Attaching files

Some streamlines let you add files to a message: a photo of a packing slip in Receiving, a customer's piece at the Register. The assistant sees the file itself, not only its name, and can read it.

Adding files

If the streamline accepts files, a paperclip sits beside the composer. Hover over it on the Mac to see what it takes, for example Attach: photos and PDFs, up to 6.

On iPhone and iPad, tap the paperclip for a menu:

• Photo Library picks photos you already have.
• Take Photo opens the camera.
• Scan Document scans paper pages into one PDF.
• Choose File opens Files.
• Paste Image appears when something you copied can be attached.

On the Mac, a click on the paperclip opens a Finder panel. The arrow beside it offers Photos… and Paste. File → Attach File… (⌘⇧A) does the same for the chat you used last, and you can take a photo or scan with a nearby iPhone or iPad.

You can also drag files onto a chat, or paste them with ⌘V.

Before you send

Files wait in a tray above the composer, with a thumbnail and a cross to remove each one. You can send files with no text. Each streamline sets how many files a message may hold and how large each may be.

A file that can't be attached stays in the tray in red, with the reason, such as Receiving takes photos and PDFs., This PDF is password-protected. or This PDF has 14 pages; the limit is 10. Send is held until you remove it (the send button says Remove the file that can't be attached), and while files are still being prepared (Wait for the files to finish).

What is sent

• Photos are made smaller before sending, and the location and camera details are removed. iPhone HEIC photos are converted.
• PDFs are sent as they are, within the streamline's page limit.
• Text files (plain text, CSV, JSON, Markdown) are sent as text. Anything that looks like a card or social security number is replaced with Redacted.

In the chat

Sent files show as thumbnails in your message. Tap one to open it in Quick Look. The files stay on this device with the chat, and are deleted when you delete the chat.

A card's Download button saves its file in the chat, under the card: tap it again, or the file, to open it. On iPhone and iPad you can then Share it or Save to Files; on the Mac, use Save a Copy… or Show in Finder. The file stays with the chat like your own, and the assistant never sees it or its link.

When a streamline on this device keeps files from the assistant, it can still hand a file you attached to a tool, such as a time-card import: the file goes as you picked it, straight from your device, and the assistant sees only its name.

In an organization, files go to your organization's service first and are deleted from it after a set number of days. The chat's record keeps each file's name, type and size, not its contents.

What not to attach

Never photograph a driving license, a card or anything else a secure form exists for. Use the secure form: what you attach, the assistant reads. See Secure forms and secure views (AS-3).