How folders work on a record

Attachments and folders turns the Files box of a chatter into a small file explorer: folder cards at the top, the files that are in no folder below them, and a folder's own files once it is opened. It adds no app, no menu and no screen of its own; everything happens inside the chatter of the record you are looking at.

What a folder is

A folder is a name attached to one record: a client, a case, a contract, an invoice. It holds no files of its own; it only groups some of that record's files.

• One record. A folder shows only in the chatter of the record where it was made. Another record has its own folders, even if they carry the same names.
• One level. There are no folders inside folders: all the folders of a record sit side by side at the top of the Files box.
• Order of creation. Folders are listed in the order they were made and cannot be reordered. A card shows the folder's name and, once the folder holds files, their number.
• Nothing else. A folder has a name and nothing more: no colour, no description, no owner, no access rights.

Files stay the record's attachments

Putting a file in a folder only labels the file with that folder; the file stays an attachment of the same record.

A file sits in one folder at most. When a folder disappears, its files show at the top of the box again: a file never becomes invisible because of a folder.

Files reach a folder by being dragged onto its card, or by Attach files clicked inside the open folder. A file dropped from the computer onto the chatter always lands at the top of the box, outside the folders, even while a folder is open.

Where folders appear

On every record that has a chatter, in every app, as soon as the record is saved: the New folder button sits in the top bar of the chatter, just before the magnifier (Search Messages). The module is installed together with the chatter itself and has no settings, no scheduled job and no e-mail.

The folders are shown in the Files box, which the paperclip opens only when the record has at least one file; on a record without files the paperclip opens the file picker. Attach a first file before making folders on a new record.

Who may do what

Folders have no access rights of their own. What a user may do follows the right to open the record and, for anything that changes its files, the right to edit it, as for any attachment.

Portal users and website visitors never see folders.

What deleting does

• An empty folder is deleted at once, without a question.
• A folder with files asks first, in the Delete folder dialog: Keep files (move them out) returns the files to the top of the box, Delete files too deletes them for good, Cancel changes nothing. Delete a folder shows the steps.
• Neither folders nor attachments go to the recycle bin. A deleted file must be attached again; a deleted folder made again.
• When the record itself is deleted, its files are deleted with it and its folders are no longer shown anywhere. A record brought back from the recycle bin returns without its files and folders.

On a phone

The chatter sits below the form. A double tap opens a folder, and a single touch on a card shows its rename and delete icons, which a computer shows while the pointer rests on the card. Existing files move only by dragging their cards, so on a phone the simplest way to file documents is Attach files inside the open folder.

What the folders do not do

• No list of all folders, no search or filter by folder, and no folder shared between records.
• No sub-folders, no reordering, no colours.
• No access rights per folder: everyone who can open the record sees every folder.
• Duplicating a record does not copy its folders.
• A file is never in two folders; to keep the same document on two records, attach it to each.