How to Add or Rename an Attachment Category
The system administrator adds and renames your company's attachment categories in the Categories dialog. Open any call or customer, point at the sections sidebar on the left, and select Manage categories… at the foot of the Attachments group; then use New category to add one, or Rename on a category's line to change its name.
How do I add a new attachment category?
Open the Categories dialog with Manage categories… in the Attachments group of the sections sidebar on any call or customer, select New category, type the name and select Add. The new category can be chosen for any file straight away.
- Open any call or customer, point at the sections sidebar on the left so that it flies out, and select Manage categories… at the foot of the Attachments group.
- Select New category, beside the Find a category box at the top of the Categories dialog.
- Type the name in the box Name the new category, which takes the place of the find box while you type.
- Select Add, or press Enter.
The line under the box then says, for example, “Site photos” added — you can now choose it for any file. The new category takes its place in the list, in order of name, with 0 files, and the keyboard is on its Rename button. If the find box held words that the new name does not contain, the find box is cleared so that you can see the new line.
To change your mind, select Cancel beside Add, or press Escape: the box goes away and nothing is added. Pressing Escape a second time closes the dialog. Closing the dialog with a name typed and not added also adds nothing.
Spaces typed at the start or end of the name are dropped. If the name breaks one of the rules, such as being the same as an existing category's, the dialog says why on the line under the box and keeps what you typed, so you can correct it and select Add again.
How do I rename an attachment category?
In the Categories dialog, select Rename on the category's line, change the name in the box that opens in its place, and select Save. Every file already in that category shows the new name at once, on every customer and call.
- Open the Categories dialog with Manage categories… at the foot of the Attachments group in the sections sidebar of any call or customer.
- Type part of the category's name in Find a category to bring its line into view.
- Select Rename on that category's line.
- Change the name in the box that opens on the line, in place of the name.
- Select Save, or press Enter.
The line under the find box then says, for example, Renamed to “Warranty cards” — every file in this category now shows the new name. The keyboard goes back to the line's Rename button. If the words in the find box no longer match the new name, for example because you had typed part of the old name to find it, the find box is cleared, so the renamed line stays in sight.
Selecting Save with the name unchanged just closes the box; nothing is saved. Changing only the capitals of a category's own name, for example from "site photos" to "Site photos", is allowed.
To stop without renaming, select Cancel or press Escape: the old name comes back.
Warning: A rename takes effect at once for everybody and on every file in the category, and there is no undo button. To undo a rename, rename the category back to its old name.
What names can an attachment category have?
A category's name must be between 1 and 50 characters once spaces at the start and end are removed, must not contain a line break or a tab, and must not be the same as another category's name, ignoring capitals. The Categories dialog checks this when you select Add or Save, and the box stops accepting characters at 50.
When a name is refused, the dialog keeps your typing and says why on the line under the find box:
- A category needs a name. — the box was empty, or held only spaces.
- A category's name can be at most 50 characters. — shorten it.
- A category's name cannot contain a line break or a tab. — usually from pasted text; retype it.
- There is already a category called followed by the existing category's name, as it is spelt — another category has that name, perhaps with different capitals. Choose another name, or use the category that is already there.
- That category no longer exists. — the category you were renaming has been removed from your company's database since the dialog was opened. ABM Service never removes one itself. Close the dialog and open it again to see the list as it is now.
- Categories are not available for this company. — your company's database has no place for categories, so none can be added.
A name is checked against every other category at the moment it is saved. If you are signed in as the system administrator in two places at once, such as a browser and the ABM Service desktop app, and add the same name in both, only the first is added and the second is refused with There is already a category called. An open dialog does not show a category added somewhere else until you close it and open it again.
Does renaming a category change the files in it?
Renaming a category changes only its name. The files in it stay filed under the same category, so every one of them shows the new name, on every customer and every call, and nothing else about them changes: not their comment, their memo, or the date they were last edited.
Screens open in the same browser tab or desktop app window as the dialog show the new name straight away, without reloading. Other people, and your own other tabs and desktop app windows, see it the next time they open a customer or a call. The category keeps its colour.
Adding a category changes no file at all. It is offered in every file's Category list at once in the tab or window where you added it, and for everybody else the next time they open a customer or a call; it appears in a customer's or call's sections sidebar once a file there has been filed under it.
Categories cannot be deleted, in the dialog or anywhere else in ABM Service, so no file ever loses its category. A category you no longer want can be renamed, either to a name you do need if it holds 0 files, or to a name that tells people not to use it.