Portal Setup Decisions

As of April 2009, your installation files are personalized by Systems2win with the default portal setup option specified by your IT Department - so that user installation can usually be accomplished by simply accepting all defaults.

And you can change the portal setup choice for any user at any time.

 

If purchasing more than 1 seat...
then your IT Department needs to complete this portal setup decisions form
before your templates can be personalized and delivered

* Company Name:
* Primary IT Contact Name:
* Phone and Extension:
* Email:

* Which portal setup option will be the default for your company's installation files?

Choose the most common installation scenario.
If you have users with unique setup requirements (perhaps in remote a remote location with no access to a server), then you can always change the portal setup choice for any user.
 

If you chose Option 1A, 2A...

then provide the path to your portal on your WAN or LAN - in UNC format

Example: \\servername\folderpath\S2winPortal\

The final sub-folder called S2winPortal will be automatically created during installation

Tip: To avoid typos - we suggest that you use My Computer to browse to your chosen \\servername\folderpath\, and then copy and paste from the Address bar.

If you chose Option 2C or 2D...

then provide the path to your portal on your intranet server - in URL format

Example: https://www.ourintranet.ourcompany.com/S2winPortal/

(it would be a license violation to publish your templates on a server not secured within your intranet)

If you chose Option 2E, then provide the path to your portal on either your WAN/LAN or Intranet (one or the other).

If you chose Option 1B or 2B...

then your portal will be installed on each user's C: drive - as part of user installation

If you have more than 4 users, this unpopular option requires special approval from Systems2win.

      Privacy Policies    *indicates required fields

As always - you can contact us with any questions

 

The following information is provided to help your IT Department choose the right portal setup option...

Portal Setup Options

Foundational Concepts to Understand First

  1. When your user selects Systems2win menu > Systems2win Portal,
    your portal home page will appear
    (on your computer or server that you specify using this form)
  2. What is the Systems2win Portal?
  3. What are the optional ways to find and open your templates?
    1. Templates can always be found in your portal
    2. IF you choose to use Systems2win Sync,
      then templates can also be opened from each user's laptop
      (even when they are at home or a customer site and don't have access to your server)
      Learn more
  4. What is the Systems2win Sync utility?

Option 1) Use Systems2win Sync

Option 1A) Sync from S2winPortal on a shared server

When to choose this option

This is usually the preferred option for multiple users in a single location that all have access to the S2winPortal on the company's shared Local Area Network (LAN)

It is also an option for multiple users in multiple locations sharing a Wide Area Network (WAN),
if data transfer speeds are acceptable. (Otherwise consider the Intranet option)

When your user selects Systems2win menu > Systems2win Portal, your portal home page will appear

using the UNC path on your LAN, or WAN. Example: \\ourserver\S2winPortal\home.htm

Installation

Your IT Dept installs your portal to your server,
and installs the Systems2win add-in on each user's PC.

At any time, you can easily change the sync setup choice for any user,
and easily Turn Scheduled AutoSync On or Off.

FAQ: How does AutoSync work?

Option 1B) Sync from S2winPortal installed on each user's PC

When to choose this option

This is the best choice for single or remote users that want to be able to use
ALL of the alternative ways to find and open your templates.

This is the default option for single users

For a brief period in November 2010, Option 2B was the default option for single users

When your user selects Systems2win menu > Systems2win Portal, the portal home page will appear

as C:\S2winPortal\home.htm

Installation

If your Systems2winInstall file ends with "_S.exe", then there is no separate portal setup required.
This "single installer" will automatically install the portal on each user's PC when you follow the instructions to install on each user's PC.

If you are changing the sync setup choice for a remote user, then your Systems2winInstall file probably does not end with "_S.exe", and you will need to also use your S2winPortal exe file to install the portal on each remote user's PC.

Option 2) Portal Only

Users will find and open their templates only in your Systems2win Portal.

