Working with documents

Open an account or policy and select the Documents link in the left Sidebar to work with it. To create a new document, select New Document from either the Actions menu or the Documents screen while in a policy or account screen. Or, you can open a contingency to create new documents or view existing ones for the contingency.

Viewing documents

You can view all documents associated with accounts, policies, or contingencies, or you can filter the list and see a subset of these documents.

You can view all documents for which you have permission.

See also

Viewing all documents

The Documents screen shows all documents associated with an account, policy, or contingency.

To open this screen, open an account or policy and click the Documents link, located on the left Sidebar of all policy or account screens.

The Documents screen initially displays the unfiltered list of all documents. Use the search pane at the top of the screen to filter the list of documents.

In the list of documents, you can:

  • Click a document Name to download the document and view its contents.
    • If the browser can open the document for viewing, a window opens showing the contents.
    • If the browser cannot open the document for viewing, you see a message saying that the file was downloaded for viewing. You can then open the downloaded file with the appropriate viewer.

    If nothing happens when you click the document name, enable pop-ups for PolicyCenter in your browser.

  • Click View Document Properties to see the document’s metadata properties on the Document Properties screen. On that screen you can edit the properties, download the document content, or upload new content.
  • Click Download to download, view, and possibly edit the document’s content.
  • Click Upload to upload new or edited content.
  • Click Delete to delete the document.

View documents for a contingency

Procedure

  1. With a policy open, click Risk Analysis in the Sidebar menu on the left.
  2. On the Risk Analysis screen, click the Contingencies card.
  3. Click the title of a contingency to open the Contingency screen.
    The Documents section shows all documents linked to the contingency.
  4. You can view a document’s contents, see or edit its metadata properties, download and upload document contents, and delete the document.
  5. You can use the buttons above the list, New Document and Delete Selected, to create a new document from a template, upload content, and delete the document.

What to do next

See also

  • For information on using Name and Actions for viewing content or metadata properties, downloading and uploading content, or deleting a document, see Viewing all documents.
  • Contingencies.

Searching for documents

Use the Search pane of the Documents screen to search for documents. You can use the following search parameter values for a document after you create the document or link to it:

  • Document Name – The name of the document. Typically, also the name of the file in which the document content is stored.
  • Related To – When viewed from an account, the drop-down list enables you to filter by the current account, or policies and policy transactions on the account. When viewed from a policy, you can filter by the current policy and policy transactions. Select <none> to find all documents related to the current account or policy.
  • Status – A value from the DocumentStatusType typelist, such as Final or Draft. You are required to set this value when you create a document. In the base configuration, only Final and Draft are used. The Approving and Approved statuses are not used in the base configuration, but you can implement code that uses them.
  • Date Range – The start and end of a date range.
  • Author – By default, the name of the user who associated the document with the account, policy, or contingency. This field can be changed to some other value, such as the sender of a document.
  • Include Hidden Documents – Whether to search also for documents that have been hidden.

See also

Create a new document

Before you begin

You can create a new account or policy document when you have an account or policy open.

You can also create a document:

  • For a contingency when you have a policy open. See View documents for a contingency.
  • From an email. For example, with an active or pending account open, you select Actions > New Email. Then in the Email worksheet, you set Save as Document.
  • From an unbound policy’s Prior Losses card, available on the Risk Analysis screen for the policy.
  • From the submission manager when you create a confirmation letter for the submission.

Procedure

  1. Either use the Actions menu and go to the selections under New Document or open the Documents screen and click New Document.
  2. Click one of the following choices for adding documents to the current account or policy:
    • Upload document
    • Create from a template

What to do next

See also

Upload documents

About this task

When you upload a document, you replace the content for a document with a file from your file system. If you are creating a new document, you must specify metadata properties for the document, and the upload becomes the content. You can upload multiple documents at one time.

Procedure

  1. There are multiple ways to get to the Upload Documents worksheet that enables you to upload one or more documents:
    • Click Actions, and under New Document click Upload documents.
    • In the Documents window, click New Document and then click Upload documents.
    The Upload Documents worksheet opens.
  2. To add files that you want to upload, do any of the following:
    • Drag one or more files from your file system window, such as Windows Explorer, to the worksheet.
    • Click Add Files, browse to the locations of your documents, and click Add.
    • Click Add Files multiple times for files in different folders. You can also select more than one document in a folder.
    • Paste an image from the clipboard in the Paste Files Here text field. Note that this option works only for clipboard images. The option is not for files.
  3. Set the properties for the files you want to upload.
    • You must have values for the Name, File Type, Related To, Status, Document Type, and Hidden fields.
    • You can set the properties one file at a time in the fields to the right of each file you added to the list.
    • You can edit the properties for multiple files by selecting their check boxes and then clicking Edit Details.
    • Do not set the Name field for multiple files. Files must have different names. Additionally, PolicyCenter sets the file type for you based on the MIME type it detects. If you set the File Type field, the file contents will be configured to match that MIME type when you upload it.
  4. Click Upload to send the file or files to the server and create the link or links.

