SD Overview

Summary This module is a guided tour of SDs (Strategy Documents) in PaT, and a short video explains why SDs are more than documents. It covers the SD path, members, permissions and the five SD elements, then search, section headers, SD history and other SD views, then printing, sharing and closing an SD. It has three parts: “The SD path, members and the five SD elements”, “Search, section headers, SD history, task wall and Gantt chart” and “Printing, sharing links, who can do what, and closing an SD”.

The SD path, members and the five SD elements

Summary SDs (Strategy Documents) are PaT's database-driven alternative to word-processor documents such as MS Word. Moving to SDs brings new levels of automation, productivity and communication, and PaT handles document filing and the related task admin for you, without filing errors. This part covers the SD path, the members of an SD and what they are allowed to do, and the five SD elements you build an SD from: Section Headers, Notes, Fast Notes, Tasks and SDs.

Note. SDs are fundamental to PaT and used throughout it, so it is worth getting to know them early. An SD can be anything from a simple to-do list or letter to a survey, a project management tool or a full CRM system. SDs can also be linked to APIs to run live dashboards that manage business processes in real time, show data as graphs, and design workflows and forms.

Step 1

Open an SD. The line of text at its top left, above the members, is the SD path. It works like a file path.

Step 2

The name at the right end of the SD path is the title of the SD you are in. The titles to its left, separated by forward slashes, are the SDs it belongs to: its parent, then its grandparent, great-grandparent and so on. Read from right to left, the path is a family tree.

Step 3

The SD path is also a built-in security framework. It controls which PaT users can open which SDs, based on: - Membership rules: who is invited to which SD, and the permissions they are given. - Ancestry: members higher up inherit access rights to the SDs lower down their family tree.

Step 4

The row of photos under the SD path is the members list: everyone who is a member of the SD.

Step 5

Click the members icon (three people) at the left of the members list. The Members panel slides in from the left. Use it to manage who is invited to the SD and what they are allowed to do.

Step 6

The SD's owner is listed in the panel with Owner under their name.

Step 7

Every other member was invited to the SD and has two buttons at the right of their name. delete removes them from the SD. The button under it sets their permissions: for an Author it shows Guest, and clicking it changes them from Author to Guest. An Author has an unlocked padlock by their name; a Guest's padlock is locked.

Step 8

Authors and Guests can do different things. Both can view the SD, download files and add comments. Only Authors can insert and delete rows, edit existing elements, upload files, use advanced SD features, create forms and surveys, view associated emails, manage SD categories and build dashboards.

Step 9

To add a member, click Add another member at the bottom of the panel. Owners and Authors can add members.

Step 10

Type the person's name in the start typing to search box at the top of the panel, or click them in the Recent Assignee's list below it.

Step 11

Back on the SD, a blue dot at the top right of a member's photo is another sign of who the SD owner is.

The five SD elements

Step 12

The row of five purple buttons under the members list is the SD elements toolbar.

Step 13

Each button is one of the five SD elements. To build your SD, drag an element from the toolbar and drop it into the body of the SD.

Step 14

Section Headers (the first button, a numbered list) format your document and group information into logical sections, so it is easier to refer to and take in. Indenting and outdenting them replaces the chapters and paragraphs of a traditional document.

Step 15

Notes (the second button, a pencil) are a mini word-publishing app: a note can hold text of any length covering many ideas, and can embed videos and links. Best practice is to put each idea in its own note, nested under a section header, instead of long sentences or bullet points, and to use section headers as your chapters and paragraphs. Each note can then have its own chat, so every idea can be discussed in context.

Note. Dense text full of ideas is hard to work through, even when the author writes clearly, and harder still when the ideas overlap. Turning the text into distinct topics, one note each, untangles it in both cases.

Tip. Discuss each issue in the chat on its own note. PaT calls this contextual comms: the conversation stays on one issue and can follow it through to a conclusion, which traditional communication platforms can't do.

Step 16

Fast Notes (the third button, two pages) are a no-frills, no-formatting way to record ideas quickly: just type and hit enter. You can go back later and format the text in the editor if needed.

