Office Connector

Owned by Peter Schöll
Okt. 14, 2024
11 min read

What is the Office Connector?

The Office Connector is an additional program, a so-called add-in, which integrates the popular Microsoft Office programs into Scopevisio.

 

The MS Office Connector gives you full access to your Scopevisio data within the familiar MS Office applications.

Conversely, it allows you to upload files from the Office application directly to Scopevisio without local caching. File overhead is reduced, information flows in real time, version problems are eliminated and productivity increases.

Use the Office Connector to link your Microsoft Office desktop applications (Outlook, Excel, Word, PowerPoint) with Scopevisio. The free browser applications from Office Online do not work with the Office Connector.

Advantages of the Office Connector at a glance

  • MS Office integration of the Scopevisio application

  • Master data from Scopevisio can be selected and processed in MS Office applications

  • Numerous time and cost-saving functions

  • Mail merge in MS Word

  • Further use of established reports in MS Excel

  • Newsletter dispatch via MS Outlook to selected recipients

  • Create time entries in Scopevisio projects from Outlook appointments

  • Create tasks from emails at the touch of a button

  • Requirements from everyday MS Office life are recruited from ONE application ("Scopevisio tab" in the ribbon bar) with only ONE data source

  • Separate island solutions, Excel or distribution lists outside the Scopevisio database are no longer required

Note on authorizations

Note on authorizations: If you save a document to a contact, then it is visible to users who have the right to access this contact. The same applies if you save a document to a project or in a collection: The document inherits the permissions that apply to the project or collection in question. This ensures consistent rights management.

Intuitive operation

The Office Connector icons are usually easy to understand at first glance. In addition, each icon is underlaid with a tooltip text that is displayed when you hover the mouse over the icon in question.

As an example, you can see below an excerpt from the Data tab of the Excel Connector, where you have the option of working with data from the journal(1), the product catalog(2) or time recording(3).

System requirements

The following system requirements apply for the Office Connector:

  • Microsoft Windows 7 and higher

  • Microsoft Office 2010 and higher

Installing the Office Connector

You can test the Office Connector free of charge for 30 days. To do this, do the following:

Click on the store symbol and select Go to store in the following query. Then select the line MS Office Connector in the table Test application and click on the button Test now and then on Next.

You will now find a link to the download in the setup wizard, which you can access via the Global item in the menu. In the last tab First steps, under the heading Connect your Office applications with Scopevisio, a download link has now been added which you can use to install the add-in.

New icons in the Office ribbon

After the installation, the ribbon of your Office programs has a new group called Scopevisio Connector with two buttons to start the Scopevisio Connector or the Scopevisio application.

When you click on Scopevisio Connector, a login window opens in which you enter your user name and password. If you have several companies in your Scopevisio instance, you can select the company you want to log into on the next screen.

The Office Connector will then be displayed in your Office application on the right. You can scale it or move it to another location by dragging it with the mouse.

Depending on the application, different functions are available to you, which are explained below

Settings in the Office Connector

Word, Excel and PowerPoint settings

Clicking on the settings icon opens a menu in which you can determine how the connector handles your documents by default.

Outlook and e-mail settings

Clicking on the settings icon opens a menu in which you can specify how the connector handles your emails by default.

Many users prefer to assign emails retrospectively, as described in the Outlook section. With automatic assignment, there is a risk that too many superfluous emails will be transferred to Scopevisio during longer email conversations with many participants, making the contact or project files confusing.

Word

Overview of the functions

The individual tabs in the Word Connector have the following functions.

Contacts tab

Insert address in letter

Let's assume you want to write a letter to a contact who is stored in Scopevisio.

You open your letter template in Word and want to insert the address.

To do this, enter the name (or just a few letters of the name) in the search field of the Office Connector and click on the magnifying glass symbol. Scopevisio displays the contacts found in a hit list. Drag the data line of the contact onto the letter or select the highlighted symbol.

The address is inserted into the desired document at the cursor position.

Display contact

Double-click on a data line to view the details of the contact in question.

Save document to contact

If you have created a document in Word that is to be assigned to a contact, select the contact in the connector and click on the button shown below. The document is uploaded to Scopevisio and saved to the selected contact.

Follow the instructions under "Save document" and "Versioning".

Writing a mail merge

You can create a mail merge in Word by pulling the contact data directly from your Scopevisio contact management.

First write the letter and then select the addresses. Click on the button shown below to open the mail merge function of the Office Connector.

Select addresses

The following two-part window opens.

  1. In the line with the magnifying glass symbol, you can enter a search criterion, e.g. a location.

  2. The contacts found are then listed on the left.

  3. You can use the arrow symbols in the middle to transfer these

  4. to the address list on the right.

  5. Select the tick to accept your completed address list.

You can select several contacts with the mouse or work with the common key combinations CTRL+click (select individual contacts) and CTRL+SHIFT (range).

Finishing the mail merge in Word

After you have confirmed the selected contacts with the tick button, you will return to your document. The Mailings tab has automatically opened in the Word ribbon. The Select recipient button shows the addresses you have just selected and allows you to check the mailing list.

You can now use the Insert mail merge field button to define the positions of the address and salutation using placeholders. Use the placeholders to insert the information to be displayed at the desired position in your document.

You can display the inserted data using the Preview results button.

