Attaching a PDF to a record

Emily Arendall · July 2015

I need to have a place to attach different PDFs to records. I know i can do this on the media tab. I would like to be able to add different PDF documents to a specific gift record. Does anyone have any suggetions on where to add items such as pledge forms, etc. for records. We have some employees that are not able to see the gift tab on a record, which is why we would prefer to have the PDF saved to the gift....but I see thats not possible.

Ryan Hyde · July 2015

Nope, the only place to do this would be the Gift on the constituent record. There's no place in a gift itself to put documents.

Jennifer McHale · July 2015

If someone has figured out a way to append a PDF file to a gift record, that would be great!

I upload .rtf files in a notepad in the Misc section for our pledge forms, check images, etc. Image formats are also valid (I believe .rtf is a smaller file type, which is why I have always used that format. Trying to keep RE working as quick as possible!).

Jen Claudy · July 2015

I would love to see a Media Tab on Gift Records, Appeal Records, etc. But at present, that tab is available only on Constituent Records, Event Records, and Proposal Records. So if you have the Search/Prospect/Proposal Module, you can store Media on Proposals...however, it won't help you, because I believe those then also appear on the Constituent level record. You can link a Media Record to a Proposal from the Constituent Record... Search the Idea Bank and vote this up...I'm 98% sure it's in there. If it's not, add it and post here so the rest of us can go vote it up!

I'm not familiar enough with it, but you might be able to password-protect your pdf file, making it non-accessible to those without the password. However, that probably requires Adobe Acrobat, and if you are Hosted by Blackbaud, you cannot use Acrobat, only Reader, so I'm not sure how that would affect password-protected files. And you would need to save existing files to your desktop, modify/protect them, then embed them back and delete the original Media Record.

Nicole S · July 2015

It would be nice if there was built-in electronic filing, similar to eTapestry, but there isn't. Beyond the media tab anyway, and it's just not what a lot of us are looking for. I've used PaperSave in the past and I loved it. It was made to work with RE and you could attach PDFs, JPG, Word, Excel, whatever to records for constituents, gifts, actions, funds, appeals, campaigns, events...

Tom Wright · July 2015

You might find that MagicFolder does what you want - it's a free plugin for RE that links records to folders. We've been using it heavily for around 6 months and have never looked back.

Based on the questions I see in Omatic's support forum, I'd offer this piece of advice: It works best if you set it up to work on a shared drive (i.e. your organisations file server).

Jennifer McHale · July 2015

Tom Wright:

You might find that MagicFolder does what you want - it's a free plugin for RE that links records to folders. We've been using it heavily for around 6 months and have never looked back.

Based on the questions I see in Omatic's support forum, I'd offer this piece of advice: It works best if you set it up to work on a shared drive (i.e. your organisations file server).

Tom - Out of curiosity, do you know if MagicFolder will work with folks who have RE hosted? I believe RE can only connect to my hard drive in this environment, and my machine might fill up quickly if I had to store all of this information without the use of network drives. Thanks!

Tom Wright · July 2015

That's an excellent question. As we're not hosted, I can't confidently answer it. Maybe ask in the Omatic forums?

Jen Claudy · July 2015

A word of caution: if your organization plans to move to RE:NXT, you must also be Hosted. The Media feature in NXT is still in development, and I hope that it will be available throughout more of the database and easier to use, but being Hosted currently means that you must embed Media files, they cannot be linked. So be aware of that before you set up a new system that ends up not being compatible with RE:NXT/Hosting. (I will bookmark this thread and update if I learn more about how Media will work in NXT.)

Jacki Balon · July 2015

Jennifer Claudy:

I would love to see a Media Tab on Gift Records, Appeal Records, etc. But at present, that tab is available only on Constituent Records, Event Records, and Proposal Records. So if you have the Search/Prospect/Proposal Module, you can store Media on Proposals...however, it won't help you, because I believe those then also appear on the Constituent level record. You can link a Media Record to a Proposal from the Constituent Record... Search the Idea Bank and vote this up...I'm 98% sure it's in there. If it's not, add it and post here so the rest of us can go vote it up!

I'm not familiar enough with it, but you might be able to password-protect your pdf file, making it non-accessible to those without the password. However, that probably requires Adobe Acrobat, and if you are Hosted by Blackbaud, you cannot use Acrobat, only Reader, so I'm not sure how that would affect password-protected files. And you would need to save existing files to your desktop, modify/protect them, then embed them back and delete the original Media Record.

I'd love to see media tabs living independently on Proposal records and gift records, as these are areas that are more secure. I think it makes a lot of sense. I haven't heard what is happening in NXT with Media - does anyone in the U.S. have any ideas what they are planning for NXT?

Thanks

Jacki Balon · July 2015

Jennifer Claudy:

I would love to see a Media Tab on Gift Records, Appeal Records, etc. But at present, that tab is available only on Constituent Records, Event Records, and Proposal Records. So if you have the Search/Prospect/Proposal Module, you can store Media on Proposals...however, it won't help you, because I believe those then also appear on the Constituent level record. You can link a Media Record to a Proposal from the Constituent Record... Search the Idea Bank and vote this up...I'm 98% sure it's in there. If it's not, add it and post here so the rest of us can go vote it up!

I'm not familiar enough with it, but you might be able to password-protect your pdf file, making it non-accessible to those without the password. However, that probably requires Adobe Acrobat, and if you are Hosted by Blackbaud, you cannot use Acrobat, only Reader, so I'm not sure how that would affect password-protected files. And you would need to save existing files to your desktop, modify/protect them, then embed them back and delete the original Media Record.

Hi,

We are hosted & we use the Media tab (embed PDF's) all the time. The problem I have with just a general Media tab is security... you can lock it down to a certain group or open it up - there is no security available by media types... so it doesn't matter if you link it to an event or to the proposal records (which we do) it can be seen by everyone who has the security to see media. I'd like to see media set up so they can be seen only by those with the correct security - eg under the gift tab or under proposal tab. If they are on the General Media tab - then they could be available to all - and we may use this area more. That's what I'm hoping to see in NXT... some different security levels for Media types at the very least.

Cheers,

Jacki

Attaching a PDF to a record

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