Using the Attachment Categories Dialog
Attachment categories are the names that files attached to customers and calls can be filed under, so that people can find all the files of one kind together. Your company has one list of them, and only the system administrator, ABM user number 1, adds to it and renames them, 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.
What are attachment categories for in ABM Service?
Attachment categories sort the files attached to customers and calls into named groups, so office staff can pick out, for example, every certificate on a customer without reading through all of its files. There is one list for the whole company, used by every customer and every call.
Office staff meet the categories in three places on the call screen and the customer screen:
- In the sections sidebar. Under All attachments in the Attachments group, there is one item for each category that this customer or call has files in, each with how many, then No category when any of its files has none. A category with no files on that record is not listed there.
- In a file's details panel. The Category list offers No category and every category in the company's list. Anybody can change a file's category there and keep it with Save changes.
- When attaching files. Files dropped onto a category item in the sections sidebar are filed in that category.
Office staff can choose a category for a file, but they cannot add a category or rename one. Only the system administrator can, and only in the Categories dialog. The list is the one already kept in your company's ABM database, so the first time you open the dialog you see the categories your company already had; ABM Service adds none of its own.
How office staff attach, find and open files is in the office staff's pages about attachments on the call and customer screens.
How do I open the Categories dialog?
The Categories dialog has no entry in the ABM Service menu. Open any call or any customer, point at the sections sidebar on the left of the screen, and select Manage categories…, the last item of the Attachments group. Only the system administrator sees that item.
- Open any call from the Calls list, or any customer from the Customers list.
- Point at the sections sidebar on the left of the call screen or customer screen so that it flies out. To keep the sidebar open, select Sections at its top (its name is Keep the sidebar open).
- Select Manage categories… at the foot of the Attachments group.
Manage categories… is one of the smaller items under Attachments, so it is hidden while the sidebar is folded away. It is on every call and every customer, including one with no files, and the dialog shows the same company-wide list whichever record you open it from. It works the same way in the ABM Service desktop app.
Anybody else's Attachments group ends after the category items and No category: there is no Manage categories… for them, and nothing in the dialog can be reached by another ABM user.
The sections sidebar stays open behind the dialog while it is up. When you close the dialog, the keyboard goes back to Manage categories…, so you can carry on from where you were.
What does the Categories dialog show?
The Categories dialog lists every attachment category your company has, from A to Z ignoring capitals, each with its colour, how many files are filed under it, and a Rename button. Beside the heading Categories is the number of categories, followed by — shared by every customer and call.
- Find a category — the box at the top, where the cursor starts. Type any part of a name to narrow the list; capitals and accents are ignored. No category matches that. means nothing fits; clear the box to see the whole list again.
- New category — beside the find box, adds a category.
- The count on each line, such as 1 file or 0 files, is across all of your company's files, not only the customer or call you opened the dialog from.
- Rename — on each line, changes that category's name.
The foot of the dialog says Only the system administrator can see this. Renaming a category renames it on every file in it. Categories cannot be deleted, so no file ever loses its category.
To close the dialog, select Close at its top right, press Escape, or click outside it.
While the list is being read you see Loading the categories…. A company with no categories yet sees There are no categories yet — press New category to add one. If the list cannot be read, the dialog says The categories could not be loaded. with the reason, and Try again reads it again. In the rare case that your company's database has no place for categories at all, the dialog says Categories are not available for this company, so files cannot be given one. and has no New category.
Can I delete an attachment category, or merge two categories?
No. The Categories dialog has no way to delete a category, and ABM Service has none anywhere else. This is deliberate: a file filed under a deleted category would quietly become No category, and nobody could tell afterwards what it had been. So no file ever loses its category.
There is no merge either. To move files from one category to another, office staff change each file's Category in its details panel, one file at a time, and select Save changes.
What you can do with a category you no longer want:
- If it holds no files (its line says 0 files), rename it to something you do need, rather than adding another.
- If it holds files, give it a name that tells people not to use it any more. Renaming it renames it on every file already in it.
The Categories dialog refuses a name that another category already has, ignoring capitals, so a second "Photos" beside "photos" cannot be made by accident.
Each category's colour, on its dot in the sections sidebar and in the dialog, comes from the category itself. It stays the same when the category is renamed, and it cannot be chosen.
What happens for office staff when I add or rename a category?
A renamed category shows its new name at once on every file in it, on every customer and every call. Nothing else about those files changes: not their comment, memo, or the date they were last edited. A new category can be chosen for any file straight away.
When the change reaches people:
- In the same browser tab or desktop app window as the dialog, every screen holding a record's files shows the new name without being reloaded, including other calls open beside it, in the sections sidebar and in the details panel's Category list.
- Everybody else, and your own other tabs and desktop app windows, see the new name the next time they open a customer or a call.
A new category appears in the sections sidebar of a customer or call only once a file there has been filed under it, because the sidebar lists only the categories that record uses. It is 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.
ABM Service does not tell office staff that a category was added or renamed, so let people know if a name they rely on has changed.