Option 2A) S2winPortal installed on LAN or WAN

Same as Option 1A, except that initial installation starts with AutoSync turned off.

At any time, the user can Turn Scheduled AutoSync On or Off.

Option 2B) S2winPortal installed on each user's PC

When to choose this option

If you lease (rather than buy) your templates, this is how leased templates are delivered.

This is a popular option to change the sync setup choice for any remote users
that don't have access to the company's shared LAN or WAN.

For a brief period in November 2010, Option 2B was the default option for single users

Installation

At any time, you can easily change the sync setup choice for any user,
and easily Turn Scheduled AutoSync On or Off.

In all other ways - Option 2B is the same as Option 1B.

Additional tips

Both Sync Now and AutoSync are disabled

Personalized templates can still be synced to remote users - using Manual Sync.
(A remote user does not have access to the master S2winPortal on your company's WAN or LAN)

Learn more about the NoSyncoption.

Bookmark = intranet

Option 2C) Intranet Server

Advantages of Intranet Server

  • Your Systems2win Portal is available anywhere that the user has intranet access.
  • You can (optionally) make your templates available through SharePoint.

When your user selects Systems2win menu > Systems2win Portal, your portal home page will appear

using the URL to your intranet server. Example: http://www.ourintranet.com/S2winPortal/home.htm

Installation

Install the S2winPortalInstall exe file as usual, but your chosen folder path happens to be a sub-folder within your intranet web server.

(It would be a license violation to publish your Portal to an unsecured Internet server)

Install the Systems2win Excel add-in on each user's PC

And you can always change the sync setup choice for any user.

If you also want SharePoint access

Just link to the S2winPortal folder published on your (non-SharePoint) intranet web server.

When installing the S2winPortal exe file, simply select your chosen folder path - which happens to be a sub-folder within your (non-SharePoint) intranet web server.

Then in SharePoint, simply:

  • Create a Page Viewer web part (that exposes the S2winPortal/home.htm page in your intranet)
  • Add a link to your Page Viewer in your SharePoint navigation menu
    SharePoint > Site Settings > Modify navigation

Extra credit for over-achievers that want it all...
If you want to share your templates using both your intranet and Systems2win Sync...

If your IT Department installs the same S2winPortal folder on the same Intranet server - and then changes the network permissions (not intranet permissions) for that folder to be "Read Only" for most users to be able to ALSO access that same folder using Windows Explorer or My Computer...

then you have the option to change the sync setup choice for some users to sync to the UNC path (rather than the intranet URL),

thereby giving those users:

  1. the option of accessing their templates through your familiar intranet
    (using a simple browser bookmark to your portal home page)
    AND...
  2. the option of accessing their templates in all the alternate ways to access their Systems2win templates

Option 2D) SharePoint Server

To distribute your Systems2win templates using SharePoint
Option 2C is usually a better option than 2D - because:

  1. You have the option of also exposing the non-SharePoint web server folder as a read-only folder accessible through Windows Explorer - which thereby allows some users the option to also use Systems2win Sync - thereby having the best of all possible sync setup situations.
  2. Setup is faster. (You can simply use our regular installer - rather then SharePoint's slow document library upload)
  3. Backup and restore is easier. A web server folder can be backed up and restored just like any other folder. SharePoint stores files in a database.
  4. Your users will never know the difference. All they know is that there is a menu item in SharePoint that opens our portal home page where they find and download their desired template. (It looks the same to the end user)

To Install your S2winPortal in the SharePoint Server itself

Extract the S2winPortal exe file to any temporary folder on any PC.
(S2winPortal exe is glorified zip file. It just extracts the S2winPortal folder and its sub-contents)

In SharePoint, create a document library called S2winPortal.

Simply upload the entire contents from your temporary S2winPortal folder to the SharePoint document library.

