Attaching Supporting Information to Projects, Deliverables, and Activities

Members of the project team, and Process Managers with Manage Process rights, can add images and other files that provide supporting information to the project. Deliverable and activity owners can also attach related documents to deliverables and activities that they own.

If the document is a Microsoft document, use the Accolade Office Extensions add-in to add related documents directly to Accolade from the application. See the online Help available in the Accolade Office Extensions add-in.

To attach a related document to a project:

1. Display the project and select the Related Docs page.
2. Select how to add the document or image. More...

    

   Source Type	Description
   Upload New Related Document	Select this option to upload the file to Accolade. Click and drag files from your computer to the Related Docs page to upload files without clicking Upload New Related Document and selecting files.
   Link New Related Document	Select this option to link to an external file on the network. The file itself is not saved in the Accolade database. Therefore, if the file on the network is moved or renamed, the link to the file breaks. To copy the directory path from Windows Explorer, hold Shift and right-click the file name, select Copy as Path. Paste the path into the Link to File field and delete the quotes from the pasted text. Do not enter a path to a file on your local computer or to a network location using a mapped drive. Other users may not have access to your computer or may have mapped the same drive to a different location. A correctly formatted file path uses the format \\machine name\directory name\...\file name. Beginning the file path with a drive letter creates an incorrect format. Ensure the path is correctly formatted.

3. (Optional) Click the document or image name to enter additional information about the document or image, or one of its versions, such as the file's name, whether the version is published, and author information.

For files other than images, update the category and description information in the table directly on the Related Docs page.

4. Click Apply to save the document details.

To attach a related document to a deliverable or activity:

1. Display the project, select the Stages page, and click the name of the deliverable or activity.

You can also access all documents assigned to you across multiple projects using the All My Work page available on the Workspace menu.

2. In the Contents tree, click Related Documents to display the currently attached related documents.
3. Select how to add the related document. More...

    

   Source Type	Description
   Upload New Related Document	Select this option to upload the file to Accolade. Click and drag files from your computer to the details dialog box to load files without clicking Upload New Related Document and selecting files.
   Link New Related Document	Select this option to link to an external file on the network or to a website. Enter the directory path to the file. The file itself is not saved in the Accolade database. Therefore, if the file on the network is moved or renamed, the link to the file breaks. To copy the directory path from Windows Explorer, hold Shift and right-click the file name, select Copy as Path. Paste the path into the Link to File field and delete the quotes from the pasted text. Do not enter a path to a file on your local computer or to a network location using a mapped drive. Other users may not have access to your computer or may have mapped the same drive to a different location. A correctly formatted file path uses the format \\machine name\directory name\...\file name. Beginning the file path with a drive letter creates an incorrect format. Ensure the path is correctly formatted.
   Associate Related Documents	Select this option to associate a document that is already added to the project as a related document. Select the file(s) and click Associate. Workflow action owners who are not an assigned team member cannot associate existing project-level related documents to their assignments. However, they can upload or link to a new document, and edit details for documents associated to their assignments. This option is only available if a deliverable or activity is available to all user roles.

The files are added as related documents to both the deliverable or activity, and are listed in the Contents tree under Related Documents. The related documents are also added to the project and are listed in the project's Related Docs page.

4. (Optional) Click the document or image name to enter additional information about the document or image, or one of its versions, such as the file's name, whether the version is published, and author information, about the document, image, or one of its versions.

Update the category and description information in the table directly in the Related Documents pane.

5. Click Apply to save the document details.

Notes:    To delete all versions of a related document, select the Related Docs page, select the check box in the Delete column of the document you want to remove, and click Apply. To delete a version, click the name of the document to delete, and click Delete. If the Protect Document Versions from Deletion option is selected in the process model, you cannot delete related document versions. To display as an image within Accolade, an image file must be one of the following file types: .bmp, .dib, .gif, .jpg, .jpeg, .jpe, jfif, or .png. Images added as related documents are available for use in rich text metrics. Images added to rich text metrics are automatically added to the Related Docs page. See Rich Text Formatting for more information. Related documents that contain Accolade field codes do not update data within Accolade when uploaded. Any related documents on a deliverable or activity that becomes hidden by conditions are moved to the project Related Documents page. If a deliverable or activity become visible again, the related documents on the deliverable/activity display. Documents and images added when a project is created or attached to an idea are added automatically to the resulting project as related documents. PDF versions of quick grids display as Related Documents in projects, deliverables, and activities if selected to do so in the quick grid configuration. More... The quick grid automatically creates new, separate PDF versions every time a user updates and saves the quick grid. PDF versions of quick grids associated with projects in a layout display in the project's Related Docs page with the quick grid name as it is configured in Accolade. Quick grid PDF versions associated with deliverables and activities display in the Related Documents of the specific deliverable or activity and also display as Associations in the project's Related Docs page with the deliverable or activity name. For example, if you have a deliverable titled "Integrated Product Definition" in every stage of a project and it contains a quick grid, the generated PDF version for Stage 1 displays in the deliverables Related Documents as well as in the project's Related Docs under Associations as Stage 1 - Development - Integrated Product Definition.