To scan direct to SIMS from a scanner you'll need eCopy ShareScan installed on the device. If you don't have that then any scanner, copier or MFP that can scan to a network location can still be used to scan to SIMS. From your device, scan your documents to a network folder that can be seen from your PC, then work through the pages. This video tutorial shows you the basics.
RecordLink 4pdf integrates eCopy PDF Pro Office with the SIMS Document Server and Communications Log, saving Linked Documents and Communications.
eCopy PDF Pro Office (EPPO) is a PDF handling package akin to Adobe Reader, with further editing and document handling capabilities. It installs with a PDF print driver so that any printable file can be printed to EPPO as a PDF and saved to SIMS. EPPO is available through RecordLink - and you can download a 45 day trial here.
RecordLink 4pdf appears as a toolbar in EPPO with three buttons reading “Open from SIMS”, “Save to SIMS”, and “Save to SIMS As”. Using the “Save to SIMS As” button in RecordLink 4pdf saves the file you are working on direct to the SIMS document server and links it to the chosen student record to give the same result as logging in to SIMS, browsing to a student record, adding a linked document and browsing back to a document that is to be attached. The end user can save the same document to one or multiple student records including year and tutor groups, academic classes and user defined groups. If the database entry such as the particular Achievement, Medical Condition or Communication is not present in the student record the user can create it for one student or a list of students. Using “Open from SIMS” the user can browse the Student record according to their permissions and open documents. Changes to documents already in SIMS are saved using “Save to SIMS”.
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From eCopy PDF Pro Office select “Open from SIMS ” and log-in as prompted, selecting “Remember Me” if required for seamless future use. You can then browse the focus areas of SIMS according to your permissions and open documents from the Student, Staff, Contact, Agent, or Pre-Admissions areas. In the student focus area you can browse the student record according to Achievement, Medical Event etc. Once a student has been selected you will see a photograph of the student if available. If the file is not in pdf format it will open in the default application. IMPORTANT: If you open SIMS and browse to a document and then open the document with the Open option in SIMS then RecordLink 4pdf will not recognise the SIMS link to the document you have opened. Save to SIMS will not be enabled. For full Connector functionality open the document using RecxordLink 4pdf in the PDF Pro Office toolbar. |
| The “Save to SIMS ” option is enabled when a document has been opened from SIMS or saved during the current session. Clicking on “Save to SIMS ” and following the prompts will save further changes to SIMS . If you do not alter the Notes and Summary fields and have adequate permissions you may overwrite the previous version. You will be prompted in this case. If you do not wish to overwrite the original alter the Notes field or save the file in a different location using “Save to SIMS As”. |
| “Save to SIMS ” provides a rapid save of the current version back to the same location and allows an overwrite of the previous version if required and if permissions allow. The “Save to SIMS ” command is therefore only enabled when the current file has live links to SIMS . RecordLink 4pdf therefore requires that the current document either be opened from SIMS using RecordLink 4pdf or saved with “Save to SIMS As” before “Save to SIMS ” is available to use. |
On the RecordLink 4pdf toolbar click “Save to SIMS As” and follow the prompts. Once a student has been selected the user can then browse to the correct area of the student record. Select the sub-area of General, Medical Notes etc and hit “Next”. In General and Medical Notes you will then be taken to the final screen and be prompted to chose the document type, given an option of Public, Private or Confidential, and asked to add Notes and optionally, Summary information. In other sub-areas where the data is organised as database entries such as Medical Conditions, you will find another layer of navigation. You will be asked to select the relevant entry before proceeding to the final screen.
| Follow the instructions for How do I save a new file to SIMS? until you arrive at “Select Student Sub-Area” then select the Sub-Area you require. At this point you will have the option to create a new entry if the required entry is absent (such entries are not used in General and Medical Notes). Hit “Create” and fill in the required fields as in SIMS. Having created a new entry and been returned to the list of all entries for that student you can again create further entries or select an entry and proceed to the final save screen. To create an entry for multiple students see How do I create multiple database entries? |
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Using “Save to SIMS As”, you can choose to save to multiple student records and the first process is compile the list of students. Follow the prompts to the “Select student” screen and use predefined lists under “Advanced” or create your own bespoke list using “Search”. 1. To browse lists of Academic Classes or User Defined Groups select “Advanced” and pick the appropriate group and “OK”, then use “Select All” to add the names to the Multi Pick list. You can edit the returned list by selecting “View” under “Multi Pick”. 2. Instead of using predefined lists you can also create a bespoke list. Search by surname, year group etc using the text boxes and drop down lists before hitting “Search”. To add multiple students to your Multi Pick list, select the students and hit “Add”. You may then conduct a new search, e.g. by a different year group, and add some or all of the students to the Multi Pick List. You can edit this list at any time using “View”. |
First compile the list of multiple students (see I want to save the same document to several student records. How do I choose the students?), then follow the prompts to choose the Student Sub-Area. In General and Medical Notes you will be taken directly to the final save screen as database entries are not used in these areas.
In all other areas except SEN you should first choose or create a database entry against which the file will be saved. SEN is handled on a per student basis so creation of multiple entries is not available although you can still create a new database entry for single Student Records.
RecordLink 4pdf caters for the situation where you may know that the correct database entry exists for at least one student. If you know this to be the case select the first student and pick the known database entry (e.g. a Medical Condition or Exclusion). Otherwise browse the list by picking other students and checking the entries. At any time you can proceed and select an existing entry for the first student or hit “Create” and fill in the required fields as in SIMS. Having created an entry and been returned to the list of entries for that student you can create further entries or select an entry and proceed to the next student. The chosen entry, whether selected or created is copied and the copy is temporarily saved.
For subsequent students you can then use the “Auto-Create” option and “Next” to copy the saved database entry to the new student and proceed to the next student. Alternatively, to create a different entry use “Create” once again and fill in the fields as required. NB you can create several entries for each student before choosing one and proceeding with “Next”.
You can then process the list, student by student, selecting or creating entries as required. To process all remaining students in Achievement and Behaviour select “Apply to All” to save the document and create the required database entry in SIMS and apply it to every student in the list at one click of the mouse. It is not practical to use “Apply to All” for Exclusions, Medical Conditions and Medical Events due to the frequent occurrence of overlapping or incompatible entries. You can still use “Auto-Create” and should apply this to each student in turn by selecting “Next”.
To skip a student, select “Skip Student”. To skip all remaining students and go straight to the final screen select “Skip Student” and “Apply to All Students”. This may all seem rather complicated, in reality each step takes seconds. So should you need to save a copy of a letter to thirty student records, you can print an MS Word letter to PDF using File\Print and select the ScanSoft PDF print driver installed with PDF Pro Office. Once in PDF format in Pro Office save the PDF letter to the student records and create the database entry such as an Achievement in SIMS simultaneously for all thirty student records. We estimate this to be a saving of approximately three minutes per student for each multiple save.
These are document settings applied at the point of saving a linked document in SIMS. They are an additional level of security within SIMS and are applied when using RecordLink Writer.
Public – the document will be available to all users with sufficient add/view/edit document permissions.
Private – the document will be available only to you.
Confidential – the document will be available only to SIMS users with School Administrator or Senior Management Team permissions.
Click here for detailed instructions on installing, activating and renewing RL4pdf.
That's it. 4601.
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