Stevedore > Tour

...because email is not the solution
Stevedore -- DocWorker for the heavy lifting

View

A Viewer looks at documents with a web browser such as Firefox [Screen Shots - View Document]. The documents are just web pages. There are some documents that have special presentation requirements. These are stored as PDF files but are also viewed with the web browser.

Edit

When an Editor wishes to make a change to a document, they simply Check Out the document by clicking on the CheckOutButton at the bottom of the Firefox border [Screen Shots - CheckOut/Edit/CheckIn Document]. The editable variant of the document is placed in their personal MyStevedoreFolder. This file is normally the OpenOffice variant of the document whose file type is .odt, but html files with type .htm are also supported. This does not require the Editor to know where the editable variant of the document lives. Simply viewing it in Firefox is sufficient to locate it. Finally, an email will be sent to those of concern, indicating who is now working on this document.

Publish

The Editor makes changes to the document using OpenOffice. To Check the file back in, the Editor simply drags the file from the MyStevedoreFolder to the CheckInToPublishFolder [Screen Shots - CheckOut/Edit/CheckIn Document]. Automagically, the new version of the document will be placed back into the system. In addition, the OpenOffice variant of the document will be converted into both a web page and a PDF formatted file, which will be published for everyone to view. Finally, an email will be sent to those of concern announcing the new version.

Summary

Viewers and Editors may easily point others to documents, via email for example, by simply sending the URL. This is easily done in Firefox by using File>SendLink [Screen Shots - "Send" Document]. This will ensure that all Viewers and Editors see the most recent version. There will be no more need to keep piles of old emails with attachments because you cannot access a document kept in Samba share silos.

Since you will be able to view the current version of a document with your web browser, you can delete those old emails. Obsolete versions of documents are available if needed. They are safe in the document library. All who need to see them or change them will have easy access. You will no longer keep personal copies of documents you worked on in the past in your personal folders. You will no longer keep copies of documents from other departments, because they are just a link away. For frequently used documents, you can use the Favorites or Bookmarks feature of your web browser. You can also use desktop icons to link to documents or even for your personal MyStevedoreFolder and CheckInToPublishFolder.

stevedore_product_tour.html 4-Mar-2011 C.W.Holeman II Webmaster