Step 17

Tasks (the fourth button, a tick in a box) let you task someone in the SD and follow how the task progresses.

Step 18

SDs (the fifth button) automatically embed a child SD inside this SD, which becomes its parent.

Search, section headers, SD history, task wall and Gantt chart

Summary This part covers searching an SD (current and archived items at once), expanding and collapsing section headers, and the SD menu: SD Settings, Advanced, SD History, Task Wall, Gantt, SD Files, SD Chat and SD Activity.

Step 19

To search the SD, click the search description here bar, to the right of the SD elements toolbar, and type a word related to the element you need to find.

Step 20

A results list appears under the search bar as you type. Scroll down it to find what you are looking for. The search looks through both WIP items (Show) and archived items (Hide) at the same time.

Step 21

PaT then highlights the item in the SD. If the item was archived, it may be hidden under a section header: expand that section header to see it.

Step 22

Section headers group related items by nesting notes, tasks and embedded SDs under them. They give your SD a logical structure and save space on screen. To expand one section header, click the down-facing chevron at the far left of its row. A bold chevron means the section header has elements nested under it.

Step 23

Once expanded, the chevron faces up. Click it again to collapse the nested elements.

Step 24

To collapse every section header in the SD at once, click the minus button at the far left of the top section header.

Step 25

With everything collapsed, the SD is tidy, and you can open just the section headers you want without other information competing for your attention. This is faster and easier than scrolling through a long document, especially when an SD is used as an LMS document. To expand every section header at once, click the + button in the same place.

The SD menu

Step 26

The row of grey capsules under the search bar is the SD menu.

Step 27

SD Settings, the first capsule, is where you update the SD's title, owner or parent, or archive the SD.

Step 28

Advanced holds the advanced SD options: open and create SD Forms and build dashboards. If the owner has attached an email address or email domain to the SD, it is also where PaT auto-files those emails.

Step 29

Click SD History to see previously saved versions of the SD. It is used when an SD serves as a report or as meeting minutes.

Step 30

The SD Archives panel slides in from the left. It stores every archived version of the SD, and PaT automatically adds the date and time each version was archived.

Step 31

Click a purple archived record. A sub menu opens under it, for viewing the archived information.

Step 32

The sub menu shows, in blue, how many rows were archived in that record.

Step 33

Click the blue information to see the archived rows in their last location in the current SD.

Step 34

To print the archived version, click the printer icon at the right of the sub menu.

Step 35

If the auto-tasking feature was used, the review task also shows under the record: who was tasked to review the version, and how they performed on that task. This is very helpful when you need to prove that people were informed, and when.

Step 36

Task Wall shows a different view of the SD: just its WIP tasks, in columns.

Step 37

Some people find the SD Task Wall a more useful way to manage WIP (Work In Progress) tasks, because they can sort them into different categories from the ones used in the SD. For example, the SD might group tasks by work stream, while the Task Wall groups them by person or priority.

Step 38

Gantt shows the SD as a Gantt chart. It is a great view when you use the SD to manage a project and need to see all of its tasks, grouped by work stream, against a timeline.

Step 39

In the Gantt view, tasks are laid out by day, so you can follow the timeline at a glance. The colour coding shows progress: green means a task is completed.

Step 40

SD Files holds SD Parent Level Attachments. Most files are attached to a single SD element; files in SD Files relate to the SD as a whole.

Step 41

In the same way, SD Chat holds SD Parent Level Chats. Chats in the body of the SD are attached to single SD elements and give context to that piece of work; SD Parent Level Chats apply to the SD as a whole.

Step 42

SD Activity, the last capsule, gives a complete overview of everything that has happened in the SD.

Printing, sharing links, who can do what, and closing an SD

Summary This part covers the buttons at the top right of an SD (print to PDF, hide or show the members list, refresh, and copy the SD's link), who can do what when you share an SD link, the icons on each line of an SD, and closing an SD: archiving the elements you no longer need while keeping a record of them, which turns an SD into a meeting minutes or reporting tool.