Replace content for an existing document

Procedure

  1. You can start the upload to replace a document’s content in two ways:
    • On the Documents screen, for the document whose contents you want to upload, click Upload under Actions.
    • On the Documents screen, for the document whose contents you want to upload, click View Document Properties under Actions. Then, on the Document Properties screen, click Upload .
  2. In the Update Document Content screen, add the file that has the new content by:
    • Browsing for the content file.
    • Dragging the file from your file system window, such as Windows Explorer.
  3. Click Update.

Create a new document from a template

Procedure

  1. Open an account or policy.
  2. Select either of the following:
    • Actions > New Document > Create from a template.
    • Open the Documents screen, and then click New Document > Create from a template.
  3. In the New Document worksheet, click the Select Template search icon so you can select a template. To create a document, you must specify an existing template.

    When creating a document from a template for a policy, PolicyCenter automatically shows only the appropriate document types for that type of policy. This behavior is based on the configuration settings in the Product Model for that policy type.

  4. After you click the Select Template search icon, a search screen for document templates opens.

    The search settings are based on the account or policy you have open.

    1. If no results are showing, choose a document type from the Type picker.
      For example, select Confirmation letter.
    2. Set any other search fields that will help you find the template.
    3. Click Search.
      The Search Results displays a list of matching document templates.
    4. Click Select for the template you want to use.

      The base configuration Sample Acrobat document, SampleAcrobat.pdf, uses Helvetica font. If you intend to create a document that uses Unicode characters, such as one that uses an East Asian language, the document template must support a Unicode font. Otherwise, the document does not display Unicode characters correctly.

  5. After you select a template, PolicyCenter displays numbered steps along the left side of the screen.
  6. Follow the steps on the screen.

    The document requires values for Name, Related To, Status, Document Type, and Hidden. Those values are filled in for you, but you might want to change them. In particular, Name sets the file name of the content file.

    If you integrate with a document management system, the file attributes used by that system need not be the same as the comparable object values that appear in the document.

  7. After filling in the fields, click Create Document.
  8. If you see View/Edit, click this button.
    • If you can edit the document content, your browser will indicate that it downloaded the file.
    • You can use the browser feature that enables you to open the downloaded file in its native editor.
    • If you edit the document content file, be sure to save it.
    • Make note of the saved file name and location so you can browse for the file when you upload changes to the document. The file you upload becomes the new content for the document.
  9. Click Update to save your work.

What to do next

After you create the document, you can take additional steps, such as sending this document as an email attachment. You can also print it and send it through the mail. Additionally, if you have integrated with a document management system, you can use any features provided by that system.

See also

Edit content for a document

About this task

You can edit contents of documents either in the Documents screen or in the Contingency screen if documents have been added to a contingency.

You can edit the content of a document if you have sufficient permissions.

Note: If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer and you download a Microsoft Office document, the browser can open it for you in the Office application, such as Microsoft Word. However, it is possible that the browser will not use the correct file name for the document. Before saving a Microsoft Office document that you have downloaded for editing, verify that the file name is correct, and enter it again if necessary.

Procedure

  1. Click Download in the Actions column for the document. Alternatively, you can click the same button on the Document Properties screen for the document.
    Your browser indicates that it downloaded the file.
  2. Edit the document content file in the appropriate editor.
    Most web browsers can be configured to open some types of downloaded files in their native editors.
  3. Save your work after you have made all your edits.
    Make note of the saved file name and location so you can browse for the file when you upload changes to the document. The file you upload becomes the new content for the document.
  4. In the Documents screen, click Upload under Actions.
  5. On the Update Document Content screen, click Browse, locate the file you saved, and then click Update. Alternatively, you can drag a file from your file system viewer to this screen.

What to do next

See also

Edit metadata properties of a document

Before you begin

You can edit the metadata properties of a document if you have sufficient permissions.

About this task

You can edit metadata properties of documents either in the Documents screen or in the Contingency screen if documents have been added to a contingency.

Procedure

  1. Click View Document Properties in the Actions column for the document.
  2. In the Document Properties screen, click Edit.
  3. Make your changes.

    If you change the Name field, PolicyCenter subsequently uses that name for the file it downloads for document content.

  4. Click Update when you have made all your changes.

What to do next

See also

Hiding a document

Hiding a document is a way to remove an obsolete document from your list of documents without deleting it. When you hide a document, you no longer see it listed in the Documents screen unless you indicate that you want to see hidden documents.

You can hide a document in a number of ways:

  • With an account or policy open, open the Documents screen from the left Sidebar, select a listed document, and click Hide Documents.
  • Open the Documents screen. Then click View Document Properties for a document to open its Document Properties screen, click Edit, set Hidden to Yes, and then click Update.

Hiding a document in either of these ways sets the Obsolete flag on the Document entity and does not retire the document in the database. You can view hidden documents by setting Include Hidden Documents to Yes in the search section of the Documents screen.

Hiding a document is not the same as deleting it. The docdelete permission is necessary to delete documents. Only users who have that permission can delete documents.

Delete a document

Procedure

  1. Open the Documents screen and select the document in the Documents list.
  2. Click Delete Selected.

    If this button is dimmed or there is no Delete action visible in the Actions column, you might not have the authority to delete that file.

What to do next

See also