The Files module is the place to store your business documents. Blink has integrated with Zoho's powerful document editors. These editors provide full document productivity functions much like MS Office or Google Docs. All with the added benefit that your documents remain stored within Blink. 


All within Blink you can create a sales letter, report or proposal. You can even create or import complex budgets, costings or other spreadsheets. Supported file types for on-line document creation and editing include Word documents (.doc and .docx) and Excel Spreadsheets (.xls and .xlsx). Other file types - such as pdf's - can still be uploaded and stored within Blink. Blink keeps a full history of what happened to your documents, what user on your account has edited them and who has downloaded them.


The benefits of using this module are:


  • you can have one centralised storage place for your business documents 
  • users can easily access your files, one master version in one place
  • Blink will automatically keep a history of your files, who edited, who downloaded and when
  • you can use your stored files across other modules

The Files module is accessed through the top menu bar using the Operations > Files button. There are two main options in the menu:


New File allows you to create a new file and save it in your Blink account. 


Search Files allows you to search through your existing files and open, edit and download them. 

New File


You can create a Word doc or a Spreadsheet within Blink. Just click on Operations > Files > Create New File > and chose if you want a word doc or spreadsheet.


Alternatively you can upload a file (for storage) of any file type. Note that if the file is not a Word doc or Spreadsheet you will not be able to edit the file online, but you can still store the file and download it, and also use that file in other modules of Blink. This "other" type of file is especially useful for PDFs such as marketing materials or legal forms etc that you may wish to include as attachments to quotes and invoices. 


When creating a new file you give the file a 'friendly' name and a description. This is used to easily retrieve the file at a later date. 

Search Files


When you click Search File the search form will open in a new tab. This screen has a search panel on the top part of the screen and the search results on the bottom half of the screen.  This will automatically default to the last 10 files.You can search and filter files that show in the results list by typing in the search box/es and clicking Search. This will shrink the results list to just files that contain your search strings. To view full details of a file you can either double click the file or right click and select View from the options. The file record will open in a new tab.

 

Check-In / Check-Out Status


If the file is a word doc or spreadsheet you can edit the document online within Blink, just click the "Edit this File online" button. This button will not be displayed if the file type can't be edited e.g. if it's not a Word doc or spreadsheet. Editing the file will change the status of the file to "Checked-Out". This means the file is effectively locked by you and it prevents other users from editing the file at the same time, although they can still download it.


If someone fails to check the file back in then you can "force" the check-in by opening the file record and clicking the button "Force Check-In", this will change the status back to Checked-In and allow you to edit the file again.