Other Capabilities

Other capabilities of Aras Office Productivity Connector are covered in this section.

Both Office and Aras Innovator have the concept of Properties: textual information that describes a Document. The Aras Office Productivity Connector can map properties between the Office file and Aras Innovator in both directions and at different points in the process. The options are:

An administrator defines the property mappings in use. Mappings can be defined to take place only on the initial save to Aras, or on subsequent update saves. To illustrate the process, here are some examples for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint:

When properties are mapped from Office to Aras, the values can be set from within the Office application and will be incorporated into the Aras Document properties.

To set these properties:

• From Aras Office Productivity Connector:

Use the Properties command to display those properties that are mapped with Aras. The Properties command appears in two places: from within the New Aras Document task pane and in the ribbon. All properties mapped between Office and Aras (in both directions) are shown in this dialog. However, only those mapped from Office to Aras are editable. Those mapped from Aras to Office are read-only and displayed with a grey background. When accessing Properties from New Aras Document, users can edit properties mapped from Office to Aras on Create. Users can edit properties mapped from Office to Aras on Update when accessing Properties from the ribbon.

When properties are mapped from Aras to Office, the values can be set from Aras Innovator and then set into the Office file’s Properties dialog. To do this, you must edit the Document from within the Aras web client. Some Aras properties, like Revision, are automated within Aras and not directly editable. The Office file will also update properties mapped from Aras to Office when the Refresh button is clicked in the Aras toolbar.

As shown in the Creating and Saving Documents section, an Aras Item, such as a Part or Project, can be linked when the Aras Document is first created. However, additional Item links can be added or removed after the initial creation using the Links command in the Aras ribbon.

If already existing links exist, they will be displayed in the task pane, and the Delete Icon button can be clicked to remove them. Any number of existing links can be added by selecting the Item Type and then searching for and selecting the desired Item(s). The advantage of creating the link during the initial creation of the Document is that the File Name and Document Number can be based on the linked Item. If a link is created later using Links, it does not affect the File Name and Document Number.

A useful feature of the Aras Office Productivity Connector is that it automates the creation of viewable files, such as PDFs, during the saving process. All settings that control viewable file generation are controlled by the administrator to enforce standard processes within the company. There are two settings the administrator should highlight:

• The viewable file type created for each Office application. It can be different for each application but is typically set to PDF for use with Aras Visual Collaboration.
• Whether the viewable file is created automatically on every Save to Aras, only on Done, or is user-selectable (in which case the Save and Generate PDFoption appears in the ribbon).

When viewable files are created, they are attached to the same Document as the regular Office file and will be visible in the Files Tab and the Web Client. If the file is PDF, it can be viewed directly in the Aras web client using Visual Collaboration, which provides view, markup, and threaded discussion collaboration. Additionally, the file’s hyperlink can be clicked to view it in an external viewer like Adobe Reader.

The SharePoint integration within the Aras Office Productivity Connector allows the management of documents within Aras and collaboration on updates inside SharePoint.

SharePoint files can be attached to Document Items in Aras Innovator. To attach a SharePoint file to an Aras document:

1. Open the Document to attach the SharePoint file.
   1. Click the Attach from SharePoint Icon to open the Attach from SharePoint dialog.

2. Select the SharePoint document to attach and click Save.

3. The Aras Document includes a viewable PDF of the SharePoint file and a link to the file in SharePoint.

To view an attached SharePoint file in SharePoint:

1. Open the Document in Aras Innovator.
   1. Click on the Related File Name to open the PDF of the SharePoint file.

2. Click on the SharePoint File Name to open the file in SharePoint.

Syncing changes from SharePoint updates the PDF on the Aras Document. To sync changes from SharePoint to the Aras Document:

1. Open the Document in Aras Innovator
   1. Click the Update from SharePoint icon button.

2. A notification appears when the sync is complete.

1. Open the Document from which to detach the SharePoint file.
   1. Click the Detach icon button.
   2. Confirm to detach the SharePoint file from Aras.

3. The link to the SharePoint file will be removed from the Document within Aras Innovator.