Overview
Managing versions in Firmex is a great way to easily collaborate, while ensuring a complete audit trail of information is exchanged between internal and external users. Contract negotiations, managing deal closings, providing historical records of investor reports or board meeting minutes, preparing for litigation or audits, and tracking and sharing corporate policies are just some of the examples.
To make it easier to collaborate, Firmex includes the ability to store and manage multiple versions of documents in your projects. Every document has at least one version. Users accessing a document to view or download are accessing the latest version of that document, called Current.
An option column - “Versions” - is available for the document list. A Project Administrator must enable the column in Project Settings > Options, for users to be able to show or hide it.
Documents can have an unlimited number of versions, and versions are automatically numbered in the order in which they are added: v1, v2, v3, etc. A document can have versions of different file types as well. To help users differentiate between different versions, each version can optionally have its own Content Status and Notes. The Content Status of the current version is identical to the Content Status of the document.
FAQ
Upload, Download, and Manage Versions
Q: I don’t see the version column in my document list.
A: A Project Administrator must select to add the Version column in Project Settings > Options > Column Display. Then you (the user) must select the column to see it in the document list. Your preference will be remembered for when you log into the project again.
To see the Document Version column:
- Show the Versions column in the Documents grid by clicking Show/Hide Columns, and select Versions. Or,
- In the Documents pane, using the document's checkbox, select the document whose versions you want to see. Then, click Manage Documents and select View Versions.
Q: How are versions numbered? What happens if I delete a version?
A: Versions are automatically numbered (e.g. v1, v2, v3) as they are added. If a version is deleted there will be a gap in the numbers (i.e. Firmex does not renumber the remaining versions).
Q: What happens to the versions if I rename a document?
A: Renaming a document will not affect the name of any of the versions. The name of the first uploaded document (version 1) will remain as the Original File Name. Smart Uploads match on the current document name and extension, not the original file name or any of the version names.
Q: What happens if I copy or move documents from one folder to another? Do new versions get created?
A: Within a project, when you move or copy a document, all versions of the document are moved/copied. If you move or copy a document to a folder and there is already a document with the same filename and file extension, the moved/copied document will automatically be renamed to be unique, e.g. abc (1).doc.
If documents are copied to a new project, only the current version is copied. Why? This is to ensure data integrity. For a document with several versions, earlier versions may have been uploaded by users who are not in the destination project. But, the user who is performing the copy action has to be in the destination project (otherwise they wouldn’t be allowed to do the copy), so only the current version is copied and the “modified by” date of the new document is the user doing the copy.
Permissions
Q: Which users can see versions, add versions and manage versions?
A: Content Viewers can only see the most up-to-date version of a document. They cannot see versions, or that multiple versions exist for a given document.
Content Contributors and above can see versions and add new versions.
Content Managers and Content Admins can delete versions.
Also, document activity emails will not go out to Content Viewers when new versions are added.
Q: How do document protection options work for versions?
A: Document Protection options are applied as best as possible due to file type of the current version. For example, Firmex cannot watermark a ZIP file, so if a document version is added that switches the current version from PDF to ZIP, then the protection changes.
Note: This is the exact behaviour as is in the product today when Document Protection options are applied to a folder or as a user default. If the documents in the folder are not all PDFs, then some protection options cannot be applied.
Q: Can a user see all versions but not be able to add new ones?
A: No. Content Contributors (and above) can see and add versions.
Q: Can I edit a version or replace a version?
A: If you are Content Contributor or above, you can change the content status or notes on a version. The name of a version cannot be changed and versions cannot be replaced.
Q: If I’m working on a version, can I “check it out”? And check it back in when I’m finished?
A: Firmex doesn’t have a check in/check out feature. However, a content admin can take a document offline or manually change permissions for other users to content viewer for a time (but then has to change them back later). Or the user can add notes or use a content status of “Checked Out” to indicate to other users that they shouldn’t work on that version.
Versions Misc.
Q: Do users get emails when new versions are uploaded?
A: The document activity emails will include notifications about new versions being uploaded, based on user permissions. Document activity emails will not go out to Content Viewers when new versions are added.
Q: Can I change the content status of individual versions? Or just the whole document?
A: Different content statuses can be applied to different versions. The status of the current version is the same as the status of the document (and vice versa). If you change the status of a document, it updates the status of the most current version automatically. The status of individual versions and the document can be changed at any time by Content Contributors and above.
Q: How do reports change with versions?
A: Reports with data related to documents will now include a new column showing version number.
Q: Can I offline, copy link, notify users about a specific version?
A: No, that functionality stays at the document level, e.g. a document can be offlined but individual versions cannot.
