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Documents Manager Help

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The Documents Manager manages two types of documents:

  1. Committee Papers: documents relating to a committee meeting, held on a specific date: agenda, minutes, etc. All carry a specific date to identify the meeting
  2. Website Documents: documents to be downloaded from web pages, but not related to a particular meeting but still owned by committees (and others who have web pages) but not related to a particular meeting, for example, an expenses claim form or an application template for managing a tournament

Editors

If you are replacing an existing document with a new version you should revise the existing entry so all web pages that already link to the document will return the new version:

For a new document that can't be a standard web page but isn't a committee paper:

Using the List View

Only the documents you are permitted to access are listed (see access control below). You can browse for the document you seek and then click on its title to download it.

Click on a column heading to sort by the contents of that column.

Click on one of the fields to filter your view to matching documents, for example, click on a committee name, or a meeting date.

You can click on one of the menu bar buttons to restrict or filter your view. Some of the buttons are visible only if you have privileged access, or if you have previously made a relevant selection:

Show Only Public Documents
shows what a regular Croquet England Subscriber has access to by hiding all committee-private documents
Show Only Private Documents
shows only the restricted access documents that you are permitted to view
List Documents For All Committees
visible only after selecting a committee, it removes the restriction and shows documents for all committees
List All Document Types
visible only after selecting a document type, it removes the restriction and shows documents of all types
List All Dates
visible only after selecting a date, it removes the date filter and shows all documents

Click on the Document Details icon to view the document properties and then to edit them or upload a new version of the document.

Access Control: Public and Private

Only logged-in Croquet England subscribers may view documents.

Croquet England Executives (Trustee and Executive Board members) may view all documents, and committee members may view all documents produced for or by their committee. Note that Croquet England Executives must explicitly enable privileges (using the menu button) to gain the access described.

A document tagged as Private can be seen only by members of the committee and Croquet England Executives, otherwise, it can be seen by all logged-in Croquet England Subscribers (public).

A document may be produced by (or on behalf of) one committee for the consideration of another committee (an obvious example being a report from the Publishing Committee for the Management Committee).

The owning committee is the committee responsible for producing the document and the consideration committee is the one that will review it. In some cases, these may be the same, for example, minutes of a meeting are usually from and for the same committee.

Embargo: Keep it to the Committee for Two Weeks

A newly uploaded document may have an embargo date, before which only the owning committee may view it. Such documents are marked with a Waiting icon. This may be used for minutes, or a report to another committee, so the document may be checked before becoming available outside the responsible committee.

If an embargo is imposed, the document will remain committee private for two weeks from the date of first upload (it is listed, but cannot be read outside the committee). Subsequent updates to the document will share the original embargo date unless it is cleared for immediate publication. If the document is not updated, it will simply become available outside the committee as specified after the embargo expires.

This may be used to upload a document, notify the committee by sending a link to the document and ask for comments - no comments received, no action needed! Minutes of meetings are fine examples - 'agreement by lack of dissent'.

Deleting and Replacing Documents and Linking to Versions

Once created, a document may be replaced by the person who last uploaded it or by any member of the owning committee.

All versions of a document are retained, but only the most recent is readily accessible, other versions may be viewed through the document's properties.

The link to access the document may be used in web pages and is of the form /?d=1234 which is shown in listings and document details view. When required, adding &Ver=2 to the link specifies version 2 - only specify the version where it is essential, for example, to link in a particular edition of Laws or Rules.

When a new version is created, and since web pages can link to a document, it is always better to upload a new version of a document than to create a completely new document.

Previous versions may be deleted. An entire document and all its versions may be deleted, but it is not completely removed and remains accessible to the administrator and can be brought back. Edit the document properties and click Delete. That will prompt you to edit all the pages referencing it (this isn't automated because there's usually a reason that the document is linked and you probably want to delete the text referencing it rather than just remove the link. Click the edit icon alongside each page referencing.

Document Properties and Editing Them

All actions that change the document or database are logged. The document's properties are set when it is first uploaded and can be edited subsequently by clicking the Document Details icon and then the Edit Details button.

For the convenience of locating them, documents produced for or by a meeting should carry the date of the meeting (e.g. agenda, papers and minutes) in the meeting date field, otherwise, it may be left blank.

The types of documents that may be uploaded is limited for security reasons - more can be considered on request. Allowed types include:

Admin users can also upload:

Note that when creating a new document, most fields do not need to be completed - for example, the "title" may be left blank in almost all situations since the committee and type of document are specified elsewhere. The default title is:

<Serial-Number (if set):> <Committee-Owner> <Type-Name> <Committee-For> <Meeting-Date-ISO> -R<Version if not 1>

Most documents are related to a meeting - the meeting date, not the current date, should be used in the meeting date field so that all documents for that meeting are grouped together.

Meeting documents fall into one of the following categories or types:

Website Documents

Website Documents are content that cannot be represented as a web page and users must download to read or use. They are managed in a very similar way to Committee Documents, except there is only an owning committee. Website editors may create and replace documents owned by committees of which they are members.

PDFs are discouraged except where they are exclusively intended to be printed or where the exact format is essential to the understanding of the content.

The document details window includes a list of all the web pages that reference the document.

A web page's details window includes links to documents referenced by the page.

 

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