Spotlight #10: Collect files securely

Hello everyone!

As part of our monthly Spotlight series, we are going to highlight another WorkDrive feature: Collect Files.

Collecting files from people, whether within a team or from external stakeholders, is often a tedious task.

File collection usually includes these primary tasks: requesting users to submit files, downloading the files to your computer, and uploading the collected files to a folder. Additionally, we may need to organize these files and keep track of who has submitted and who has not submitted yet.

The complexity increases if multiple people communicate and submit files via different apps, such as email, messaging apps, and different cloud storage services.

The Collect Files feature could be useful in many different cases, such as:

• A college professor asks students to submit their assignments before a deadline.
  
• A print media company asks their editors to submit feature articles for the upcoming monthly edition.
  
• A venture capitalist firm invites users to submit business ideas and research papers on artificial intelligence.  

With the Collect Files feature, WorkDrive users can create custom collection links to allow any number of people to upload their files easily. Once they upload their files, you can view their submissions and easily manage their files from your WorkDrive account.

With this feature, you can easily collect files from anyone, regardless of whether they have a WorkDrive account or not. You can create collection links for internal (team members) or external collaborators (anyone on the internet) with custom link settings.

Receive files in your selected folder

No need to manually sort the submitted files once you get them: when you create the collection link, you can choose the destination folder where all the submitted files will be uploaded.

Set an appropriate file-size limit

If you need to ensure the submitted files are under a maximum size limit, you can set limits for both the number of files upload and the file size while creating the link. You can then update the limits of any active collection link later.

Set an expiration date for the file submission

The creator of the collection link can set submissions deadlines by adding an expiration date to the link. The link will not be accessible past the specified expiration date.

Here are the  steps to create a collection link: 

1. In the left panel of your WorkDrive account, click Collect Files.
   
2. Click the + NEW COLLECTION button in the top-right corner. A New Collection dialog will open.
   
3. Select the Internal or External tab based on the type of collection link you want to create. Enter a collection name and add collection details.
   
4. Choose a folder location to store all files uploaded through this link.
   
5. Under Request user data, Name will be selected by default. You can also request phone number and email address, if needed.
   
6. To create a separate folder for each user, mark the respective checkbox. The uploader's name will be the default folder name. Note: You can also choose the uploader's email address or phone number as the folder name if you've enabled those options in the Request user data field.
7. Set the file upload limit, file size limit, expiration date, and notification alerts if needed, and click CREATE.
   
8. Now, copy the collection link and share it with your collaborators.
   
9. To send the collection link via email, you can add email addresses and a message under Email collection link, then select SEND EMAIL.

Managing your collections

From the Collect Files tab on the left panel of your account you can view and manage all the files collected. Here you can see all the active collections and the completed ones. You can view submission details, such as the list of users submitted, their details, and uploaded files.

We hope you found this article helpful! Watch out for this space for more interesting product updates, tips and tricks, and more.

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