Using Collabora Online

Collabora is a complete office suite that gives users the ability to view, edit, and collaborate on documents, spreadsheets, and presentation decks. The online version can be integrated with SmarterMail's File Storage area, so SmarterMail users can edit files currently stored in File Storage, or even create new files and have them stored automatically, using their own installation of Collabora Online.

Note: Collabora Online is set up by your administrator, who connects SmarterMail to your organization's Collabora Online server. If your organization uses Collabora Online but you don't have the option to create or edit files with it, check with your administrator. You can see which document providers are available to you on your Document Providers settings page.

Creating New Collabora Files

Creating a new file using Collabora is extremely simple: just use the New button and select the type of file you want to create:

Creating a new Collabora file

Once you've made your choice, the New Document modal will open, allowing you to name your file, select (or change) the type of file you want to create, and then select where you want the new file to be stored. Once done, click the Save button and the new file is created, and a new browser tab opens so you can begin editing your new file.

Note: Based on Collabora's configuration it's only possible to have a maximum of 20 "sessions" open at one time per Collabora document server.

Editing Existing Files

Editing an existing file is just as easy. Simply click the Actions (⋮) button on any text file, document, spreadsheet, or presentation, and select Edit with Collabora Online from the menu options. The Collabora editor will open in a new browser tab, and you can edit to your heart's content.

Worth Noting

There are a few things worth noting regarding the integration of Collabora:

Depending on licensing, Collabora Online sessions may be limited. Your administrator can also limit the number of sessions each user can have open at a time.
Collabora has an automated save and timeout feature that cannot be controlled by SmarterMail. By default, if a file is open in a tab for more than 60 minutes, without any session activity, it will automatically save and the session will time out.
If SmarterMail goes down when a file is open, the file will appear in File Storage with a warning icon on it. When you open the file, you're presented with some recovery options. (Recover document and overwrite, rename and recover document, Download, or Delete the recovered copy.)