Tag Archives: Document Management

About Kerika’s document management capabilities.

Using Kerika with Microsoft 365

January 22, 2024Kanban & Lean, Kerika, TechnologyAccount, Box, Calendar, Document Management, Google Apps, Microsoft, Scrum, Task Board, Teams, WhiteboardKerika

We have made a very big extension to Kerika, by integrating with Microsoft 365: now you can sign up using your Microsoft ID, and have your files stored in your own OneDrive account!

Kerika+Microsoft works the same was as Kerika+Google and Kerika+Box: you can use your existing Microsoft account to sign up and login to Kerika; there’s no need to create and remember a new password:

When you upload files to your board for the first time, you will be asked to choose a preferred cloud storage: if it’s Microsoft, then you will be asked to give Kerika access to a single folder in your Microsoft OneDrive:

After you allow Kerika access to your OneDrive, Kerika will create a single folder in your OneDrive that it will use for all of your Kerika-related files:

That one top-level folder is all that Kerika will ever use: inside there Kerika will automatically manage all the subfolders you need to sort your different Kerika accounts (yes, some folks have more than one Kerika account!) and your board.

Kerika doesn’t go snooping around or altering any other part of your OneDrive!

Files you add to your Kerika boards will be automatically shared with everyone on the board’s team: Board Admins and Team Members will get read+write access, while Visitors will get read-only access.

As folks join or leave your board team, access to all the files on that board will be automatically managed by Kerika, freeing you up from all the admin work that other tools make you do.

You can even create new Office 365 documents from inside Kerika, and have them shared automatically with your board team:

And we have always had the ability to sync your Kerika due dates with your Outlook calendar, so that completes everything you need to get the most of Kerika+Microsoft!

You have even more storage options now

January 19, 2024KerikaBox, Direct Sign Up, Document Management, Google Apps, Microsoft, Preferences, SecurityKerika

When we started, we made a big strategic decision to integration with the Google Apps platform: letting users sign in with their Google IDs — which meant they didn’t need to remember a password just for Kerika — and, more importantly, letting users store their files in their own Google Drive, where they remained under their own control.

This proved particularly popular with the IT departments of our users, because it meant that any corporate policies the IT folks were implementing on content management worked great on everything the users did with Kerika as well.

The ability to control how files were to be shared (e.g. not with anyone outside the domain), and how long files were to be retained (important for regulated industries) is super important to IT departments who are charged with guarding the corporate assets, and Kerika is the only task management tool that works seamlessly with a user’s existing Google Workspace.

We then implemented the same functionality for users of the Box platform: people could sign up with their Box IDs, and have their files stored in their own Box accounts. Once again, this means that the content management policies that their IT departments were implemented would remain respected thanks to Kerika being the only task management tool that works so well with Box.

To complete the range of options for our users, we now have Kerika+Microsoft as an option: you can sign up with your Microsoft ID and have your files stored in your own OneDrive account.

But we didn’t stop there: we recognize that there are some folks out there who would prefer to use a cloud service that’s different from the one they originally signed up with: for example, someone who signed up using a Google ID, or signed up directly using an email address, might want to switch to using Microsoft OneDrive.

That’s easy, free, and painless: go to your Manage Account page from inside the Kerika app on your desktop, and select the OTHER SETTINGS tab:

Click on the CHANGE button and you will see your storage options:

The above example shows the options available for a Kerika+Microsoft user: she can choose to have her files stored in her own Google Drive, in her own Box account, or use Kerika’s Google Drive.

Once you initiate this process it can take some time to complete, depending upon how many files you have in your account, and how large they are. There’s a file size limit of 200MB that’s imposed by the cloud service providers.

If you need help making a decision, or in making a switch, feel free to schedule a call with us.

Kerika’s New Search Capabilities

January 9, 2022TechnologyBox, Document Management, Google Apps, Scrum, Search, Task Board, Task Management, UsabilityKerika

We have completely rebuilt Kerika’s search capabilities, both on the back end and on the user interface, to make it much easier to find tasks (cards) and documents across all your Kerika boards.

Screenshot showing Task results from Search — Search Task Results

Search results are organized into two tabs at the top: Tasks and Documents.

Within each tab, results are further segmented into two tabs: This Board, and Other Boards. This makes the most common use of Search even easier: most people want to find something that’s on a large board that they are viewing.

For each search result Kerika shows you what part of the task/card matched the query; in the example above, the search term showed up in 8 Board Chat messages.

Clicking on a search result gives you two action buttons: Open the task/card, or get a link to that task.

