I laugh sometimes when I do demonstrations of EPDM because I feel like I’m demonstrating something which everybody lives and breaths every day when they are working with their Windows computers. I’ve even been tempted to stop a demonstration after a few clicks before because at the core, EPDM is simply Windows Explorer with control and speed. The everyday chaos of Windows Explorer can finally be tamed.
Special functionality of EPDM aside, I thought it would be worthwhile to put a quick list together about why this integration is so important. This list is really about the great Windows Explorer functionality which will simply continue to work as you’d expect. This can not be underestimated because it has made a world of difference to our customers and the success of the project.
1. Adoption
Adoption rates are much greator within companies becuase familiarity to what is already being used
2. Training
Training is quicker because users come in with half the knowledge already. Most end user training classes are for about 4 hours. It is rare to need to spend more than a day on training to really get a good handle with how to get the benefits from the system.
3. Enhancements
EPDM automatically leverages any new enhancements to Windows Explorer. When Windows 7 came out, it was a little bit to get used to but overall a much superior system. I was excited that EPDM flawlessly worked on top of it and leveraged a lot of the new naviation techniques.
4. Favourites
Redirects to favourite folders in EPDM can be managed identically to how Windows Explorer manages them. This makes is easy to continue being more productive by keeping commonly accessed work close at hand.
5. Hyperlinks
The same way you can send someone a hyperlink to a shared network drive, you can send someone the link to your folder or file. It will automatically have them navigate to their own view of the EPDM vault. These hyperlinks are identical to what get’s sent out in e-mail notifications which will always point the recipient to the latest file even if there has been a new update. (no more resending!)
6. Copy and Paste
How awesome is it that you can just copy and paste or drag and drop files into and out of the EPDM vault!
7. File Types
If you can put it in Windows Explorer, you can put it in EPDM. I’ve had the same conversation a number of times: “What about this file type?” – “Yes, even that file type!”
8. Right Click Menu
The same shortcuts you are used to in Windows Explorer (such as Send to Zip or mail recipient) are available from within the EPDM vault. In fact, EPDM builds the list to add more that can help you get the job done quicker.
9. Searching
Although EPDM has it’s own super fast search tools, it is quite nice that the regular Windows Explorer searching and indexing still works the way you would expect. Especially for searching within applications like SolidWorks.
10. Opening and Saving
This is also a funny one to demonstrate, but the fact remains – Opening and saving in any windows based application can be done directly from the vaulted folder. This saves that tedious extra step of working with a cached area and conciously trying to check items in separately.
—-
Special thanks to Jeff Sweeney from 3D Vision to give me the idea for this blog from his search favourites: http://www.3dvision.com/wordpress/index.php/2011/11/11/adding-the-vault-to-your-favorites/
3 Comments (+add yours?)
Leave a Reply
Thanks for the shout out Eric! Love the list but did you list these in order? For me, your #9 would be my #1. I love the fact that the embedded search within Explorer dissolves the folder structure and you can get to your files so much faster.
I never realized how much time I spend navigating up and down directories until I didn’t have to do it any longer.
I didn’t put too much thought into the order. For me, #10-opening and saving is one of the most important ones. I’ve used a few other systems and it’s frustrating to have to add an extra step to checking in most file formats – nice that EPDM keeps it as easy as possible.
I’m curious how you get the Windows Explorer Search in Windows 7 to work inside an EPDM vault. You state it as if it was automatic, but the function is totally non-functional on every single workstation we have. It works fine outside the vault, but does nothing inside the vault.
I’ve tried adding the vault to the list of indexed locations, but that made no difference. If there’s a trick to getting this working, please share it.