The owner of a PDF or Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint or Excel) document may choose to protect the document using the Syncplicity Rights Management feature. Once protected, only authorized users can open the document.
Depending on the permissions defined by the file Protector for the IRM protected document, a recipient of a shared link can view/edit the protected document online or download a protected version to view/edit locally.
To view or edit the document on your desktop, you must have the Syncplicity Rights Management Plug-in (FileSecure Lite). You are prompted to install the plug-in the first time you attempt to open a secure shared file. For details, see Syncplicity Rights Management.
Viewing or Downloading an IRM protected file
When you open the web page of the secured shared link, you may be required to enter a password, which you would have received separately from the person who created the shared link. Afterwards, the download page opens. This page contains the file name, and expiration time, and your permission. In the example below, the file expires in 30 days, and you have the permission to edit the file.
- If View Online is selected in the landing page, you can view the file in the web browser. For recipients with edit permission, MS Office documents can also be edited online and saved back to the local desktop or emailed back to the user.
- If Download is selected, you can download files to view and, with permission, edit the file. To do this, select the download plugin link to download the Syncplicity FileSecure plugin for Windows. Syncplicity Rights Management Protectors can IRM-protect files directly from the Syncplicity Desktop agent fro Windows.
NOTE: You can download the document whether or not you have the FileSecure Lite plug-in installed on your system. Typically, downloaded files are saved locally in an "HTML wrapped" format (configurable by an administrative setting). With HTML wrapping, the extension of the protected file changes on the local system; for example, a word document "a.docx" is downloaded as "a.docx.html" and the file icon changes to the user’s default browser icon. However, if user has the Syncplicity FileSecure plugin already installed, there is no change to the file icon.
Opening a local (downloaded) IRM protected file
HTML wrapping of downloaded IRM-protected files enables a seamless user experience. For users who do not want install the FileSecure Lite plugin, downloaded IRM-protected files can be easily opened and viewed in the browser without installing any agent. Otherwise, to open an IRM protected file locally in the native application, you need the plug-in to open the downloaded document. If you do not have the plug-in installed, click the Install now link.
When you attempt to open an IRM protected file locally, you may encounter one of these situations:
- You do not have the Syncplicity Plug-in: You are prompted to download and install the plug-in.
- You are not authorized to view the document: You are presented with a message and an option to contact the owner. If you believe that you should be authorized, use the contact owner option to provide information on why you require access.
- You are authorized to view the document: The document opens locally in the native application.