Use external editor to edit a file and save changes directly to the cloud)

There are many instances (Use Cases) where a user after uploading a file wants to edit the file and save the results back to the cloud directly without having to go through additional download and upload set of operations.  In addition, when a file is being edited by one member, we would like to prevent others from accidentally updating the same file that is being updated.

The following instruction describes how to enable and use Edit with external applcation to perform the above stated edit/save funciton.    

Step 1: Enable the External Edit Function for your local computer and your user profile 

 1. Download Zope External Editor and Install:  http://plone.org/products/zope-externaleditor-client/releases/0.12.7/zopeedit-win32-0-12.7.exe

    to your local computer.  Note that you need to do this for each computer that you plan to use the External Edit feature.

2. Enable External Editor for your user profile. (You only need to do this once).   

    1.  Click youir name at your user bar.  

         2. Go to your personal profile

   3.  Enable External Editor

Now you are ready to use the External Editor feature

Step 2: Use External Editor

1. Navigate to the file that you wish to edit.

2. Click the Edit with external application action icon at the bottom right corner of the view window. See the following diagram:

3. The appropriate Office application (Word, powerpoint, etc) will automatically be started and you can now edit the file.

   (Note: While the file is being edited, it will display a "warning" to other users that the file is being edited. See diagram below: 

     )

4. Save the changes and exit your application.  Wait for the following kind of message to appear:   

Your file on the cloud has been updated!

Additional Information

1.  In the possible though rare occasion that different users on different local PCs have used EE to edit a file, the browser may have kept a "stale" copy of the file from a previous EE session.  To ensure that your browser goes back to the cloud to fetch the current version of the file, you need to delete from the temp folder the "stale" file.

Follow this information: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/260897 to delete any previously stored browser files.

2. Note: if you attempt to do Edit with external application and see a message that says you cannot lock the file for update, that means you are not the owner of the file. Currently, only the owner of the file can invoke Edit with external application to update a file