Creating workflow templates

Enter a name for the workflow template. To set up a custom naming pattern for the workflow name (the name of the workflow that the user sees in notification emails and My Tasks list), click Custom Naming. Read more about setting up the custom naming pattern.

Select the Hide the document version until the workflow is approved check box to hide the version of the document undergoing the workflow from all users except for the document owner, workflow participants, workflow observers, and designated Library Administrators until such time as it has gone through a workflow instance that contains at least one Approval activity and the result of this activity is that the document is signed off as "Approved". The document version is hidden only during the workflow process until the document version is approved. The document is available at all other times whether it has been approved or not. All other versions will be available for viewing.

The Hide the document... check box is only enabled when there is at least one approval activity in the workflow template. This check box is not available for review activities.

When the workflow activities are completed, the final version of the electronic document will be converted into an electronic record as a new version. This action is only taken on main documents, not supporting documents. Supporting documents remain untouched.

Documents whose workflow has completed with positive workflow status will be converted to a record. For example, if a document is "approved" or "reviewed" it is converted into a record.

The permission setting "Enable converting between electronic documents and records" must be enabled.

Enter the number of days or hours before a task is overdue to send a task overdue notification email.

To repeat the overdue task email notification after a specified period of time, enter the number of hours to resend the email. For example, if 8 hours is entered, an overdue email will be sent every 8 hours until the task is complete. If the repeat notification time is not set, the notification is sent only one time. The maximum number of hours is 24.

To select a list of observers, click the …  button. In the Select Workflow Observers window, select the groups and/or users to the Current Observers list. Click OK when done.

As an observer, users can view a document moving through the workflow process in the Workflow Status Report and view the Review and Approval History but are not participating in the review and approval process.

In the Workflow Activity n area, select if this activity is an Approval, External Signature, or Review from the drop down list.

If you select an Approval activity, each participant is assigned the task of approving and signing off on the document. Users can be asked to enter their password when completing an approval activity to confirm their identity. The list of possible participants is limited to users that are able to access the document.

Select the Review activity to solicit feedback on a given document version. As the participants in the activity (reviewers) complete their task, the initiator can collect comments and feedback on the document being reviewed. The list of possible participants is limited to users that are able to access the document.

If you select an External signature activity, the documents are sent via Adobe Acrobat Sign for an e-signature and the main documents will be marked as "approved" when complete. There cannot be more than one external signature activity in a workflow. This feature is dependent on the customer contracting directly with Adobe for their e-signature services.

Click … to select the users or groups who will be approving or reviewing the document.

When adding groups to an activity, it will be expanded to individual users upon initiating the workflow. Adding or removing users from a group will not affect existing workflows.

In the Select Task Participants window, select the groups and/or users to the Current Participants list. Click OK when done.

IMPORTANT: You must ensure that you assign groups to workflows that will contain members at the time the workflow is initiated.

To include the workflow initiator as a participant in the activity, select the Include Workflow Initiator check box. If this option is selected, the list of participants can be left empty.

If a single participant in a group is to be forced to "reserve" the task, select the Force Reservation check box. When this option is enabled, it is not possible to submit a review or approval without reserving the task by a single participant. While a task is "reserved" no other participants in the activity will be able to complete the task.

If the Force Reservation option is not enabled, a user can still reserve the task. Note that this option is only available if the 1 of X check box is selected. The table below describes the effect of the 1 of X and Force Reservation settings.

Workflow Template Settings	Effect on Workflow
Image	Only one participant in a group of participants in the activity can complete the task. Participant may "reserve" the task but is not forced to; the task can still be completed without the reservation. First participant to complete the task voids the task for all other participants. The task is removed from their task list. The activity is considered complete after a single participant completes the task. If a participant reserves the task: Only the participant who reserved the task can complete the task. The status of the task changes to "Reserved" for the participant who reserved it. The status of the other participants who did not reserve the task changes to "Blocked". The participant who reserved the task can undo the reservation which frees the task for the other participants to complete.
Image	Only one participant in a group of participants in the activity can complete the task. A participant must reserve the task before the task; the task cannot be completed without the reservation. First participant to reserve the task voids the task for all other participants. The task is removed from their task list. The activity is considered complete after the single participant reserves and completes the task. If a participant reserves the task: Only the participant who reserved the task can complete the task. The status of the task changes to "Reserved" for the participant who reserved it. The status of the other participants who did not reserve the task changes to "Blocked". The participant who reserved the task can undo the reservation which frees the task for the other participants to complete.

