Finding and working · Chapter 10
Viewing and editing a document
A click on a document in the archive opens it. On the left is the page, on the right five tabs with everything that belongs to the letter: the fields, the recognised text, notes, versions and the history. At the top are the buttons for downloading, sharing and everything else. nexpaper saves the fields as soon as you change something, so there is no Save button for them.
Looking at the page
nexpaper shows the PDF in a view of its own in the browser. “Pages” opens the side bar with all the pages, “Contents” shows the table of contents if the PDF has one. “Larger”, “Smaller” and “Fit to width” change the size, and “Find in the document” searches the text of this one document. Under the page it says “Page 1 of 3”. “Edit pages” leads to the chapter Pages.
Changing the fields
The tab “Details” shows the fields. Whoever may only read a document can look at them but not change them.
- “Title” stands at the top as the heading and is the input field itself. Click into it and write.
- “Sender” proposes the existing ones as you type. A name that does not exist yet creates a new sender, and nexpaper says so.
- “Kind” you choose from the kinds of the vault. With “+ New kind” you create a new one. nexpaper proposes similar names under “Did you mean:”, so that no duplicates arise.
- “Date” and “Amount” you write in the usual way, 86.40 or 1,234.56, say. A two-digit year such as 0027 nexpaper recognises as a typing mistake and asks “Did you mean 2027?”. “Use it” agrees.
- “Tags” get suggestions from the existing tags as you type, and for an unknown name nexpaper asks “Did you mean …?”. New ones come into being only on purpose.
- “Vault” and “Belongs to” show where the document lies and whose it is. Moving works through “More” (see below).
Keeping dates
Under “Dates” you tap “Date” and choose what you mean: “Due on”, “Contract until”, “Warranty until” or “Keep until”. For the washing machine, for instance, you enter “Warranty until”, so that the date is with the invoice when you need it. nexpaper remembers the dates, but in this version it does not remind you of them. So do not rely on a date reporting to you by itself.
Text and notes
- “Text”. Here is the text nexpaper read from the document, and in which languages. “Copy the text” in the menu “More” puts it on the clipboard. The full-text search finds it, and in the searchable PDF it lies as an invisible layer over the page, so that it can be selected. If the text was in the file already, the tab says so too.
- “Notes”. Everybody who sees the document may write one, even somebody who may only read. Everybody who sees the document sees the notes too, and the search finds them. Good ones are sentences like “paid on 3 April” or “notice sent”. Everyone may change only their own note, and delete their own or, if they manage the vault, any.
Versions and history
The tab “Versions” lists every version of the document, and the current one is marked “current”. A new version replaces nothing: each one is kept with its original until the document is deleted. Versions come into being when you edit pages, join documents or upload a revised file through “More” and “Upload a new version”. There you can add a short note under “What is new? (optional)”. An older version you bring forward again with “Restore”. It becomes the new version in doing so, and the others stay in the list.
The tab “History” says who did what and when: created, read, proposed, changed fields, moved, shared, opened a link, put in the trash, brought back. The content is never there, only that something happened.
Downloading
The button “Download” offers two files. The “Searchable PDF” carries the text layer. The “Original” is the file exactly as it came in. For a document from the camera that is the PDF made of the photos, as taken. If an e-invoice came as a plain XML file, the details also have the button “E-invoice as XML”.
Moving and putting in the trash
The menu “More” has “Move”, to another vault you may file in. Sender and tags go along. Whoever sees only the old vault no longer sees the document afterwards. With “Move to trash” you put it away after a question. It lies there for 30 days and can be brought back under “Trash” with “Restore”. “Delete for good” deletes it with all its versions and files, with no way back. After 30 days nexpaper clears it out by itself.
Where the file lies on the disk
At the bottom of the document it says where it came from and when, and “Stored as” with the path of the file. It has the form vault/year/sender/date kind.pdf. So the file is named after the date and the kind, not the title. If a detail is missing, an English word stands in its place: undated, no sender or Document. When a field changes, the file moves along in the background. The original lies unchanged beside it, with a checksum.
Good to knowIf a file is missing on the server or has changed, the document carries the mark “File missing” or “File changed”, and the tab says what to do. nexpaper checks all the files by itself once a week, and “Check this document again now” has a single document looked at again at once. More in the chapter Running it.