This FAQ is to help explain the creation and use of Documents in a Plato web.

What are Documents for ?

Documents allow the author to upload one or more formats of a Document and a user to view this Document.

How do I define a Document ?

Documents are defined in a similar way to other items, such as events or actions. It can have a title, version, description and have up to 4 attached formats of the Document. There are two user-definable qualifications - category and status. You can also define its visibility.

Why might I need more than one attachment?

It might be useful to produce several formats of the Document, perhaps in HTML, Postscript or RTF, depending on the expected audience.

Do I have to have an attachment ?

One alternative is to define a link to an external Document or location elsewhere on the web. If you have neither an attachment or a link, you must input some HTML text into the "Document text" area (see below).

What is the "Document text" (Wiki) area for ?

The Document text area can be used as a rudimentary Wiki area and is intended as an alternative to uploading an attachment or defining a link to an external Document or location elsewhere on the web. In fact, you may have an attachment/link and text here as well. You may input and edit HTML here in the same way as for the Description field. By using versioning users other than the originator can edit the document. You can view differences between versions in this area. If you list all versions, you can see a view where you can select the version to show differences.

What is the category?

The category is a means for grouping classes of Documents. You may define new categories.

What is the status?

The status is the usual description of the stage of the Document, for example first draft, final draft, published. You may define new status values.

What is the visibility?

See the general FAQ on visibility.

What is the version?

The version is the usual identification of the change history of the Document.

Is the version mandatory?

No, but it is recommended and must be supplied to be able to created linked versions of a Document.

What are linked versions of a Document?

It is encouraged that versions of a Document are created by making a new version of an existing Document (use the Version link) , rather than adding a new Document (Add). The difference is that by default only the latest version is seen on the summary page, but with an indication "(+ implies others)" that there are earlier versions. This allows more Documents to be seen on the summary page. Different versions retain the same Document title and category throughout their lifetme, but their status and visibility can change.

Who can update a document ?

Only the owner and members of the maintainers group can update documents. If you want to have multiple users working on a document then you can version a document. Versioning allows users who have write level access to a document to add a new version even though they do not own the document.

What appears on the home page ?

As usual, a maintainer can configure the number of Documents to appear on the home page. The section contains the titles of the latest Documents, sorted by date of creation, together with links to their attached files.

What appears on the summary page ?

By default, all Documents are displayed but only the latest version of those with linked versions (see above). Documents can be subsetted by category or age, grouped by category or all versions can be shown. Sorting is by default by creation date, but the column headings are links that allow the data to be sorted on different fields.

What are archived Documents?

Documents can be archived, rather than deleted. An indication is given on the summary page if any archived Documents exist and the summary can be switched to display them. Documents can be unarchived at a later date.

What is the alert checkbox for?

Most items allow the creator/updater to send a preset e-mail alert to the list appropriate to the visibility level. It contains identification of the creator/updater and a URL to view the item.

Editing or Updating the Description or Document text Field

Can I use the Wysiwig editor?

If your browser has the necessary support then a wysiwig editor pane implemented in Javascript will appear next to the Description Field to allow you to format some descriptive text for this Documentt.

Can I still edit the HTML source using the Wysiwig editor?

Yes, select the "Source" button, a popup window in which you can edit the HTML source directly will appear. When you close that window any updates will then be shown in the editor pane.

Can I paste in text into the Wysiwig editor?

Yes, if you have selected text, then use your regular paste key (typically control-v). If the selected text is HTML source then you should paste it into the "Source" popup window.

If the alert checkbox is selected will the HTML be translated to text?

Yes, it is rendered to text using the Lynx browser. If you have a document of more than one paragraph to ensure correct formatting use "Format->Normal" to insert paragraphs.

Further information on Plato including troubleshooting tips is available here