eRoom items

This topic is organized into the following sections:

About eRoom items

Items in your eRooms are the building blocks of your projects. They hold all your project information and provide structure for organizing your work.

Every eRoom item has a unique set of properties that defines its purpose and describes its characteristics. All items have a name or a title that allows them to be easily identified. When you create an item, the Create wizard guides you in setting its initial properties.

Standard item types

Here are the standard types of eRoom items that you can create (except for the recycle bin):

Type	Icon	Description	Can it be hidden?
Folder		A page that contains other items, and in which you can create, store, and organize items. eRoom folders are like folders on your desktop or in a file cabinet.	Yes.
Discussion		A multi-person conversation made up of several individual topics, which can include attachments, nested comments, and votes.	Yes, but not individual topics.
Note		A simple text page, with areas for file attachments and comments.	Yes, but not individual comments.
Poll		A page for taking a vote. You can pose a question to your team, specify ballot choices, capture votes, and tabulate results.	Yes, but not individual votes.
Calendar		A simple team calendar, with month, week and list views, recurring events, and synchronization to Outlook (plug-in only).	Yes, but not individual events.
Project plan		A simple project schedule with a Gantt chart and, with the plug-in only, synchronization to Outlook. You can group and filter the project tasks, and report actual progress.	Yes, but not individual tasks.
Database		An organized collection of information relating to a particular subject or purpose, such as keeping track of customer records, or managing a bookstore inventory.	Yes, but not individual database entries or approval-process database steps.
Inbox		A special folder that can receive and store email.	Yes, including individual emails.
Other file		Any file you can bring into your eRoom from your desktop or disk (for example, Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint).	Yes, but not individually tracked versions.
Link		A shortcut to a file or page in your eRoom, to another eRoom, or to a Web site.	Yes.
Linked folder		A container that has a bidirectional link to a folder or cabinet on a Documentum Content Server. Files added to a linked folder are automatically linked to the Content Server, and vice-versa.	No.
Dashboard		A summary of the information in one or more databases, calendars, or project plans. Dashboards can also appear on your My eRooms page.	Yes.
Recycle bin		A container that stores deleted items until they are copied out of the bin, deleted from the bin, or until the eRoom's coordinator empties the bin.	No.

Note: You cannot hide the front page of an eRoom.

Working with items

You can create items in or add items to eRoom.

See also: Adding files to eRoom in the Files topic

Plug-in only: You can drag and drop a file or folder from your Windows desktop onto an eRoom item box, folder, or attachments box.

To create an item:

Go to where you want to create the item.
In the button bar of the eRoom's front page, click .

Or, in a folder's button bar, click .

Or, in the command bar of an item box or attachment box, click "create".

Or, in empty area of an item box or attachment box, right-click and pick "Create Item".

The Create page opens.
Pick an item.

If you pick "Other File", the Add File page opens so you can upload a file.

If you are creating an item in a folder, template items (customized versions of standard eRoom items) might be among your choices.

The page or wizard for that type of item opens and guides you through the required and optional settings that define the item.
Complete the wizard.

The item is created.

See also: About access control below for information about the default access settings for new items you create.

To open an item:

In the item box, attachment box or map, click the item to open its page.

Or, right-click the item's icon and pick "View" from the pop-up menu.

The item page opens.

To edit an item:

Click at the top of an item page, next to its name.

Or, in the item box, attachment box or map, right-click the item's icon and pick "Edit" from the pop-up menu.

The Edit page for the item opens. Or, for items you create with a wizard (such as polls and databases), a wizard page opens that asks you to pick from a list of item-specific actions you can take.

To delete an item:

In the item box, attachment box or map, right-click an item's icon and pick "Delete" from the pop-up menu.

Or, in details view, select the check box next to an item and click "delete" in the command bar.

Or, on an item page, to delete one of your comments or votes, click the delete icon ().