This check box is controlled by the permission setting "Enable optional passwords in workflow templates" in the Workflow permission settings area. If the permission setting is enabled, the Require Password check box is available for use. If the permission setting is disabled, the Require Password check box is unavailable.

Select the check box to allow a document(s) to be checked out while under the workflow process. In order for this option to be available on the workflow template, the permission setting "Enable checking out documents when workflow is active" must be enabled in the Workflow permission settings area.

The review or approval cannot be completed while a document in the activity is checked out and the document must be checked in before a review or approval can be submitted. When the document is checked in as a new version, the version number is increased and becomes the version associated with the workflow. If the 1 of X option is selected on the template, then the task is automatically reserved when it is checked out. The task remains reserved after the document is checked in so the user can complete the approval or review task.

Select the check box to allow documents to be marked as "Approval Postponed" for an approval activity. There are situations where a document cannot be approved because some conditions have not been met but there is nothing wrong with the document itself. The approval option called "Postpone Approval" can be used in these conditions. Once the "postpone approval" option is selected, the workflow is immediately terminated and the status of the document will be set to "Approval Postponed". A workflow can be started on the same version of a document that has been marked as "approval postponed". If this option is not enabled then the "approval postponed" option is not available when approving documents.

If this option is enabled, then:

• A workflow can be restarted automatically from a previous activity in the workflow template.
• A one-time review activity can be added. This allows a workflow participant to request changes from any user ad hoc before they complete their own task.

If the workflow is automatically restarted, in the "Select one or more steps to restart from" area, click the … to select the step or steps to restart from. The workflow can be restarted from a previous activity, return back to the initiator, or insert a one-time review activity:

• If the workflow is returned back to the initiator, then the initiator will need to manually restart or re-initiate the workflow from the workflow status report.
• If the workflow is automatically returned back to a previous activity, the participants are notified that the workflow has been restarted. If the activity is 1 of X, only the participant who performed the previous activity is notified (or if delegated to another user, their delegate). The notification to the participants includes the comments made when the activity was marked as "Approval Postponed".
• If the one-time review activity is selected, a user can insert a review task ad hoc during a workflow process. The new one-time review activity automatically restarts the workflow with the new activity inserted in the tasks. This allows a workflow participant to request changes from any user ad hoc before they complete their own task. See One-time reviews for more information.

Microsoft Word and PDF documents can be automatically converted to PDF format upon completion of the activity. A summary page can also be appended to the end of the document which can include workflow and document information. Click … to set the PDF conversion options. See Converting Documents to PDF for more information.

This option is not available if using an External signature activity.

Select one of the following options to determine how to manage a workflow if the workflow is cancelled or postponed and then restarted after the external signature has already been completed. In the case of postpone authoring, this option will only have effect if the activity that it is restarted from is before the external signature.

• Reinstate the source document version as the current version
• Delete the externally signed document version
• No action

Select the export script to use to export data to external files or systems after the activity is complete. For example, student transcripts can be sent to a storage vault or invoices can be sent to an accounting system to help automate invoice processing. If not using export scripts, this field can be left blank.

For assistance with export scripts, contact [email protected].

In the Due By field, enter the number of days or hours after workflow initiation that the approval or review is due.

• Due date is calculated when the workflow is launched, so this field should be configured for the number of days or hours from launch that the first task will be due. For example, if the task needs to be completed in 5 hours, you would enter 0 days and 5 hours.
• An exact date and time (fixed) can be specified in the workflow template once the workflow is initiated via manual initiation (if ad-hoc).
• In subsequent activities, you can enter the number of days or hours after the previous activity is marked as complete for the next activity to be completed.

Enter the instructions for the reviewers or approvers.

• For tasks instructions in FileHold 16.2 and higher, it is possible to use formatting codes for specific styles:
  • **This is bold**  =  This is bold
  • __This is underlined__  =  This is underlined
  • ~~This is in italics~~   =  This is in italics