For most contact data in InterAction, you have a choice of making the data global or folder-specific:
- Global data is available to any user who can view the contact. For example, a global additional field can be viewed by any user who has access to view the contact. Information such as the contact name is always global.
- Folder-specific data is only visible to users who have access rights to the particular folder. For example, an additional field can be folder-specific to the Client Financial Information folder. Only users who have read access rights to that folder can see the data.
The following information can be entered as global or folder-specific:
- Additional fields
- Phones
- Addresses and Electronic Addresses
- Notes
- Activities (although for activities, global is “regarding contacts” and folder-specific is “regarding a folder.” For details, see About Folder-Specific and Global Activities.)
Each of these items uses folder-specific and global data slightly differently, but the concept remains basically the same.
Folder-specific data is typically used to ensure that fields only apply when they are relevant. For example, the field Date Joined Firm is not relevant to a contact that has never been an employee or consultant of your organization. Therefore, it is folder-specific to the Personnel Information folder.
Folder-specific data is also used to restrict data to certain groups of users. For example, the financial information stored in the Client Financial Information folder may be sensitive, and therefore not appropriate for everyone in the organization to view. You can control access to this data with folder access rights.
About Folder-Specific and Global Activities
Folder-specific and global activities work differently than other types of data in InterAction. When working with activities, the term users see for this concept is regarding:
An activity regarding Contacts Only (See A, below) is essentially a global activity.
An activity regarding a specific folder (See B, below) is a folder-specific activity. In the example shown in B, below, the activity is specific to the folder called Labor Day BBQ.
Also, unlike other types of folder-specific information, the regarding option primarily provides context for the activity rather than security. An activity can be regarding a specific working list, yet still be visible to all InterAction users, regardless of whether they are allowed to read the working list. For details about security for activities, see Security for Activities.
Activities that are regarding a folder still include contacts, but the contacts do not have to be sourced or linked into the folder. The contacts can be any contacts in the folder or in the firm list. For example, a user could add an activity regarding the working list Labor Day BBQ and include on the activity contacts that are not in the Labor Day BBQ folder. This also differs from other types of folder-specific data which can only be added for contacts within the folder.
For more about activities in general, see Activities and Appointments.