Deleting an item (except for a Content Server-linked file) sends it to the eRoom's Recycle Bin, where it stays until it is either restored or permanently deleted.

Note: You can also drag and drop eRoom items into and out of the recycle bin.

To move an item:

In the item box, attachment box or map, right-click the item's icon and pick "Cut" from the pop-up menu.

Or, in details view, select the check box next to an item and click "cut" in the command bar.

The item's name is grayed out, indicating it has been cut.

Go to where you want to move the item, and in the item box, right-click an empty area and pick "Paste" from the pop-up menu.

Or, in the item or attachment box, click "Paste" in the command bar.

Or, in the map, right-click an icon and pick "Paste" from the pop-up menu.

The moved item retains its access control settings.

Note: You can also drag an item and drop it at a new location.

To copy an item:

In the item box or map, right-click the item's icon and pick "Copy" from the pop-up menu.

Or, in details view, select the check box next to an item and click "copy" in the command bar.

Go to where you want to paste the new, copied item, and in the item box, right-click an empty area and pick "Paste" from the pop-up menu.

Or, in the item or attachment box, click "Paste" in the command bar.

Or, in the map, right-click an icon and pick "Paste" from the pop-up menu.

To paste an item onto the front page of an eRoom, right-click the icon () next to the eRoom's name, and pick "Paste" from the pop-up menu.

See also: About access control below for information about the default access settings for new items you copy and paste.

To choose a different icon for an item:

When you create or edit an item, click "change icon" in the Create wizard or on the Edit item page.

The Change Icon page opens and eRoom displays a set of available icons for that type of item.

Click the one you want to use, and then click "OK".

To rename an item:

In the item box, attachment box or map, right-click an item's icon and pick "Rename" from the pop-up menu.

Or, you can edit an item and change its name or title.

About access control

For any new item you create, any member who can get to it can open it, and only you (its owner) can edit it. You can change the default access settings when you create an item (except for links and other files), or later, by editing it.

For a container (such as a folder, inbox, calendar, or database) you can change the initial owner setting that determines the default Edit list for the container's children. Therefore, any new item in that container has its Open list set to Any member who can get to it (as usual), while its Edit list is determined by the parent's initial owner setting.

Note: If you copy and paste an item, the copy preserves the Open list of the original item.

About hidden items

Some of the items you work with might contain classified information (for example, a salary report) that you want to make unavailable to everyone but a subset of eRoom members. If you own such items, you can restrict members' access rights to open them. For even greater confidentiality (for example, for corporate restructuring plans), you can hide items so that members who cannot open them cannot even see them. To those members, hidden items do not appear in the item box or attachment area, map, search results, notification email, calendar page, database summary page, and so on.

If you can open any items that are hidden from other members, a separate area of the item box (or attachments area) called "Your Hidden Items" shows these items.

Note: There is no separate area for hidden items on the Meetings and Events page, in the recycle bin, or in search results.

Hidden items that you can open appear as usual in the map, in search results, in notification emails, and so forth, with the following exceptions:

In the size column of an item box in detailed view, item counts do not include hidden items inside the container.
In databases, change-log fields never show entries for changes made to attachments while they are hidden. Change-log entries recorded before the item was hidden are preserved, and they resume (or begin) once the item is unhidden.

To members without Open rights to hidden items, they also do not appear

in the list of items available as template items
as template items on the Create page
in routing-target dialogs

For members without Open rights to hidden items, "next unread" does not go to those items, and tasks in hidden databases as well as events in hidden calendars cannot be synchronized with Outlook.

About rights management

If rights management is enabled in your eRoom, eligible files in folders, in attachment areas for any type of eRoom item, or attached to messages in eRoom inboxes, are either potentially protected with a rights-management policy, or are automatically protected, depending on the eRoom or folder policy setting in effect.

Modifying your view of items

You can change how eRoom displays items in the item box, and choose whether your list of hidden items is expanded or collapsed (it is expanded, by default). In all item views, you can right-click icons to display the pop-up menu, and drag and drop items.

