An ever increasing number of users are benefiting from the anywhere access to their documents using NetDocuments' iPad or iPhone app, available for free on the Apple App Store for all NetDocuments customers. Here are some tips and ideas that will enhance your experience when using your iPad.
Saving email attachments to NetDocuments
When you receive an email, the attachment is at the bottom of the email message. When you click on the attachment, you can view it using the iPad HTML viewer built into the iPad. It supports most popular file formats, and after you open the document, you will see at the top right an "Open In" button (arrow coming out of a square). When selected, this button will show all apps on your device that accepts the document file type you've opened, e.g. PDF or DOCX. Assuming you've already installed the ND app, you will see the NetDocuments app as "Open in NetDocuments", which also means saving to NetDocuments. What a great way to save attachments while you're on the go!
Saving photos and creating subfolders
When you navigate to a folder (not filters or saved searches), select the Options button to not only sort your document list, but to also add a subfolder or add photos you've taken from your device. Select "Add existing photos" and you will be taken to your photo library to select a photo to upload to a NetDocuments folder. Give it a try!
Saving documents offline when wifi is not available
It's great to have access to your documents wherever you are and whenever your iPad is in your hands. What if you are in an old courthouse or on a train and the wifi is very slow or unusable? Or maybe you simply want to make sure key documents are quickly accessible when visiting a client and you don't want to rely on the Internet? The answer is to save these key documents in offline mode, yet still protected under the NetDocuments app.
Select your document and in the top right corner is a down arrow button. Select it to put that document in the offline list which you can access at any time, as these items are stored locally on your device. We recommend you enable Passcode by going to the NetDocuments settings to turn it on. You can also create a passcode for your entire iPad which will encrypt any documents stored locally. While in NetDocuments settings you can see the total storage you have filed locally. Now, how do you access these documents when the wifi is off and you have login to NetDocuments app to even see them? Go to settings again, and turn on "automatically login." This will allow you to login and only see the offline documents while your device is offline. That is why having the NetDocuments passcode turned on is important to prevent others from accessing these documents.
Editing and checking in documents as new versions
We are often asked "Can I edit a document with the NetDocuments iPad app?" Just like the main NetDocuments app, you can only edit a document if you have an application that allows editing such as MS Word or Excel. This holds true for the iPad as well. Assuming you are using DocsToGo or Pages, you cannot edit within the NetDocuments app as you view the document in HTML. However, you can send it using the Open-in dialog (top right button –displaying an arrow within a square) and assuming you have one of these editors on your device, you can copy the document to DocsToGo or other editor. You can then edit or create a new document, then using DocsToGo's Open-In dialog you can send it back to NetDocuments. When you send it back, it will be a new document or copy. How do you save it back as a new version to the original? Here is the key… before you send it from NetDocuments to DocsToGo using the Open-In button, first touch the envelope button and select "Copy Link – Email New Version". This option saves the email address to this document in the device's clipboard. After you edit the document in DocsToGo, go to its send email option, and "paste" the email address into the "to" field. This will send the edited document to NetDocuments using email and save the document as a new version to the original.
By Leonard Johnson
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