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Next Generation- locking sections

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Comments

8 comments

  • Mike

    Hi Katherine!

    Thanks for the question. Happy to tackle this one.

    In next gen Documents, you are able to apply the same permissions you were able to in Classic, if that is what you mean by locking them. To do this, you can either right-click on a section in question and choose "Permission" to then edit, add or remove a group or user to that section, or you can click on the File tab, then go to Permission and choose Current Section. There is also an improve Advanced Permission feature available from both places that allows you to set permission more granularly at each section for each group or user. You can export these permissions too as a CSV.

    Does this answer your question? Let me know what questions you have, or if you need anything else, and I'll be happy to help. Thanks again for your contributions and have a great rest of your day!

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  • Katherine Kline

    Thanks Mike! This is helpful but just to clarify, in Classic, if someone is in a section it will show a lock icon so no one else can make changes to the section. This doesn't seem to be the case in Next Gen. Other than changing permissions, is there another way to keep other users out of a section you are working on? I know you can see who's all in the file and can click on where the other users are in the file but I just wanted to ask about this. Or will it be easier to just let the other users know what section I'm editing etc.?

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  • Mike

    Gotcha, Katherine. No problem, that makes sense.

    You are correct, since next gen is inherently collaborative, there's no "lock" icon to disallow editing in a section. Outside of permissions to the section, I can't think of any other way to keep them from editing the same section you are in. One thought is that you could use outline labels to identify who owns what section. If  you are unfamiliar, more info can be found here: https://support.workiva.com/hc/en-us/articles/360042306811-Use-Outline-Labels.

    We're definitely interested in making the next gen experience as easy and familiar to use as possible, so your feedback here is much appreciated. Give me a holler too if you have any questions or need anything else. Thanks again and chat with soon!

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  • Katherine Kline

    Thanks Mike! I like the labels idea. Do you have to be an Owner of a section or of the whole document to enable the labels? I'm asking because I'm an editor and the labels option is not showing up for me. I'm wondering if I need to change my permissions to Owner.

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  • Mike

    No problem. And yes, you do need be to an Owner of the whole file to enable the outline labels.

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  • Nicole Dyer

    The collaboration idea is great in theory, but with multiple people being able to edit the same information at the same time, it is not practical. Today, my co-worker and I were editing the same section at the same time with changes going back and forth and each wondering why the information is changing.  When the section showed that it was locked for editing, at least you knew who was in it and when and that a change was happening which allows for dialogue regarding changes. Is there some way to know when someone is editing a section?

     

    Also, the version control without a version # as in Classic makes it a difficult for reviewing different versions as it is not date and time rather than a share version after you make your last changes. Reviews happen at various stages of updates. How do you know which version # you have exported to PDF or Work to review with dates/time to then compare to a future version to blackline? What is the best practice for versioning and reviews in Next Gen?

    Thank you,

    Nicole

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  • Mike

    Welcome to the Community, Nicole!

    Great feedback. Happy to elaborate a little on your questions.

    For knowing when someone is editing a section, we might suggest using the User Presence indicator. At a glance it will tell you if there are other people in the document and you can use the Jump to Location to see where they are. Here's a video about this feature.

    If it helps too, here's an existing suggestion about User Presence in the Document Outline.

    For versions you are exporting, we also suggest using the Milestone feature for those, and giving them a name (e.g. Draft 12 or something). You can then utilize the Star feature for Milestones for even more important revisions (like a Draft to send to board or CFO, etc). From there you can use the Filter options in History to see just the pertinent drafts and/or blackline them. More specifics on theses functions can be found in the Revisions and History in Documents article.

    In the meantime, I've shared your insights with our Product Team for further consideration. Let me know what questions you have on any of the above, or if you need anything else. Thanks again and Happy Halloween! 🎃
     
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  • Nicole Dyer

    Thank you Mike for the quick feedback, this is helpful and I wasn't aware of the user presence icon as this if my first quarter working in Next Generation. I like the idea in the IDEA lab of user presence in the Document outline similar to Classic.

     

    The versions naming that exports does not correspond to any version history details in the history tab as before in Classic which was super helpful.  This would be nice to see in a future update.

     

    Thank you,

    Happy Halloween! 

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