To change your view of items:

Use the following buttons in the command bar:

Click to display items as large icons with name labels.
Click to display items in a list of small, named icons.
Click to display items in a detailed list of small icons with columns for name, modified date, owner, and size. In this view, you have access to all commands in the command bar. Check boxes appear next to each item so you can select one or more items and perform actions on them.

To hide or show your hidden items:

In the title bar of the "Your Hidden Items" area (if present):

Click to collapse the list and hide the items.
Click to expand the list and show the items.

To sort a list of items:

With item details showing in the item box, click on a column heading to sort items by the following properties:

name
date modified
owner size

Click the same heading again to reverse the sorting order from ascending to descending (or vice versa).

To keep your current view:

Click in the bottom right corner of the item box.

This saves your current view settings (including whether hidden items are shown or hidden) across browser/login sessions. If you have edit rights to the page, this also establishes the default view of the item box for all members of the eRoom.

Using drag and drop in eRoom

You can drag and drop items from the map into an item box or attachment box, from an item or attachment box to the map, or from one place in the map to another. You can also drag and drop eRoom items into and out of the recycle bin.

The following table outlines eRoom's drag and drop conventions. Asterisks (*) indicate actions that require the plug-in. Items that can have attachments are notes, polls, discussion topics, database entries, project plan tasks, calendars, and calendar events.

Note: You cannot drop items into the "Hidden Items" area of the item box.

Drag	Drop	Action
eRoom folder(s).	Item box, folder, or an item's attachment box.	Moves if same eRoom. Copies if different eRoom.
	*Outside eRoom.	Creates folder(s), copies files and subdirectories.
eRoom file(s).	Item box, folder, or an item's attachment box.	Moves if same eRoom. Copies if different eRoom. Prompts to replace if name conflict.
	eRoom file.	Prompts to replace.
	*Outside eRoom.	Copies.
eRoom link(s).	Item box, folder, or an item's attachment box.	Moves if same eRoom. Copies if different eRoom.
	*Outside eRoom.	Creates URL shortcut.
*Files(s) from the desktop.	Item box, folder, or an item's attachment box.	Copies. Prompts to replace if name conflict.
	eRoom file.	Prompts to replace.
*Folder(s) from the desktop.	Item box, folder, or an item's attachment box.	Copies. Prompts to create file set if name conflict.
*URL shortcut from the desktop.	Item box, folder, or an item's attachment box.	Creates a link.

Note: You can only drag and drop a discussion topic into a discussion, a calendar event into a calendar, a database entry into a database, and a project plan task into a project plan.

See also: The results of drag and drop actions with linked folders.

Printing items

While you can print any eRoom page using your browser's Print command, eRoom provides printing enhancements for certain items.

For a database, dashboard, or project plan, you can print what the item currently shows. In the command bar for one of these items, click "print view" to display a print view page that shows just the database, dashboard, or project plan content. The banner graphic is shown on this page, but online-specific controls such as the map, icons, and buttons are not shown. Print view pages also reflect any grouping or filtering in effect.

Each print view page can have up to 1000 rows. The content of the print view page might print onto multiple sheets of paper. If a database has more than 1000 rows, eRoom creates multiple print view pages to which you can navigate in order to print all of the content.

Follow the (non-printing) instructions on a print view page to print the content of a database, dashboard, or project plan item. For databases and dashboards only, you can click "choose columns" to pick the columns to hide or show in the printed output. For project plans in Gantt view, you can print the entire project or a specified date range.

When you are ready to send the page to a printer, click "print" to open your browser's Print dialog. Click "cancel" to return to the item page without printing.

If a database cannot fit onto one printed page, you can navigate to subsequent pages using the numbered page links provided, and print each one.

If the content tiles vertically onto multiple pages when printed, column headings are repeated on each page.