HI all,
One of my users has recently lost some data in PW. He created a MS word document and saved it on the 15th of December. On the 17th of December he opened this document but made no changes, but instead of checking the file back in he clicked on the free command.Now all the information in this document has been lost.OK now the interesting bit:IS this an error and should not have happened?Is there a way to restore the document back to its last save on the 15th of December?
Hello,
It sounds like your user has not checked in the Word document with the changes to PW on the 15th of December. Your user has just saved the changes locally by pressing button "Save" within MS Word application. Is that correct?
If that is the case - then freeing document on December 17th might have (depending on PW user settings) discarded the changes by removing document copy (with the changes) from client machine working directory. The changes were never saved to central ProjectWise Integration Server (using check-in ), therefore he might have lost his changes.
There is a PW user setting "Use local recycle bin on Free". If it is ON - the freed copy with the modifications would have been moved to the local Recycle bin.
To summarize: if your user did not check-in the document with changes - then it's not an error. Also, it depends on user settings what is done to a local document copy on Free operation. Checking document audit trail might help understand what has happened.
Regards,
Rimantas
Hi Rimantas,
My chain of though is abouts the same as yours. I am thinking of removing all the users rights on the "Free" command.
On another note, he chose to do the last changes over as he didn't want to wait for our service desk to give him the backups of the 15th.
IS the "Use local recycle bin on Free". setting on the PW administrator application?
thanx
Prime Evil
Hello Mr.Evil,
:)
Removing right to the Free command migh complicate the process of discarding the latest changes, once/if user has changed his/her mind.It sounds like it might help to do some additional user training (on how check-in/check-out/free work and why they're needed) as well as set the "Use local recycle bin on Free" setting ON.
The user setting "Use local recycle bin on Free" is available via both PW Administrator and PW Explorer:- In PW Administrator go to Users node; select user(s); right click and open Properties; go to Settings tab - it's under Document group of settings- In PW Explorer go to Tools->Options; Properties dialog of current user will be opened; the setting is located under Document group of settings.
Regards,Rimantas