In
ContactsLaw, every incoming
document must be catalogued before it can be used effectively.
Document cataloguing is the process by which a document is imbued with special properties, such as its
file,
contacts,
dates and
attributes. Importantly, it also builds a concise description of the document.
Cataloguing also determines where the document can be located by browsing - on the documents tab of a file, one-or-more contacts, or both.
The cataloguing
activity can assist in the process of associating contacts with the document, by performing a reverse-lookup on e-mail addresses and fax numbers. It will also perform a page count (if supported for the file format).
Fields captured during cataloguing
Direction - Whether the document is incoming (typical) or outgoing. Document types exhibit different behaviour depending on this field.
Take details from - In some circumstances, a copy of a document already in the library may be catalogued; it may bear an important signature or include edits or amendments. The original document is added here.
In reply to - If the document is a reply to an existing document, the original is added here. This copies some of the attributes from the original document and creates a
relationship between the documents.
File - The matter with which the document is associated. Depending on the document type, this field may be required or optional.
Pages - For paginated document formats, ContactsLaw counts the number of pages in the document. This metadata can be used to build lists of documents with page numbers. Some formats do not support page counting.
Folder - The
folder in which the document is placed. Additional folders may be available after the file is added.
Attributes - A series of toggles which further describe the document and how it can be used.
Description - The description of the document, as it appears throughout the system. This is built automatically using the
document description expression from the document type, but can be overridden by the user.
Details
Dates - For each date type specified by the document type, you can nominate the date and (depending on the type) the time and
member.
Contacts - For each role specified by the document type, you can specify the contact(s) and whether the document should be available on the contact tab (in addition to the file tab, if any). For e-mails and faxes, the
communication details associated with the contact are shown. These are used to look up existing contacts, create new contacts or add new details to existing contacts.
Tags
To assist in further classification of the document, you can add freeform tags. Tags can be used to locate similar documents across multiple files/contacts, or simply as a means of organising large lists of documents.
Notes
You can associate freeform notes with the document, which can be viewed from the document explorer or via the properties window. These may provide an abstract or summary of the document, instructions for staff, etc.
Bulk cataloguing
When cataloguing several documents relating to the same file, it is not necessary to complete the document distribution activity for each one. Instead, by checking the 'queue for distribution' option, you can defer distribution until the end of the
task queue and perform a single distribution for all catalogued documents. Note that this is only possible when cataloguing is queued.
Document preview
If it is necessary to refer to the document during cataloguing, you can open a preview in a separate window, or a read-only copy of the document in its native application.
Duplicate detection
ContactsLaw detects exact duplicates during cataloguing. If an existing copy of the document is found, you will be prompted to either delete the redundant copy or continue normally.
Duplicate detection currently only searches the
document library containing the document being catalogued. Duplicates may still exist in other libraries.
Automatic cataloguing
The interactive cataloguing process can be completely bypassed for some trivial types of documents by using the automatic cataloguing feature.
The requirements for automatic cataloguing are as follows:
- Document description must build automatically
- All required dates must populate automatically
- All required roles must map to file contacts or have default values
If any of these requirements are not met, ContactsLaw will simply display the cataloguing activity as per normal.