The search results are ranked by relevance; we spent weeks fine-tuning the algorithm based upon real-world usage and we think we have got it right now! But we know there will be times when you really need to narrow your search very specifically, and that’s handled by the Filter Results button which gives you so many options:

Screenshot showing Task Filter options for Search — Task Filter

The Documents tab shows you all the content that matches your search results: we get this from Google, if you signed up using your Google ID or email, or from Box, if you signed up using your Box ID.

Screenshot showing Document Results from Search — Search Results for Documents

Selecting a document result gives you two buttons: OPEN, which will open the document for you in a new browser tab (or in Google Apps or Box on a mobile device), and DOWNLOAD.

As with Tasks, there are numerous options to filter and narrow your search for documents:

Screenshot showing Documents Filter options for Search — Documents Filter

How files are managed when you sign up with your email

February 11, 2019Agile & Scrum, TutorialsDirect Sign Up, Document Management, Kanban, Scrum, Task Board, Tutorial, WhiteboardKerika

Most people sign up as new Kerika users using a Google ID or Box ID, but an increasing number of folks are opting for direct signup: this means signing up with your email (any email will do).

For these folks, here’s a quick tutorial video that shows you how your files are stored and shared.

https://youtu.be/AXTSyB2j7YA

An updated overview video on how Task Boards work in Kerika

January 29, 2019Agile & Scrum, TutorialsDocument Management, Google Apps, Kanban, Scrum, Task Board, TutorialKerika

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKRKoBOC6-o

A tutorial video on using Kerika with Box

December 13, 2018Agile & Scrum, TutorialsAccount, Box, Document Management, Kanban, Scrum, Task Board, Teams, TutorialKerika

OK, another tutorial video done: this time on how to use Kerika with Box.

Kerika works seamlessly with Box for secure storage of all your project files: just sign up as a Kerika user with your Box ID, and all your Kerika files will be stored in your own Box Account, where they will always be under your control.

This tutorial video shows you how.

Intended audience for this video: new Kerika users who want to leverage Box.

You can’t change the extension on a document

October 1, 2018Agile & Scrum, UncategorizedDocument Management, Kanban, Scrum, Task BoardKerika

We have made a change to the Card and Board Attachments feature to prevent users from changing the extension of a file they have already added: for example, a “.xlsx” file can’t be renamed as a “.docx” file.

We did this because changing the file type often had unpredictable consequences when a Team Member tried to upload an attachment.

This restriction applies to the most common file types, not all. Here’s how it works:

In the example above, an image has been added as an attachment to this card, and it has the .PNG file type/extension.

When you hover your mouse over any attachment, Kerika will show you the actions that are possible with that attachment, one of them being Rename.

If you select Rename, Kerika will make sure you only change the file name, not the file type/extension (.PNG in this example):

Using Google Drive without Google Docs

September 21, 2018Agile & Scrum, Kanban & Lean, Team CollaborationDocument Management, Google Apps, Kanban, Microsoft, Scrum, Task Board, TeamsKerika

If you are using Kerika with Google, you don’t have to convert your documents to the Google Docs format in order to use Google Drive.

You can use this preference setting to ensure that your Microsoft Office documents, for example, are retained in MS Office format even while they they are stored and shared using Google Drive.

Showing the names of documents when they are referenced inside Kerika

March 22, 2018UsabilityDirect Sign Up, Document Management, WhiteboardKerika

We added a feature recently (or did we actually a bug?) for our direct login users: when you reference a file that’s attached to a Kerika card, canvas or board, from another place in Kerika — e.g. another card’s details or chat — we now show the file’s name instead of just the URL.

This makes it easier to cross-reference file attachments from within different Kerika cards or boards, where different work items or conversations refer to the same shared file.

Here’s an example:

We have added support for Google Team Drive

February 12, 2018Agile & Scrum, Kanban & Lean, Team Collaboration, UsabilityDocument Management, Google Apps, Kanban, Scrum, Teams, Usability, WhiteboardKerika

We have long had a deep, excellent integration with Google Apps: you can sign up with your Google ID and have all your Kerika-related files stored in your own Google Drive, where you can access them independently of the Kerika app.

We are now taking that one step forward, with seamless integration with Google Team Drive.

Google Team Drives are shared spaces where teams can easily store, search, and access their files anywhere, from any device.

Unlike files in My Drive, files in Team Drive belong to the team instead of an individual. Even if members leave, the files stay exactly where they are so your team can continue to share information and get work done.

Team Drives is available on G Suite Enterprise, G Suite Business, or G Suite for Education editions.

You don’t need to do anything different: the integration is built-in with the latest version of Kerika (and, since we are software-as-a-service, everyone always uses the latest version of our product!) and the integration is seamless.

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