Case Management

Document Management in Daylite: Screencast No. 2 Status Report

March 11, 2008 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

Well, I finished editing the new screencast on document management using Daylite. But it was rushed, squeezed in between other things, and I didn’t like the result. So I’m going to do a little more recording before I post it. I enjoy the screencasting process, but finding the time to do it is turning into a real problem.

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In the meantime, I thought I’d post the show notes which I intended to publish with the screencast. It’ll give you a better idea about what I’m working on. Hopefully, I’ll have some time this weekend to get it revised and out the door.

Show Notes:

In the new screencast, we look at seven things:

• Creating a document folder structure on your hard drive
• Using a client ID
• Setting up the Opportunity record to track documents
• Creating and saving a new document using Daylite’s built-in editor
• Using smartlists in Opportunities to track subsets of documents
• Archiving documents
• Suggestions to improve Daylite

As in the last screencast, I omitted a few things that need some emphasis.

The Built-in Editor
This isn’t a screencast about merging but there are a few things to keep in mind when creating documents with the built-in editor. The most important is that Daylite stores the document you create in the Daylite database. In four years, I’ve managed to create over 18,000 document records in Timematters. Timematters doesn’t actually store the document itself; that resides in a directory on the hard drive. It simply stores information about the document with a link to the physical document.

If Daylite were to store 18,000 documents in the database, I imagine the thing would grind to a halt. So that’s why I suggest saving any document you create in Daylite to PDF and store it in a client’s folder. The only choice you have to make is WHEN you delete Daylite’s saved document (which is viewable in the Activity tab in the Details pane of a case/project). I might keep it available during the course of the case, but definitely delete it at the end of the case.

Smartlists
When you create a smartlist and configure the list view in the Opportunity record, Daylite remembers that configuration. That’s a tremendous help. It means that you can create a smartlist to show all your medical records requests with the fields you want to track in the order you want them displayed in the column view. A smartlist for discovery documents will use other fields arranged differently. Daylite remembers how you configure the screen for each smartlist. You could also create a third smartlist to show only those documents related to a particular client with a more generic set of fields displayed; Daylite will remember that configuration as well. It was a welcome surprise to see the program operating this way!

If Daylite had the ability to group smartlists in the navigation sidebar and the shortcut bar above the results pane, that would really help. Like creating groups in iCal or bookmark groups in Firefox or Safari. I can envision the shortcut bar getting cluttered very quickly with smartlists for cases (projects), contacts, tasks and documents (opportunities). The ability to group these different smartlist/shortcuts would enhance productivity; I think Marketcircle is looking at bringing this feature to a future version of Daylite.

Bugs and Annoyances
There are also some bugs/annoyances in the current program. When you modify an extra field, for example, the field name does not change to reflect the modification when it’s displayed in the dialog box used to select fields to display in list view. (That’s a mouthful.) In other words, you have to remember that you renamed Extra Field 1 “Addressee” or that Extra Date Field 1 is now “Sent.” Not a big problem but an annoyance. Also, the name you assign to Extra Field 1 (and, so far as I know, only Extra Field 1) will not display in the list view in the Opportunity record. Another minor annoyance, but Marketcircle is aware of the bug. Hopefully, they’ll fix it.

Scanned documents
I didn’t talk about handling scanned documents in the screencast, but they are handled in the same way as a document generated using the built-in editor. Once the document is scanned, it is saved as a PDF in the client’s folder. If it’s a document you want to track, you can create a record in the Opportunity tab using the method shown in the screencast. If you don’t want to track information about that document, you’re done. You can access the client’s document folder in several ways: using Spotlight, using the Documents link in the case widget (shown in the previous screencast) or using the link in the activity tab to the client folder (something easily created in Daylite and discussed briefly in this screencast).

Improvements to Consider
In an earlier version of Daylite, Opportunities could be linked to Projects/cases. For some reason, Marketcircle eliminated this ability in later releases. It ought to be restored. If Daylite added opportunities to the mix of linked objects displayed in the case record, then it would be a simple matter of double clicking the linked object to check the status of a medical record request or Plaintiff’s First Set of Interrogatories. Without that linkage, you’ll need, at a minimum, to click a smartlist on your shortcut bar to get to a list of documents, then select the one you want to view. A small matter but a beneficial upgrade.

Daylite also lacks the ability to display the contents of the Details field in the Opportunity record in the list view or even in the details pane. In other words, the only way to view the contents of the details field is to open the Opportunity record. This seems like an oversight. That field might be useful in the list view.

Finally, the opportunity record needs more date fields and a way to modify the content of the Status field in the Opportunity record. I discuss tracking two kinds of records–medical records requests and discovery–in the screencast but there are other kinds of documents you’ll want to track. Four extra date fields is insufficient to handle other kinds of records.

Conclusion
On balance, I think document management is actually doable in Daylite. If you’re like me, you don’t need to track all your documents. In fact, you may not even track a majority of them. But when you need to do it, it’s possible, and the method I show isn’t so complex that you’d simply give up if you attempted to implement it.