Step 43

To print the SD to a PDF, click the printer icon at the top right of the SD, just right of the search bar. A PDF of the SD opens.

Step 44

To print it, click the printer icon at the top right of the PDF.

Step 45

To hide the members list, click the diagonal arrow to the right of the printer icon. The members list and the SD path above it are hidden.

Step 46

Click the diagonal arrow again to show them.

Step 47

To refresh the SD, click the purple button with two circling arrows, to the right of the diagonal arrow. Do this from time to time, for example when someone else is working in the SD and you need to pull through their updates.

Step 48

To copy the SD's link (URL) to your clipboard, click the white share button at the far right.

Step 49

When you send anybody an SD link (or a task link), what they can do depends on whether they are logged into PaT when they open it: - Not logged in: they see a red lock icon on the SD and can only view it (read only). - Logged in, not a member: they can read the SD and post chats within existing SD elements, but cannot view or post chats on the main SD thread. - Logged in, Guest member: they can read the SD and post chats on any thread in it, including the main SD thread. - Logged in, Author or Owner: they can do anything in the SD. There are three kinds of users for public consumption: - A normal PaT user was added to PaT in the System Admin Panel and logs in on the normal login screen. - A PaT Intro user was added to PaT by clicking a remote login link. - An External Email user was added with the external user link in the PaT chat members panel. They cannot log in to PaT at all, and can only interact with PaT by email.

Step 50

In the body of the SD, a task line shows the person it is assigned to under Action By, and its deadline under Action Date.

Step 51

A note line has a tick box near its right end, just left of the paperclip. To turn the note into a task, click that tick box.

Step 52

PaT asks you to confirm that you wish to convert the note to an Action Point (a task). Click OK.

Step 53

The paperclip on a line shows the attachments related to that SD element.

Step 54

Click the chat icon (a speech bubble), to the right of the paperclip, to review or add to the conversation about that SD element.

Step 55

The padlock, to the right of the chat icon, shows whether the element is locked. PaT locks new SD elements by default. Locking or unlocking a line controls how you can edit or archive that SD element.

Step 56

To strike through a line, click the round tick at the far right of the line. This is handy when you use an SD as a to-do list and want to strike through a completed note.

Step 57

The Template, Global and Workflow tick boxes at the bottom left of the SD are advanced SD Owner functions. They change how a standard SD works: - A Template or Global Template SD suits a document you need again and again, such as a form. Once the template is made, the business can create as many identical copies as it needs, and PaT files the copies automatically. - A Workflow is a template with extra controls. It suits onboarding a new employee or customer, where a set list of tasks and deadlines must be created and not edited afterwards.

Closing an SD

Step 58

An SD can be closed. Closing archives the SD elements that are no longer needed, while keeping a record and audit trail of when they were archived. This turns an SD into a meeting minutes app or a reporting platform for any part of the business that needs regular feedback. Start by typing a name for the archive in the Enter title for this archive/review box at the bottom right of the SD, so you can find it again later.

Step 59

For a weekly or monthly meeting or report, a good title is simply the week number or month the meeting was held.

Step 60

Click Archive and/or Review, to the right of the title box.

Step 61

The SD Archive and/or Review Configuration panel slides in from the right, with two options. With only Archive unlocked Notes and completed Action Points on this SD ticked, clicking Confirm at the bottom of the panel removes the unlocked SD elements selected for archiving, files them under the archive name you typed, and lets all SD members know that a new archive has been created.

Step 62

To also send selected members a PaT task to review the archive, tick Send a review task to selected members. A list of SD members appears. This is common when an SD holds meeting minutes: members who could not attend (the apologies) get a task, with the SD owner as the task assignor, to review the archived minutes. It keeps everyone on the same page, so nobody can claim they were not kept in the loop.

Step 63

Tick Send Review Task under the name of each member who should review the archive, or tick select all.

Step 64

Click Confirm at the bottom of the panel. PaT processes the SD as you set it up in the panel. Archiving and auto-tasking let an SD stay a live document with a full audit trail.