Saving Documents

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In the preceding learn by doing topics, documents have been saved to the Correspondence File and possibly as a Note so by now you should be aware that the format of documents saved in the Correspondence File differs considerably from those saved as Notes.

If you have not already done so you should read the Notes topic before continuing.

When documents are produced you may wish to keep a copy somewhere so it can be referred to, argued over, produced in court, or for any number of other reasons.  Many, many years ago a scribe would have pulled up another slab of stone and chiseled another (hopefully accurate) copy; Not so many years ago it would have been a carbon copy; More recently it would have been a duplicated copy; Now days it is more likely to be an electronic copy stored on your computer; Maybe even a scanned document.

In the Aspect Property Manager when any document is produced the default action is to give the user the opportunity to save it to either or both the Correspondence File and as a Note.  Where there is potential legal action you may want to be able to produce a copy of the original document and because a Note loses all formatting the Correspondence File is the correct choice.  A similar document where you want to be reminded to follow up may be saved to both the Correspondence File and as a Note with a Bring Up date set.  An "inconsequential" document which you only want to record as having been sent could be saved as a Note with or without a Bring Up date.

When the Aspect Property Manager is first installed the default will be to ask every time a document is produced whether it is to be saved to the Correspondence File and as a Note and whether a Bring Up is required.

Perhaps you don't want to be asked every time you produce a particular type of document, you want the system to "just do it".  Well, the saving criteria can be preset so that say, emails are saved automatically as a Note but you always want to be asked if a fax is to be saved to the Correspondence File.

Go to the Setup menu > Preferences > Correspondence tab to view the options.

As you can see there is a set of saving rules for each document type and where it is to be saved.  You can determine whether to save each type to the Correspondence File or as a Note and whether or not you should be asked each time.  Click on each of the list boxes to see the choices.  It is not necessary to click [Edit] unless you want to change a setting.

The choices are self explanatory other than to say that when a "prompt" choice is made the prompt occurs when [Close] is pressed on the Letter To screen after you have printed or dispatched the document.


Saving "Draft" Documents
When you are in the process of producing a document, whether it is a one off document or editing a standard document, there will be occasions when you want to save what you have done but without printing or sending the document.  If, before you click [Print], you press [Close] you will be asked "Do you wish to it as a Draft?".  Pressing [Yes] will save the document to the Correspondence File where it can be subsequently picked up and completed or saved again as a draft.  Draft documents in the Correspondence File have the word "DRAFT" inserted before the document Subject.  How strange!

The following show how and when documents are saved as drafts with the first example showing a standard print and save operation.  To re-iterate - a document is saved as a draft if [Close] is pressed on the "new document" screen while it is being assembled before it is printed/viewed, emailed or SMSed.

1  New document screen  
> press  [Print] or [Email] or [SMS]
>  [Close] 
>  Saving selection or "auto save action"  
2  New document screen  
> press  [Close]  
>  Save as Draft?  
>  [Yes]  >  Document saved to Correspondence File with DRAFT before Subject
>  [No]    >  Document discarded
3  Correspondence File   
> press  [Edit] or double click the selected item, DRAFT or not
> Document displayed
>  [Close]
>  Save as Draft?  
>  [Yes]  will replace the previous draft document in the Correspondence File with DRAFT still before Subject
>  [No]    will discard any changes and leave the previous draft document in the Correspondence File with DRAFT still before Subject
4  Correspondence File   
> press  [Edit] or double click the selected item, DRAFT or not
>  Document displayed
> press  [Print] or [Email] or [SMS] immediately or after further editing
>  [Close] 
>  Saving selection or "auto save action" 
>  the document will be saved  in the Correspondence File without DRAFT before Subject.