To output the mail merge, click on Finish and merge. This displays all letters in one document

Save document

If you click on the Save document button and there is not yet a document with this name in Teamwork, the following prompt appears.

You have the option of creating a new document or saving the document as a PDF file. You can also edit the name. Click on the checkmark to save.

Versioning

If you click on the Save document button and a document with this name already exists in Teamwork, the following prompt appears.

You have the option of saving a new version of the existing document or creating a new document. The latter is not recommended, as this will create duplicates in your system. It is better to save the document under a different name. Click on the checkmark to save.

Campaigns tab

Select a campaign and drag its data line onto your document with the mouse. Or click the button at the bottom of the connector. This inserts the campaign framework data into your document.

Projects tab

Drag and drop the framework data of a project into your Word document or insert it by clicking on button 1.

Click on button 2 to assign the active document to the selected project. It will then appear in the project documents.

Follow the instructions under "Save document" and "Versioning".

Teamwork tab

  1. Switch between the list view and the preview view.

  2. Click on the folder icon to display your collections.

  3. If this option is activated (yellow), only Word documents are displayed (this also includes txt, rtf and other formats compatible with Word).

  4. Use this button to open the document selected in the connector in Word.

  5. Click this button to save the active Word document in Teamwork. Follow the instructions under "Save document" and "Versioning".

  6. Create an external link to the active document as described in the next step.

Create an external link

Click on the Link button in the Teamwork tab to open the following dialog box.

Here you have the same link options as in the desktop version of Teamwork. Once you have defined your settings, select the checkmark at the bottom left to create the link and copy it to your clipboard.

Excel

The Excel functions of the Office Connector are in many ways similar to those of MS Word. Only instead of the Campaigns tab, you will see the Data tab in Excel.

Contacts tab

You can create contacts (1) or download contact data from Scopevisio (2-3). Or you can save the active Excel document to the selected contact (4).

Follow the instructions under "Save document" and "Versioning".

Data tab

  1. Select the desired data.

  2. You will find journal data on this tab

  3. You will find product data on this tab

  4. You will find time recording data on this tab

  5. Allows you to insert all data (here: time entries) into the current document.

  6. Allows you to insert only selected data (here: time entries) into the current document.

Projects and Teamwork tabs

Please refer to the corresponding explanations in the "Word" section.

PowerPoint

The connector is also available for PowerPoint. The functions are largely identical to those explained in the "Word" section.

Outlook

The Outlook functions of the Connector can increase your productivity. In particular, the ability to assign and archive emails helps you to manage your files and fulfill your documentation obligations.

Assigning emails to contacts

  1. Activate the Contacts tab and drag an e-mail from Outlook onto it. Wait a moment until Scopevisio has searched for suitable contacts. These are listed in the table area. Without releasing the mouse button on the way, drag the email to the desired contact and drop it there to assign it directly to this contact.

    Otherwise, assign emails to contacts by "scoping" contacts via the search field, selecting the desired contact and using the three buttons below, namely:

  2. Create a contact

  3. Write an e-mail to the selected contact

  4. Save the email selected in Outlook (right icon) or just the email attachment (left icon) to the selected contact. These are perhaps the most frequently used functions of the Office Connector!

  5. If you switch on Active Tracking, you will always see the associated contact directly when you click through the emails in the Connector.

Assign emails to tasks or projects

The same applies here as in the previous section.

Activate the Tasks or Projects tab as appropriate, scroll to the task or project you are looking for and select one of the two buttons shown to assign either the email attachment or the entire email to the desired element.

The email is saved in Scopevisio and is now available in the task or project file.

Create a task from an email

Emails often contain work orders. You can use the Office Connector to create a task in Scopevisio from an email.

Select the Tasks tab and click on the left button in the lower toolbar.

Assign and specify task

A form opens in which you can specify the task in detail and even delegate it to another Scopevisio user. By default, you yourself are entered as the person responsible for the task.

Assign the task to a contact or project, for example, and assign a status, a priority and a due date.

You can assign the selected email to the task and create the task in Scopevisio by clicking on the tick below.

Emails are marked in Outlook

A pop-up message informs you that the email is being "published" to the contact. Do not let this confuse you: Only those who are authorized to see the contact can read the e-mail.

You can then view the assigned emails in the Contacts' Emails business object.

Emails that have been published in Scopevisio using the Connector are marked accordingly in Outlook; see the following illustration.

The colored markings mean

  • Light yellow: Published in Teamwork

  • Dark yellow: Saved to contact

  • Red: Saved to project

  • Purple: Published to tasks

Settings for saving emails and attachments

You can use the Connector settings icon to determine whether emails and/or their attachments are assigned to recipients automatically, manually or not at all, provided that these recipients have been created in your Scopevisio contact management and their email addresses have been stored.

Saving Outlook appointments in Scopevisio projects

Activate the Projects tab in the Connector, select the Outlook calendar function and drag and drop an appointment onto a selected project. Or use the highlighted button at the bottom left. In this way, you create a Scopevisio time entry from an Outlook time entry, which can be included in time and activity accounting and project-related evaluations.

Note: It is crucial for the assignment of Outlook data to a project that the project ID is specified in the email or time entry.

Teamwork tab

The Outlook functions of this tab are completely analogous to the corresponding functions in Word. Please refer to the explanations in the corresponding section.