into the destination folder in the Document Library.
  • Use the Alfresco Share Upload utility:
    1. In the Document Library, click Upload.
    2. In the "Upload File" dialog box, click Browse, navigate to the file on your computer, click to select it, and then click Open.
    3. To begin the upload, click Upload File, or to cancel, click Cancel.

Previewing a document

To preview a Document Library file in Alfresco Share, click the filename.

The preview screen displays the file, associated comments, tags, permissions, and other metadata, and available actions (e.g, Download, Upload New Version, and Start Workflow, among others).

If your document previews but doesn't display properly, download the document instead, and then use the appropriate application to open it. If your document fails to preview at all, Alfresco Share will prompt you with a link to download the document:

This document can't be previewed. Click here to download it.

Editing a document online

Note:
To edit a document online, you must use a compatible browser:

  • Internet Explorer (IE) 7 or later (except editing will not work with IE 9 for 64-bit Windows computers; this is a known issue)
  • An up-to-date version of Firefox
Also, your browser must be configured to open Microsoft Office files in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint by default (this is the default IE setting; problems may occur if you've changed browser settings).

To edit a document online in IU Alfresco Share:

  1. In the Document Library, mouse over the document's filename, and then, from the menu that appears on the right, click More.
  2. From the More menu, click Edit Online to check out the document (i.e., lock it so others can't edit it), and launch the appropriate Office application.

    Note: If you don't see the Edit Online option, you most likely need to change browsers; see the browser information above.

  3. When you finish editing, save the document in the Office application. This unlocks it so others can edit it.

Editing a document offline

To edit an Alfresco Share document offline:

  1. In the Document Library, mouse over the document's filename; from the menu that appears on the right, click More, and then Edit Offline.

    This will check out the document (i.e., lock it so others can't edit it), and download it to your desktop with "(Working Copy)" added to the file name. In the Document Library, the document will be labeled to indicate that it is checked out ("This document is locked by you for offline editing").

  2. Edit the working copy on your computer and save your changes.
  3. When you are finished, check the document back into the Document Library using the Upload New Version option in the More menu.
  4. Choose the file with "(Working Copy)" to upload. Increment the version as desired.
  5. Upon upload, the "This document is locked ...." box will disappear.
  6. You can also cancel the checkout without uploading a new version by choosing Cancel Editing in the More menu.

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Sharing a document with site collaborators

Note: For information about setting up file sharing in Alfresco Share, see ARCHIVED: In IU Alfresco Share, how do I invite collaborators to a site?

To share a document with site collaborators:

  1. In the Document Library, preview the document.
  2. Under "Share", URLs are listed for sharing with site collaborators. Email the URLs (or post them on a wiki or blog) to have site collaborators view, edit, or download the document.

Downloading documents to your computer

You can download documents from a collaboration site individually or grouped together in a file archive.

Downloading an individual document

  1. In the Document Library, mouse over the document's filename, and then, from the menu that appears on the right, click Download.
  2. Choose whether to open or save the document on your local computer.

Creating and downloading a file archive

  1. In the Document Library, select the items (i.e., files and folders) you want to download. To select everything, at the top of the list, click Select, and then choose All.
  2. Click Selected Items, and then choose Compress and download.
  3. In the "Compress and download" dialog box, give the new archive file a name, click Download, and then select the location on your computer where you want it saved.

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Last modified on 2023-02-02 12:41:28.