The display is divided into 3 main areas:
- Navigation bar - Moves between folders, creates new subfolders, switches to search mode and provides options for controlling how documents are displayed.
- Folder list - Shows the hierarchy of folders available within the current location. Depending on the scope (file/contact/member), a different selection of folders will be available. A number of dynamic views are also available:
- Drafts - Shows all draft documents (documents which have not yet been finalised).
- Discoverable documents - Shows all documents with the discoverable attribute.
- All documents - Shows all documents, effectively flattening the folder hierarchy.
- Products - Lists all products associated with documents on the file and allows you to filter according to these.
- Tags - Lists all tags associated with documents on the file and allows you to filter according to these. You can also right-click to filter by multiple tags.
- Recently added documents - Shows the documents most recently created by the member.
- Recently modified documents - Shows the documents most recently modified by the member.
- Documents - Lists the documents matching the selected criteria (folder, view, etc). Double-clicking a document will open its properties. Right-clicking provides a host of options relating to the document.
View options
Columns
It is possible to select from a range of columns to determine which detail will be displayed against each document. ContactsLaw will remember your selection when displaying documents in future.
Conversation threads
By default, ContactsLaw will attempt to group conversations into threads. Whenever a piece of correspondence is associated with another document via the 'in reply to' field, the documents will be regarded as belonging to the same conversation. Threading allows you to quickly view the sequence and length of the conversation. Turning off threading causes all messages and replies to be ordered according to the sort criteria.
Alternatively, you can replace conversation threads with groups that show enclosures or redacted copies of documents in the list.
Documents on related files
By toggling the 'Related files' option on the ribbon, you can include documents on related files. This is useful for grouping together all documents on a series of associated matters without having to change the file number or organise the documents into different folders.
Preview pane
When the preview pane is enabled (under the 'View' menu), the bottom half of the screen is used to display previews of documents you select. ContactsLaw will use a combination of Windows Preview Handlers and internal mechanisms to preview the document. The preview pane is not enabled by default, because previewing incurs a number of overheads (e.g. each document must be downloaded to the local computer). You can also display previews in a separate window.
Context menu
Main article:
The context menu displayed when right-clicking document(s) will differ depending on the number of documents selected, whether the document is draft or final, incoming or outgoing, and whether you have permission to read/edit. In all cases, the menu provides access to a wealth of operations which can be performed on the selection.
Search mode
Clicking the 'Search' button will put the document explorer into search mode. This behaves in the same manner as the
document search, but the scope of the search is restricted to the selected file or contact only.
Additional actions
Building a list of documents
By clicking the 'copy to list' button, you can build a list of documents which can be copied to the clipboard (and thus pasted into other applications, documents, etc). You may optionally select the documents to include in the list; otherwise, all documents in the current view will be included. You can also drag-and-drop additional documents into the list when it appears. Once the list is populated, you can toggle columns on and off, re-order columns, change the sort order and otherwise refine the display until the list is ready. You can then copy it to the Windows clipboard in either HTML or plain text format.
Export all documents
The 'Export all' button allows you to save copies of all documents for the particular file or contact being viewed. You have the option to convert to PDF (if supported), retain the ContactsLaw folder structure and/or use redacted copies where available. This command is useful for sending the documents to parties who do not use ContactsLaw.
Duplicate detection
By clicking 'Find duplicates', ContactsLaw will search for duplicate documents and prompt the user to
merge the resulting groups of identical documents. Depending on the installed
plug-ins, you may be able to locate inexact duplicates (such as converted copies of the document).