You store documents either directly in the file cabinet or with an intermediate stop in the document tray. The sooner the documents in the file cabinet are available to employees and integrated into workflows, the sooner they can be used to their full potential. Therefore, a direct import is usually a good choice. In some cases, however, it may be useful to process documents in a document tray first.

From the user's perspective, the document trays in DocuWare Web Client have a similar function to the physical trays on your desk. The document tray contains documents waiting to be edited. These could be documents that have not yet been archived, or copies of documents that were previously archived.

From the document tray you can display documents in the Viewer in order to add stamps or annotations, or you can open them in an editor and edit, print, and download them. You can also combine several documents together there. You can store documents from the document tray directly in a file cabinet or pre-index them to prepare them for archiving.

More about the differences between document trays and archives

Configuring Document Trays

Document trays are created in the DocuWare Configuration. To do this, a user must have the Configure document trays functional right. If you are setting up document trays not just for yourself, but also for other DocuWare users, you will also need the Manage users functional right.

You can find more information about configuration directly within the user interface via the info icons.

Managing Your Own Document Trays

All the document trays that are assigned to you are available in the Web Client.

You can change other settings relating to your document trays in the personal menu > Profile & Settings on the Document Trays tab, namely:

Select default document tray
Define the order of document trays in the menu
Show/hide document trays

Comparison of Document Tray and File Cabinet

Document trays and file cabinets are the two locations in DocuWare where documents can be located.

File cabinets are the core of DocuWare. All document management features can be used for the documents. For example:

Archive documents in an audit-compliant way
Give colleagues access to documents
Manage permissions
Search for and call up documents
Manage the editing of documents in workflows
Combine documents in lists or display them in folder structures
Track accesses and changes
Ensure compliance requirements

In a document tray, on the other hand, documents are primarily viewed and edited before they are archived. For example, you might merge several documents into one or prepare them for indexing. The index entries are required for the structured storage of documents in the file cabinet and also make it easier to access the documents later. With the Intelligent Indexing service, the central information of a document is automatically recognized and added to the documents as index entries.

Unlike file cabinets, document trays are usually configured so that only one user has access to them. They are intended for the documents that the particular user needs to edit. In principle, it is also possible to give multiple users access to a document tray, for example for all documents that are to be processed by a team. However, there is no logging in the document tray and no more precise assignment of rights is possible. Anyone who has access to a document tray may do anything there, including deleting documents. For security reasons, therefore, a file cabinet is always the place where document collaboration should take place.

The possibilities compared:

Documents	File cabinet	Document tray
Search and find	x	---
Open in Viewer	x	x
Edit	x	x
Automatic indexing (Intelligent Indexing)	---	x
Archive in an audit-compliant way	x	---
Collaboration	x	--- (possible, but not recommended)
Workflows	x	---
Detailed permissions	x	---
Logging	x	---