Basic concepts

A FileBound project is the highest level and broadest level of organization that can be created within FileBound. FileBound is designed on the basis of real life traditional methods by which files and paper documents are organized physically in a filing cabinet.

Imagine an office having separate cabinets for its various departments or business processes in a file room. Each cabinet holding one or more files containing documents related to a specific department or a business process. For example, imagine there is a cabinet dedicated to the Human Resources department. Another cabinet is dedicated to the loans business process, which contains files of all customers with loan information.

FileBound provides you the same functionality by storing files and documents, (converted into digital format), in a "project" instead of a cabinet. A FileBound project represents its real life counterpart, the cabinet. FileBound represents the file-room.

You must create and set up a project first, if you are getting ready to work with FileBound for the first time. FileBound comes with some useful project templates that can be installed readily.

FileBound is designed on the basis of a real life scenario where physical files (or folders) are used to store and organize related documents within a filing cabinet. Similar organization is represented in FileBound where "file" means just a searchable container for various types of related documents; it must not be confused with a computer "file".

For example, suppose you have a filing cabinet for storing and organizing loan files of customers. Imagine that you have put a sticker on the cabinet bearing the name "Loan Files". The filing cabinet contains several plastic files or folders containing paper documents on loan records. Among several other files, suppose you have stored a file that belongs to "Keith Adams". When you open this file, it may contain several paper documents with one or more pages.

You can represent a similar scenario in FileBound. You will need to scan the documents first to make the documents available in FileBound in digital format. You can create a project, name it "Loan Files", and add a file for "Keith Adams". You can store all the documents belonging to Keith in his file.

FileBound allows you to create index fields for files in a project. You can search for the file based on any combination of index values. For example, if you have added the index field "Name" to the "loan files" project then you can find Keith's file easily by specifying "Keith" as a search parameter. However, note that the result will return file records of all customers with "Keith" as their name.

Suppose you add another index field "Loan Amount" to the project. Now you can enter a loan amount as a search parameter. You can also set a range for the loan amount, depending on how you have set up the index field.

Now, if you set the search criteria to "Keith" for Name and 5000 to 10000 for Loan Amount then the result will return the file records for all customers having "Keith" as their name and a loan amount between 5000 to 10000 (both figures inclusive).

FileBound allows you to work with a wide range of document types. You can scan and save documents directly into a specific location in a file or import documents into a specific location in a file within a project. FileBound provides a Windows Viewer and a Web Viewer that allows you to view and work with documents.

The documents stored within a project file can be grouped logically according to dividers. You can set up dividers while setting up a project or enter a divider name when adding content to the system. Dividers set up for a project are available to all the files in the project. Once you have a divider in place, you can scan or add a document to the divider. You can also copy and paste documents from other dividers.

For example, Keith Adam's file may contain documents that deal with general correspondence about a loan application and the loan application received from him. You can set up two dividers 'General Correspondence' and 'Loan Applications'. Once the dividers are added, you can scan or add documents to the appropriate divider so that the documents are grouped meaningfully for easy retrieval.

You can search for a file by selecting a divider name as a search parameter using the advanced search options.

Dividers also allow you to add an optional master sheet to a file. You can use a master sheet to keep an updated summary of the file. You cannot delete a master sheet.

FileBound displays a divider within a file, if it has at least one document attached to it. When you add or scan a document to a file without specifying a divider or a separator, FileBound inserts a default divider named '<<NO DIVIDER>>'.

You can also turn on divider security that limits a group of users by providing access to specific dividers only.

FileBound provides you with separators that can be used to group dividers logically in a file according to the business requirement. You must enable separators in FileBound if you want to use the separator feature. You can set up separators while setting up a project or at a later time. Separators set up for a project are available to all the files in the project. You can also copy and paste documents from other dividers or separators.

For example, you can group your dividers according to certain dates. You can create separators named according to specific dates. Once the separators are in place, you can add dividers to the separator. Now, the documents in the file are grouped into dividers, and the dividers are grouped into separators for specific dates.

You can search for a file by selecting a separator name as a search parameter using the advanced search options.

FileBound displays a separator within a file if it has at least one divider attached to it. When you add or scan a document to a file without specifying a separator, FileBound inserts a default separator named '<<NO SEPARATOR>>'. FileBound will not display any separators if it is not enabled.

You can also turn on separator security that limits a group of users, access to specific separators only.