Online Documents

Key Terms

• Uploaded – When you upload a fi le you move it from one system toanother system. For example, youcan upload files from yourcomputer to a web page.
• Algorithms – A mathematicalstep-by-step sequence used to workout calculations or carry outinstructions.
• Download – This is when you move files from a system to your personal
• computer.

Compressing files

• Working with online documents means that local
• files frequently need to be uploaded for sharing,
• or downloaded to be used for local processing.
• Files may be extremely large, which can cause
• problems with transmission (delivery) in terms of
• speed and network usage. To reduce this
• problem, fi les have to be compressed (i.e.
• reduced in size) before transmission and then
• expanded after transmission. A common method
• of doing this is to convert them to zip fi les
• Zip files are basically stores of data files
• which may have been compressed. There are
• many different algorithms for doing the
• compression – with most compression
• software supporting several of these. The last
• item in a zip fi le is an index, which shows the
• placement of each of the data fi les and
• allows other fi les to be added. Quite often
• the zip fi le will also contain some program
• code (a sequence of instructions) to allow the
• fi les within the zip fi le to be unzipped (known
• as self-extracting fi les). There is a wide range
• of software available for zipping fi les, with
• one of the most popular being WinZip

The advantages of using online software

• The biggest advantage of using online document software is that you can allow many people to share a version of a document and work on it at the same time as otherpeople (known as collaborative working). You can also access content:
• • anywhere there is an available internet connection
• • via different devices (e.g. PC, smartphone, tablet)
• • on different operating devices (e.g. Windows ® and Mac).
• Online documents can also have automatic backup. Backing up fi les means that yousave a copy of the fi le at a known point in time. This means that you can always goback to that version if you lose or corrupt the present version.
• Some software programs will automatically make a copy of the fi le you have open andare working on at set time intervals. In Microsoft ® Word ® you can set how often youwould like the fi le to automatically backup (every 30 minutes, every 60 minutes, etc).Automatic backup of online documents is just an extension of this concept.

Versin Controls

• Version control is important when users are sharing documents online, as all users
• need to be working from the most up-to-date version of the same document. One of
• the simplest ways of implementing version control is to allow just one user to open a
• document, or part of the document, for update at any one time. When one user has
• the document open and someone else tries to access it, the document will be locked .
• It is only unlocked when the original user has completed updating the fi le and has
• closed it again.
• The method of ‘locking data’
• has many uses within online
• documents and with database
• systems. It is commonly used on
• legal, engineering and medical
• documents which must be
• complete and up to date.
• Did you know?Other methods of version control include the software allocating the latest versionnumber showing the time and identity of the person making the changes. If, for anyreason, a document does become corrupt (damaged) or is missing important updates,
• it is possible to roll back to a commonly agreed version number.

Levels of access and file permissions

• The system administrator within an organisation can control the levels of access users
• have to a particular document. They can allocate access to individuals or particular
• groups of documents by using fi le permissions . Some users may only be able to
• read documents but not edit them. Other users may be allowed to read and editdocuments some may be allowed to add new documents and some will be allowed todelete documents.
• File permissions can be used to restrict access to certain documents and to restrictwhat can be done to them.

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• • Read-only access. This allows a user to look at and read a document but not to
• change it. A university lecturer could use a Word® document to create a test for their
• class, if the document was set as ‘read-only’ then the class would not be able to
• make any changes to the wording.
• •
• Read/Write access. This allows a user to look at and read a document, but also to
• make changes to itFull control. This allows users to retrieve a document, read it, edit it, add a newdocument or delete or archive an existing document.
• Full control is usually givento people who administer the system. They may be senior people within theorganisation or senior administrators who report directly to senior management.

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