How Aviator Provides a Forum for Sharing and Collaboration

Alberto has been charged with writing his company's policy for  ensuring the Y2K-compliance of new software. As a purchasing manager, he knows how to deal with vendor related issues, but this policy also needs input from people in IT and quality. Fortunately, Alberto can make his life easier by using Aviator's powerful document control features.

Instead of creating the new document from scratch, Alberto decides to use an existing document as a model . He opens the document attributes and clicks the Copy action to create an exact copy. Aviator documents are file containers.

The new document is automatically checked out to him so he can edit the document and its attributes. Aviator  supports any type of file. In this document, Alberto has combined multiple files (one Lotus WordPro file and one MS Excel file) with some descriptive rich text and graphics.

Once Alberto has finished drafting the new policy, he wants to get help from his colleagues in the purchasing department. He does this by giving them editor access in the document attributes. He could also ensure that no one else reads this draft policy before it is ready by selecting -No one- as readers.

Alberto and the other editors do not have to worry about overwriting someone else's work, because they check out the document each time they want to make a change. Checking out the document prevents anyone else from editing the document until  the document is checked back in. Editors can use the Work In Progress view to quickly find the documents they are working with.

Each time the document is checked in, a new revision can be created . Old revisions are listed under the most up-to-date document for ease of reference.

Alberto can monitor the progress of the edits by opening the log, which records all the actions performed on the document.

Alberto also wants to get input from the IT and quality departments. In order to keep control over the document and minimize confusion, he does not want them to edit the document directly. Instead, he sends them a bookmark (DocLink) to the document with instructions to offer their comments. (Alberto has also added these users in the document Readers list.)

DocLinks in Aviator always point to the most up-to-date document, so even if the current document becomes an old revision, the DocLink will always open the most current revision.

Alberto's colleagues open the document from the DocLink and click Comment to provide their input . They can also create Responses to comments and responses to responses, thereby creating a threaded discussion that can be saved with each revision of the document.

Before releasing the document, Alberto must define the document security, enter a distribution list, and select the appropriate classification attributes.

Now that Alberto has all the information he needs and is ready to release the document, all he has to do is click Release. The distribution list will be automatically notified by e-mail and the new document will appear in all the cabinet views.

Alberto has helped to demonstrate how Aviator can improve collaboration, speed up document development, and improve decision making by giving users a powerful, secure and user-friendly environment for editing documents.