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Completing the Attachments tab
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Use the Attachments tab to attach files to the specification and manage the attachments. Typically, specification attachments contain reference materials related to the specification such as Word files, UML diagrams, PowerPoint presentations, informal sketches, or files from external systems.

To add or delete attached files to the specification:

  1. Click Edit Attachments. The Attachments window opens in which you manage the attached files.

    To add a new attachment: in the window, enter a descriptive name for the new attachment, browse to the file on your local system or network, and click Add to add it to the list in the window. Note: The name must start with a letter and contain only letters, digits, and underscore characters. You can add multiple files in this window.

    To delete an attachment, click in its row.

  2. When you are done adding or deleting items in this window, click Apply to reflect the changes in the Attachments tab of the rule form.

To modify an attachment listed on the Attachments tab:

  1. Save the file to your local system by clicking its name in the list on the Attachments tab and then clicking Save to save the file to a location on your local system or network.
  2. Modify the file using the appropriate program for its file type. Save the changed file in a location on your local system or network.
  3. In the Attachments tab, click Edit Attachments. In the Attachments window that opens, first delete the existing attachment in the list (click in its row), and then add the modified file as an attachment.

The Attachments tab displays the list of attached files and the following fields.

Field

Description

Name

Name of the attachment. You specify a descriptive name when you add the attachment using the Edit Attachments button. The name must start with a letter and contain only letters, digits, and underscore characters.

To save a copy to a location on your local system or network, or to open the attached file, click its name.

When the Edit in Word feature is used on the Description tab, the system creates a file named Description.doc by default, and adds it as an attachment on this tab with its Use as Description? checkbox selected.

Include in Documentation?

Select this checkbox to specify that the contents of the attachment should be included whenever the specification is included in a generated document (such as when using the Application Document wizard or the Actions > Document action in the Application Profiler).

When PRPC generates a document from the Application Profiler or Application Document wizard, the output document is a Microsoft Word file. When the Include in Documentation? checkbox is selected and the system generates the output document, the attachment is pulled into the output Word file. In general, the system attempts to insert the file using Microsoft Word's OLE capabilities.

Because the system relies on Word's OLE capabilities to insert certain file types, the types of files that can be included in the generated document depends on what software is installed on your local system when you generate the document. As a result, the following file types are included in the output Word file according to the following methods:

  • Software-industry-standard image file types (JPGs, GIFs, PNGs, BMPs, etc) — Embedded as images.
  • PDFs — Inserted as OLE objects, if Adobe Acrobat is installed on your local system. Only the first page of the PDF is viewable in the output Word document (this is a limitation of Acrobat's OLE implementation).
  • Microsoft RTF, DOC, and DOCX files — Contents are inserted in the output document. (Formatting in the output document might not correspond precisely to the formatting in the attached file when the styles in the template for the generated document are applied to the attachment contents.)
  • Microsoft Office files types (such as Excel, PowerPoint file types) — Inserted as OLE objects, if the underlying Office program is installed on your local system.
  • Microsoft Visio files (vsd, vsdx) — Inserted as OLE objects, if Visio is installed on your local system.

File types that can contain executable file types (such as bat, jar, exe, pif, zip, and others) are not supported for this feature. The Include in Documentation? checkbox is not available to select for such attachments.

Use as Description?

Available if the specified file is of Microsoft Word format (doc or docx file types). Select this checkbox to specify to use the contents of the file as the description for the specification.

Only Microsoft Word files are supported for using their contents as the description.

If you select this checkbox for one attachment, it replaces any description entered on the Description tab of the rule form. Only one attachment can be used as the specification description at a time.

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