Please advise on proper use of the "Check-out" function. "Check-out and Download" works as expected, but I don't understand "Check-out". If I select the "Check-out" action for a document, a screen loads that gives the user the option to "Check-out" or "Check-out and Download".

1. Why would a user only "Check-out" a document? It doesn't appear to download or do anything other than flag the file as checked out. A SWAG is that, perhaps, a user may want to prevent others from changing the document for a certain period of time--say, during a requirements freeze.
2. If that's plausible, how does one "Check-in Document"? The system requires a file be uploaded in order to check-in.

Thanks.

Fundamentally Daptiv's documents application is simply a storage facility for housing files which means that users must take a copy of the file from Daptiv and optionally put a revised copy back in.  The documents themselves are never modified/edited on the fly within Daptiv, it always relies on the user's computer appliation (Word, Excel, PowerPoint etc...) to do the management of the file content.

So:

If I am going to revise a project document that 10 other project members also have access to, I am going to let them know I am doing work on it by checking it out - which flags it as being revised.  This gives me an option to lock or unlock the document during its checked out stage.

• If I lock the document, other project members can see that it is being worked on but can not download their own copy until I return it. 
  
• If I leave it unlocked, they may download the document but they can not upload a revised version over the top of the one I have checked out. 

Then - because I may not have a copy of this document already on my computer I can choose "Check out and download".  If I know I have a copy on my computer to work with, then I can simply choose "Check Out".  Either option sets that flag as noted above.

You are pretty much correct on your point #1.

When you are finished revising the document, the "Check In" feature needs to get your revised document off of your computer and put a copy of it into Daptiv.  Remember, the Daptiv Documents application is a storage facility, it has the OLD version sitting there, and you are checking in or uploading (they mean the same thing) a new version over the top of the old one. 

Followup questions:

1) Can document checkout be limited to specific project roles? (ie Only the Project Manager can checkout/checkin a document?)

2) Is there an override to remove a document from the "checked out" state? An example: The user checked out a document (word doc) then printed the file, they did not save a local copy of the file. As a result, the document is now checked out but the person who checked it out does not have a copy of the file to check it back in. Admittedly, they should have downloaded the file and printed however check-in/out is not intuative to new users so this happens occasionally.

There isn't a current capability to limit who can check out a document.  If you can manage docs, you can check out. 

If a doc is checked out, the PM can unlock the checked out doc. 

Hi John,

How does the admin unlock the checked out doc? I don't see an option to 'Undo Check Out' as defined in the help documentation. I am an administrator.

Thanks.

1. Look at the documents in list view.
2. Check the box next to the document you want to check in.
3. Go to the top of the list and click on "Checked Item Actions".
4. "Undo Check-out" should be in the list of options.

Right, you have the have the level of rights to allow you to overwrite a checkout.  Most PMs have this capability and a backup PM can overwrite a checkout.  The admin can also give themselves the correct project level role to overwrite a checkout. 

 Right, the trick is finding it. It is only in the ONE place I descibed. It cannot be found in any other menu.

-gWired

 As part of this issue - Any direction on how to change where a document is saved to when you download it? I have downloaded a PDF and a Word document and they saved to two different folders. Difficulty comes when trying to check the document back in - can't find it to so!  I understand that there is control using Save As, but how can I change where it saves automatically?  Hope the issue makes sense!  Thanks

I usually have a Project folder in my Documents area for each project and download the files to these locations. DeskDocs will also really help.   You can checkout and lock a document in Daptiv and then use DeskDocs to edit in place.  Once edited, check the document back in or override checkout.