When browsing in the Enterprise PDM vault is part of your daily routine, often some of the locations you want to go to are also routine. In a windows environment creating shortcuts to subfolders is a simple and common practice. Since a right-click on an EPDM folder doesn’t show a “Create Shortcut” option, many folks believe shortcuts to subfolders within an EPDM vault isn’t possible. But nothing is further from the truth. And with a few simple steps, jumping into your favorite vault subfolder will be a quick double click away.
To make your shortcut, follow these simple steps:
Browse until you are INSIDE the folder you want to make the shortcut to
Unlike Windows, instead of browsing to the folder that contains the folder you want the shortcut to be for, browse until you are inside that folder. For example, to make a shortcut to the YouAreHere folder, make sure you are in that folder, as depicted below.
Get a copy of the folder path
Click in the blank area to the left of the path to select it.
Then do a CTRL-C or a Right-Click -> Copy to copy the text
Create a Windows shortcut manually with the folder path
Right-Click somewhere on the Windows desktop and select New -> Shortcut.
When you are prompted for the location of the item, paste in the path of the folder, and then click Next.
Name the shortcut. A default will already be in the field.
I like to add “ –ONLINE” to the end for reasons I will describe in a moment. Once you have chosen the name, click Finish, and your shortcut will be created.
You’re now a double click away from your destination folder
One last note…
Enterprise PDM is weaved tightly into Windows explorer, but it runs in two very different modes. The standard mode is when the client is accessing the EPDM vault. When the vault in unavailable, for example if you are working on a laptop outside of your company’s network, you can work in “Offline” mode. You enter this mode by selecting Tools -> Work Off-line.
You will know you are working offline when all your folders turn from green to blue.
Offline mode currently requires its own shortcut. If desired, to create a shortcut for when you work offline, repeat all the steps above except copy the folder path when you are actually working offline. The resulting default folder icon will also show the difference.
Enjoy your time saving shortcuts!
