About Document Collaboration

eCASE offers an optional collaboration tool for working together on documents. When eCASE is configured to integrate with Collaborative Document Server, users can collaborate to edit Microsoft Word or Excel documents in eCASE.

(!!) Note: The Document Collaboration module is not included in the standard version of eCASE and must be licensed for use. 

Accessing Document Collaboration

To access the Document Collaboration tool, first open a Case Folder. Navigate to the Attachments Tab to view the list of documents in case folder. Select the document you'd like to collaborate on, then select Edit > Online to open the selected document in collaborative online editing mode. Multiple users can open the same document  in collaborative edit mode so that they all can edit the document content concurrently, allowing all collaborating users to see each other's edits in real time. Document Collaboration users can also chat about the document while editing the document.

The screen below shows the Online selection under the Edit menu:

Changes made in the Document Collaboration tool are saved automatically. When the last remaining user in a collaboration session closes the Document Collaboration browser window, eCASE will create a new version of the document that includes all collaborative changes.

Collaboration Interface

After selecting Online from the Attachments tab, the collaboration interface appears. Note that the collaboration interface appearance changes depending on the type of file used.  A sample interface (Document Editor - opened from Microsoft Word) is shown in this example:

The interface is divided into four main areas:

1. Collaboration Space: The content of the file being collaborated on will appear in the space in the center of the screen. This field can be viewed and edited in the same manner of the original file
2. Editing Tools: Tools are provided here to edit the document as needed through the collaboration process. The selections here will reflect the file type, so MS Word documents will include the MS Word tools, Excel files Excel tools, and so on
3. Collaboration Tools: Collaboration tools are tools that assist with the collaboration process. This includes search, comments, and chat features
4. View Tools: Another toolbar is available at the bottom of the page to control page view options for the Collaboration too. These tools include both zoom, page fit, and language selection options

Each of these areas are discussed in greater detail under the Working in Document Collaboration topic.