| Is there any way to attach documents to entries? For instance, I have floorplans for each of my units. Or actual lease docs or attachments to lease, etc. These would be handy to be accessible from within such an application. |
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Jay
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Apr 29 2011, 10:50 AM |
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Hi Jay, It's currently not possible to attach documents from within the software. The main reason for this is that we've found it's actually quite confusing when people try to use the software with attached document. For example, let's say you attach a Microsoft Word document. You then open this document from within LandlordMax and decide to edit it. What happens when you click on the save button within Microsoft Word? If you say it saves the changes within the LandlordMax database you would be wrong. Microsoft Word doesn't know or understand that the document is stored within a database by another program, so to open it Word creates a temporary version for viewing purposes. Therefore when you try to save, you're saves are only saved on the temporary version and not the one within the database (because Word doesn't have access to the database). It's the same as you cannot open a Word document within Outlook and make changes and expect the changes to be saved in your Outlook email message. The changes can only be saved on your computer and not within Outlook. And because of this confusion, we've currently opted not to include the ability to attach documents. As soon as people open a document, they expect to be able to edit and make changes to them, and that they will automatically be saved which within the software which is not possible. Regards, Stephan Grenier Founder LandlordMax Software Inc. http://www.LandlordMax.com http://www.FollowSteph.com http://www.RealEstatePigeon.com http://www.BlogBlazers.com |
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Stephane Grenier
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4 days, 5 hours since original post |
| May I suggest that in future versions you not try to attach the document but instead create a link to the document that allows it to open in its original program. The document does not become part of the data base. Users would need to understand that the documents should be stored in a seperate folder. |
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David Shick
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5 months, 2 weeks since original post |
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Hi David, Thank you for the suggestion, and we have looked at that in the past, but it brings with it even harder and more difficult issues. For example, what happens if you transfer your database from one computer to another? Or from a Mac to a Windows computer? From an old computer to a new computer? Most people will assume that the documents will transfer as well, but the reality is that on the other computer all your links are now completely invalid. Which means that any documents you attach will now only work on the one computer. This will be an issue for a lot of our customers. I will agree that a lot of this can be alleviated by proper planning and some technical expertise, but the main issue is that we can't expect this level of technical expertise from the general public, nor would we want to. Basically doing this makes the software only useful on the computer on which it was installed. If you change computers, re-install your operating system, have a failed harddrive, etc., none of your links work until you relocated all the documents to exactly the same location. Another issue is what happens if you manually move the documents. You always have to remember that your documents are linked in another application. For most people, me included, it's easy to make a mistake and accidentally invalidate a link to an existing document. Basically there's no way to guarantee the links will work, and it requires a lot of technical preparation and expertise from the users to offer in a production software. For a custom and/or internal solution this might be acceptable because you can train your users, but we can't assume that luxury with the general public. Therefore at this time we've decided not to offer this. We've basically decided that to offer this type of functionality we'd have to offer some kind of built-in word processor. Therefore this is on our roadmap, it's just a matter of when because this kind of feature is very expensive to implement depending on exactly what you want to offer. Regards, Stephan Grenier Founder LandlordMax Software Inc. http://www.LandlordMax.com http://www.FollowSteph.com http://www.RealEstatePigeon.com http://www.BlogBlazers.com |
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Stephane Grenier
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5 months, 2 weeks since original post |