eXpd8 v4 - What is new in version 4

eXpd8 v4 - What is new in version 4


New look and feel

Welcome to the new eXpd8 Home page 

Notice that the home page is now all about you. 

Its resizable – so you are no longer stuck with a small window in the middle of your screen.

Your control panel on the left provides easy access to other areas of the software and leads to quick navigation.   The red bars advise when there is something new for you – like new phone messages.


File search

Start typing name of file you are looking for in the box, once you have found your file hit return key.


 Advanced File serach

Looking for more advanced search of files, click on the advanced button. This is similar to hitting the magnifying glass in the previous eXpd8



This will open up all search options for you. 

Buttons explained




Clicking on the  eXpd8 logo will always bring you back to the home page:



The back button will always bring you back a step:


Save will follow you on every page:

But will go red when you need to save current work:
 

Phone Messages - View Current and Add:



Alarms - View, Active and Personalised box:



There is a special button here, that allows you to decide what else you want easy access to from the home page- in this case we have selected Template Editor, but you can choose from Internal Email, Reports or Template Editor.  What you choose will only affect you, users in your firm can make their own decision on this.

To make your choice – go to File on the top tool bar and select Settings:



Then Select Custom Button Function drop down menu:


Notice the other cool option you have in settings.  You can choose the size of the font that is best for you, small, medium or large.  Check it out and see what works best for you on your monitor.

Scanned Docs - View:


Address book - View, Add client and add contact:



Important Dates

These are dates that have been set on the summary page of any files, Hearing, Statute and Proceedings:

 


Action buttons raised

All action buttons have been lifted higher on every screen.

All action buttons have been lifted higher on every screen.

Search for content when in a file, or advanced search for a file, is now towards the top of the page instead of the bottom.  




The normal search within eXpd8 for cases is all categories and all file owners and search by file name.  You can now change that to search only your own files.
On the top left of the eXpd8 window, click into File, Settings
Put a tick in Remember Search User:



Now you can set a default for file owner, go into Advanced search from the home page and notice the field called File Owner.



Exit the software to apply this new setting.
When you reopen the software and search for a file, notice how it will now default to just files by the logged in user.
To revert to the original search, set the File Owner back to All.
To maintain this as the default search again, untick Remember Search User and exit the software. 

Creating and assigning Activity Status & Type

Activity Status and Types can be created within settings.
Access settings from the File button at the top left of the screen
The 4th tab controls lists within eXpd8.  Select the drop down list and select Activity Status:



Additional Status can be added by typing them in the Add Activity Status Type and clicking the Add Activity Status Type button:



Activity Types can be added by selecting Activity from the drop down list
Add new Activity Types by typing the name in the Add Activity Type field and clicking the Add Activity Type button:



      Activity types and status will apply across all categories of files.  Consideration should be given to all areas of the firms work before adding additional types or status.

                  Activity types and status cannot be deleted or removed after they have been used within files. 


Using Activity Status & Type

You will notice within files now, that there are additional columns visible within the file activity screen, including Status, Type and Group:



To apply status or type to existing items, it is not necessary to open the note for that activity/item.
Within the grid view, clicking the cell will enable the drop down list of available options:
 


 Note, there is no requirement to use Activity Status or Types


Using Activity Groupings

The purpose of the Grouping is to enable the user to categorise activities as they create them.  These categories relate to how items may be grouped as needed within the document merge. 

Instead of having to identify an item as a Police Report or a Pleading when creating the document merge, it can be assigned that grouping as the document itself is being created or attached to the file.

As the Group headings relate to document merges, the Groups which exist in document merges for the file type are automatically available within that file type. (i.e. Groups in litigation doc merges are available within litigation files.  Different Groups which have been created in probate doc merges will be available within probate files):




Creating Activity Groupings


Group headings must be created within the document merge screen to be available to use within file activities for that category of file

Within document merge, clicking the green plus on the bottom right enables the creation of a new grouping, type in the name when the field is created:



These Groupings then become available within the activity screen for that category of file:

 

Within the Document Merge screen you will notice that Groups already applied to documents are visible:



Notice now,  within the Document Merge screen, there is an additional option to select all items by their assigned Group.

By selecting a Group, all activities of that assigned group will be selected to proceed to the document merge screen.

Once Generate is clicked, the user will be presented with a selection area, to either select a previously generated merge to add the choosen documents to or, if no document merge has been previously created in this file, select the default merge.

Please note that the default merge can be renamed within the Document Merge Window 

On proceeding through with document merge notice a Default merge within saved merges.

This contains the new functionality which will bring through documents into their groupings, use this new Default merge and rename it as required.

 


Existing Document merges generated before this update will not include the following new functionality:



Notice how documents which had already been assigned a Grouping appear under those groupings.

 Note, there is no requirement to use Groupings.


Modified Print View on Activities

Print view has been changed to modify display if Search For criteria has been added (the recalculation of total hours and value is yet to be modified)



Notification of other users within a file

If two users are within the same file, the second person who enters the file will be presented with notification that the first user is in the file






Phone messages for more than one recipient

There is now the facility to assign a phone message for more than one user at a time.

When selecting who the caller is for, you may tick a number of users 



Notice then how messages display as being for more than one user:



The message will appear in the message list for both users. 

If one user changes the status from Not Taken – the changed status will also be displayed for the other recipient.


Auto alarm phone messages when linking to a file

Select the phone message, click Link to file from top tool bar


Notice the new option to Auto Alarm Activity.

When ticked, this will automatically alarm the phone message on the file for the file owner.

However, within settings, by ticking Alarm Creator, this will automatically alarm both the file owner and the person who linked the phone message to the file. 



 Changes to settings, such as this, generally need the user to exit the software and reopen to take effect.  Located on the first or ‘General’ tab of settings, this setting affects the local pc only and not eXpd8 globally for the firm.


When using eXpd8 Link from email notice that there is now an option to Save Attachments

 

This will facilitate the saving of the email attachments separately to the email itself.

Further to that, within settings in eXpd8, by enabling the Advanced Attachment Details, the user can in fact identify which attachments to save to the file:


As many email signatures contain images, which are identified as attachment, this enables the exclusion of signature images.

 



Alarmed Items

Within files, alarmed items are now Bold in addition to being red:
 


Scanned Items

Items attached through eXpd8 scan watcher, will no longer be prefixed with the word Scanned.  They will instead be assigned a type of ‘Scanned’:





eXpd8 Accounts Ledger Card

Where eXpd8 is used in conjunction with eXpd8 accounts, the ledger card can be launched from the summary page of the file:
 

This displays the ledger card as follows:

 


Global Templates

Historically templates have been specific to categories, templates created in one category have only been available to use in that category. Now templates can be created in ‘Global’ and be available in all categories. However no category specific custom fields will be available to use in global templates.
Global templates are accessible in Template Editor under the heading Global Templates:


Or from the top tool bar in Template Editor:
 

When searching for a template from within a file, templates from the current category and global templates are available in the default search:


Templates from other categories can be accessed by using the categories drop down option and selecting the required category.

N.B. Where templates from other categories reference category specific custom fields, these cannot be populated from a different category. 


Keyboard Controls

Additional keyboard controls have been added, activated by tabbing, enter & arrows 

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