The Files module provides information and file management features for the files added to each site but, not all of these features are available to every user in a given site. Depending on how a site is configured, unique access rights can be given to different groups of users for designated folders and files.
Page layout
On most devices, the Files module is laid out with two panels:
- A folder navigation panel on the left. You can also change the size of the left navigation panel by using the icon displayed below when hovering over the edge of the panel.
- A list of files and subfolders in the currently selected folder on the right
Folder navigation
The left panel of the Files module contains a view of all of the folders in that site. The top-level folder is always given the name of the site. Users with View Folder rights can use the folder tree to navigate through the folders they have access to.
The folder panel of the Files module will be displayed in tree or list format.
When viewed on a desktop computer, the tree format will be shown. When viewed on a mobile device, the folder panel will be shown with the list format.
If you want to select several or all folders/files you can use keyboard commands such as Ctrl+A to select all, or Ctrl+click several items to select those items.
Tree format
On a desktop computer, the folder panel looks like this, similar to the Windows Explorer view of the files and folders on a computer:
Click on the > (arrow) icon next to a folder to view the related subfolders and click the > icon again to hide the subfolders. If a folder contains files - then the number of files will be displayed in parentheses after the folder name.
Click on a folder name to select it. The folder name will change colour and the contents of that folder, including any subfolders and any files, will be revealed in the right panel. To navigate to a subfolder, click on the subfolder name in the left panel or click on the name of the subfolder in the right panel.
Tree format on a device
On a phone or tablet device, to view the folder list, tap Browse:
To display the Browse screen:
The Browse section works the same as on a desktop. Tap on the arrows to navigate through the folder tree, or tap on the folder name to open that folder.
Folders on a device
The folder panel is not displayed on a device to ensure that there is enough room to display the files. In this scenario you can tap the drop-down menu next to the name of the currently selected folder to navigate to another folder within the folder hierarchy:
File and subfolder panel
The right panel displays a list of the files and subfolders in the currently selected folder.
Only users with View folder permissions (or greater) to the parent folder will be able to view the folder and that only users with View file permissions (or greater) to the folder will be able to view the files in that folder.
If file-level security has been enabled for the site, it is possible that some users will be able to see certain files but not others.
The Files module can be displayed using one of four views:
- List view
- Column view
- Thumbnail view
- Index view
You can select either List, Column or Thumbnail view via View > List view / Column view / Thumbnail view:
The default view is Column view.
On a mobile device, only the list and thumbnail views are available.
Column view
To access the column view, navigate to View > Column view:
The Column view will be displayed:
Here, you can:
- View / download a file - Click on a file name to view that file in the document viewer. You can also download the file by clicking the Download icon next to the file:
Clicking on a subfolder name will display the contents of that folder.
- Current folder - The currently selected folder is listed. Use the drop-down menu to view the parent folders of the folder you are in:
To view the contents of a subfolder within the current folder you are in, click on the name of the subfolder.
- Multi-File Actions - The actions available at the top of the panel will vary based on your permissions and whether or not certain features have been enabled for the Files module.
- Additional Actions - These actions relate to files(s) and/or subfolder(s) that have been selected using the checkboxes to the left. First select the files(s) or subfolder(s) and click Action:
Then you can either choose to Download the file, Move or Copy the file, Add tags to the file or Delete the file.
The Download option will only be displayed when the bulk download option has been enabled by the site administrator. When files and folders are selected to be downloaded this way, all of the selected content will be added together into a single zip file and downloaded to your computer but the zip file will not include any parent folders.
To select all of the files and subfolders in the current folder, either click the checkbox at the top of the list of files and folders:
And to deselect all of the items, click the checkbox again.
- Metadata - Metadata for each file and folder is displayed in the files module.
Based on the way a site administrator has configured the Files module, some, none or all of this metadata will be displayed.
You can sort these fields by each particular piece of metadata by clicking which data you want to sort by in the header:
The standard metadata fields include:
- File type (or folder) icon - This will allow you to (at a glance) determine what type of file or folder the file is.
- File or folder name - The name can include additional information, such as auto-numbering - if it has been enabled on the site.
- Status - If a DocuSign document is Sent for signature you can check the status of the signatories. Click here for more information,
- Size - This is the size of the file. This measurement can be in B, KB, MB or GB.
- Author - Who the author of the file is.
- Last modified - This shows you the date and time that the file was last modified.
Ready for signature status
You can now change the status of a document to 'Ready for signature', which enables other users to see at a glance that the document is ready for signing. To change this status, select the document you want to change the status of and click Actions > Edit status:
The Edit status screen is displayed:
Here, you can select Ready for signature. Click Save to save your changes.
