Viewing Documents and Folders

You can view the metadata of documents and folders, and the contents of documents, in Laserfiche. The metadata (including properties such as the creation date and the user who last modified it) can be viewed in both the folder browser and the document viewer. You can also open documents to view their contents, stream audio and video files, and open electronic files (such as Word documents) in their native applications.

Viewing Document or Folder Information in the Folder Browser

When viewing documents in the folder browser, you can choose whether to view documents in a list (which will include information about the document displayed in columns) or as a set of icons and thumbnails. To do so, select the Change column display button () and then select List or Icons.

You can display information about the document directly in the columns, allowing you to find information about a document without selecting it, view information for multiple documents at once, and easily sort your documents and folders.

To choose which columns to display, select the Change column display button () directly above the entry listing in the folder browser, and select Column Picker, then select the columns you want to show. You can drag and drop to rearrange the column order. You can also save a set of columns as a column profile by clicking save Profile and providing a name for the profile. This allows you to quickly switch between sets of information that you want to display. To switch to a different saved column profile, click Display Options, point to Saved Columns, and select the profile.

To sort by a column, click the column's name in the column header. In some cases, you may want to sort by multiple columns at once. For instance, you might want to sort first by a "Company Name" field, and then by the document's creation date. You can now do so using multi-column sort. To sort by multiple columns, select the Change column display button () and select Sort Columns. You can then select which column you want to sort by first, which second, and so on. In the column sort bar, you can also drag and drop to reorder the columns, and determine whether to sort them in ascending or descending order.

Viewing a Document or Folder's Details

To view a document or folder's details, select the document in the folder browser. Metadata and other properties of the document will be displayed on the right. You can view most metadata in the Details tab. If the document has a template and/or fields, you can view them in the Fields tab. If you have selected a document with pages (including PDFs), you can view them (along with any annotations on those pages) in the Preview tab.

You can also view the same metadata in the same location in the document viewer. (Since folders can't be opened in the document viewer, metadata for these documents can only be viewed in the folder browser.)

For more information on viewing and working with metadata, see Metadata.

Viewing the Contents of a Document with Pages (Including PDFs)

To view the contents of a document with pages, select the document's name in the folder browser.

Note: By default, PDFs will open in the document viewer. You can also open them in their native application by right-clicking, pointing to Open, and selecting Download and Check Out.

Viewing and Navigating a Document's Contents

In the center of the document viewer, you will see the document's pages, including any annotations on those pages. You can scroll through the document, use the arrow buttons () in the toolbar to move between pages, or type in a page number to jump straight to it. You can also navigate from document to document in the same folder or set of search results using the Next and Previous buttons in the upper right.

On the left, you can review all the pages in the document using their thumbnails. Click a thumbnail to open the document to that page.

On the right, you can view the document's metadata. Most metadata is listed in the Details tab. If the document has a template and/or fields, you can view them in the Fields tab. In addition, you can view an overview of all annotations in the document in the Annotations tab, and toggle annotations off if you do not want to see them on the pages themselves. (Note that toggling annotations off only affects the image pages; it does not affect the text pane.)

For more information on viewing and working with metadata, see Metadata. For more information about annotations, see Annotations.

Display Options

To specify the zoom level of the pages, you can use the zoom tool () or the plus or minus buttons. You can also use the size option and select Fit window, Fit width, Fit height, or a specific zoom level.
In the size option, you can also select Page Display and select how many pages you want to view simultaneously.
To view the pages in full-screen view, click the Full Screen View button (). To return to the standard view, select the Standard View button ().
To toggle which parts of the document viewer you want to see, you can use the Toggle Panes button (). This allows you to select whether to view just the image, image and thumbnails, image and text, or all three of image, thumbnails, and text.

Viewing Audio and Video Files

By default, opening an audio or video file will stream that file to your browser, allowing you to watch or listen to it without downloading and then opening it. When you open the audio or video file, it will automatically begin streaming. Laserfiche supports streaming for MP4, M4A, WEBM, OGG, OGGV, MP3, WAV, OPUS, and OGA file types. (However, note that not all browser versions support all media types.)

If an audio or video document has been transcribed (see Working with Audio and Video Media Files for more information), the transcription pane will be available next to the details pane to the right of the document. This pane will display the text automatically transcribed from the document.

If you want to download an individual media file instead of streaming it, you can select the file and export it. See Sharing, Donloading, and Printing Documents for more information. If you want to download media files upon opening by default, you can configure this as an option. Click your user name in the upper right corner and select Options. In the Display section, clear the option Stream media files. If you have media streaming enabled, but want to download a specific media file instead of streaming it, you can do so by downloading the file.

Viewing the Contents of a Document with an Electronic File

Documents with electronic files (with the exception of PDFs) will open in their native application rather than in the document viewer. In addition, while audio and video files will play as streaming media in your browser by default, if you disable this option, they will also be downloaded and then open in their native applications.

Microsoft Office Documents

When you first open a Microsoft Office document, you will be prompted to decide whether you want to install the Office Integration or download and check out the document without the Office Integration. The Office Integration provides several benefits, including the ability to save changes back to the repository automatically rather than checking the document in and re-uploading it, and working with metadata directly within Microsoft Office. See Working with Microsoft Office Documents for more information. Once the Office Integration has been installed, you can simply open Microsoft Office documents by selecting them in the folder browser, and checked back in when you save and close the Office application.

If you have the Office Integration installed but want to check out the document manually instead, right-click the document, point to Open, and select Download and Check Out. If you want to simply view a document without making changes, right-click the document, point to Open, and select Download as Read-Only. You can also open the document in the document viewer; this will not display the Office document itself, but you can view the document's metadata and text. To do so, right-click the document, point to Open, and select Document Viewer.

Images

By default, Laserfiche will convert most image types (TIF, TIFF, BMP, PCX, JPG, JPEG, GIF, and PNG) into image pages in Laserfiche. However, if you have removed a format from the list under File Conversion in the New Documents section of the Options page, the file will not be converted and will instead be treated as an electronic document. These images can still be viewed and opened in the web client's document viewer, but some features of the document viewer (such as annotations) will not be available.