- More actions - For each file and folder you will have access to several options:
- File actions - To access the files menu, click More actions:
The available file options are based on the your role and the permissions you have been granted to the folder or file, as well as on the features that have been enabled for that site. File options that are commonly available include:
Many of these actions are only available to administrators. They include:
- Edit details - Typically this is limited to renaming the folder and adding or editing its comments
- Move, Copy and Delete
- Share the folder - Either by copying a link to the folder or sharing it via email
- Sorting contents - Via Edit details > Settings:
Users will have the ability to change how folders and files are sorted, but by default, the files and subfolders will be shown in descending order by last modified date.
Sorting only applies to the contents of the currently selected folder, not the contents of any of its subfolders.
- Add to favourites - To add a file or folder to your favourites, click Add to favourites:
- Folder Email Address - If enabled by the site administrator, every folder will have a unique email address to which files can be sent as attachments. Only users with folder admin permissions (and greater) will see the email address and can use this feature. More information about the file index is found here.
- Search - To search, type the beginning of your search criteria in the search field and all files and/or subfolders in the current folder with a name that matches the search text will be listed in the current page.
The match must occur at the beginning of a word. For example, typing 'agree' will match the file 'Merger Agreement' but typing 'ment' will not produce a search result. All searching is case insensitive.
To search the full text of all of the files within the site, enter your search criteria and press enter. The results will be displayed in the search results page.
- Click on the arrow next to the search box to reveal extra search options:
- File types - This drop-down menu allows you to filter the files in the currently selected folder by file type. The drop-down menu will list all of the file types found in the folder:
Select one of the file types to filter the files in the folder.
You can also filter your search by Tags:
By entering the tag in the search box, or selecting one of the existing tags' checkboxes.
Finally, you can also filter your search by Author:
Search for the author by entering text into the search box, or select the author from the list of available authors.
- Advanced search - Use the Advanced search options to filter your search even further.
Hiding the folder pane
To increase the viewing space for the folders and files, click the Hide arrow at the top left of the file and subfolder panel:
Click the arrow again to reveal the folder panel.
List view
To access the list view, navigate to View > List view:
In the list view, the file and folder metadata is shown beneath the file and folder names, instead of in a column format:
The list view has all of same capabilities as the column view, except the files and folders cannot be sorted by column headers. Instead, navigate to View > Sort by:
And select which parameter you would like to sort by.
Thumbnail view
To access the thumbnail view, navigate to View > Thumbnail view:
In thumbnail view, the file and folder metadata is shown alongside the files image thumbnail. Folders are sorted as mini folder thumbnails:
The thumbnail view has the same capabilities as the column and list views, except that files and folders cannot be sorted by column headers. Instead, navigate to View > Sort by as shown above.
Index/bulk download view
Click Index in the left pane to view the files module in the Index view:
The Index view is only available if the Show file index option has been enabled for the site. (Otherwise, only administrators have access to this view.) The index view looks like this:
The index view provides features that are not available with other views:
- The entire file and folder structure can be viewed on a single page
- The file index can be printed or downloaded as an Excel file, via Print preview and Export
- To view the contents of all of the folders in the site, click Expand all:
To close all the folders, click Collapse all
- All or portions of the file structure can be downloaded in bulk, if bulk downloading has been enabled for the site
Administrative users can determine which folders inherit the security settings of the parent folder from the colour of each folder. The key at the top of the page explains what each folder colour signifies:
Bulk downloading
In the column and list views, any files and subfolders in the current folder can be selected and then downloaded in bulk by navigating to Action > Download. No extra step is required.
To provide more granular control of the content to download, and to see additional options regarding the format of the bulk download, you must initiate the bulk download from the index view. Select any files or folders to download and navigate to Action > Download:
Selecting a file or folder will not automatically select the top-level folder (aka the root folder, which has the same name as the site) and neither will selecting a file or subfolder automatically select the parent folder as well. Unless you expressly choose to include the full folder path, only the selected files and folders will be included in the bulk download.
Click Action > Download to display the Select options screen:
The various options are explained in more detail here.
Infinite scrolling
The Files module employs infinite scrolling. Instead of displaying all of the files and subfolders in a given folder at once, only the first 200 files and subfolders will be displayed. As you continue to scroll down the page, more and more files will be listed.
PDF versions of files
If a site is configured so that a PDF version of every file is available, then every compatible file will appear as a PDF file and the default method for accessing and downloading a file will be as a regular, not encrypted, PDF file.
When performing a file search, these files will be listed as having a file type of PDF.
For users with View File permissions, the native version of files will no longer be available and you will only have the option to download the PDF version of the file. For other users, an additional Download original option will be available in the file previewer:
If the default file title link action is to download the file directly, then the Download PDF option will not be displayed and clicking on the file name will download the PDF version directly. The Previewer and the automatic PDF conversion can both be enabled on the same site.
If the FileOpen PDF encryption digital rights management option has been enabled for a site, then a user will be required to download an encrypted PDF version of each file and may not be able to download the native version of the file.