Tips for uploading to SharePoint document library:

  • Change the SharePoint dropdown field called View: from its default All Documents to Explorer.
    In View Explorer mode, you can simply drag and drop files from Windows Explorer.
  • You might need to upload one sub-folder at a time, and it might be slow.
  • Upload the S2winPortal folder in its entirety. If your re-arrange files or folders, then hyperlinks will be broken.

Then (like any other SharePoint sub-folders and files), you have the choice of exposing either:

a) just the home.htm page (which serves as a friendly user interface for users to access all of the templates)

b) the tSubfolders (and the template files within them)

If you expose the tSubfolders - be sure to set permissions as "read only" for everything in the entire S2winPortal folder (so users don't accidentally overwrite your master templates with their working documents)

Add a link to home.htm in your SharePoint Navigation menu
SharePoint > Site Settings > Modify navigation

Rarely used feature

You can also use SharePoint's own sync features

 

You can also use SharePoint for working documents only
(not templates)

Many companies use SharePoint (or other intranet server) ONLY to share working documents
while distributing their master Systems2win templates using any of the other sync setup options

First: Understand the difference between templates and working documents

A master template is used as the starting point for a working document.

A working document created from a Systems2win master template is just like any other Excel or Word document,
with one exception:

  • It will only work on computers that have a valid Systems2win license installed.

In all other respects - your Systems2win working documents are just like any other Word and Excel working document - and therefore:

  • Can be stored in any SharePoint library
  • Can be checked in & check out
  • Can use SharePoint document authoring features
  • Can use every other feature of SharePoint for sharing & controlling documents

Also see Known Issues for SharePoint

Bookmark = TS

Option 2E) Terminal Service

When to choose this option

You must purchase a site license for unlimited users,
and we will deliver your installation file with a special DLL
that allows our software to run on Citrix or other Terminal Service.

When your user selects Systems2win menu > Systems2win Portal, your portal home page will appear

using the UNC path on your LAN or WAN. Example: \\ourserver\S2winPortal\home.htm

or the URL to your intranet server. Example: http://www.ourintranet.com/S2winPortal/home.htm

Installation

Your IT Dept installs your portal to your server,
and installs the Systems2win add-in on a TS server that also has Microsoft Office installed.

The Systems2win add-in must be installed on the same physical server that has Office installed.
It won't work to install our add-in as a "bubble" that gets launched separately from Office.

If you don't want Systems2win to be installed on every server in your cluster, then you might install it on one or a few servers, and then teach your users to access Systems2win as a Published Application (rather than a Published Desktop).

When your user selects the Systems2win Published Application, it launches Excel on a server that has Systems2win installed.

You don't need to set up a separate Published Application for Word.
Users can simply find and open Word templates from your portal.
A Word document created from a Systems2win template can be run on any computer - even without Systems2win installed - unlike an Excel document created from a Systems2win template - which can only be used on a computer with the Systems2win add-in installed.

In addition to the TS server, It is common to also install our application on local PC's for your power users, who can then always change their sync setup choice.

Bookmark = mixnmatch

Mix n Match Sync Setup Options

A single company might override their default sync setup choice to deploy different sync strategies for different types of users.

Example:

Users with access to the company LAN or WAN might sync from the S2winPortal on the shared server.

Users in remote locations might install the S2winPortal to their c: drive - and use manual sync if and when needed.

 

Bookmark = FAQ or ChangeChoice

FAQ's for Portal Sync Setup

How to change the setup choice for any user

FAQ: How can we change the setup choice for any user?

Simply change the path to their portal.

Logged in with power user or administrative privileges...
Excel > Systems2win menu > Setup & Upgrade > Change Path to Systems2win Portal > browse to select the home.htm file within your S2winPortal folder

The S2winPortal folder might be:

A copy of your primary shared portal - duplicated on one or more local servers
(Advantage: Faster sync speeds. Disadvantage: Requires system to manually sync personalized templates to all servers.)

The same S2winPortal folder on your intranet server, but simply accessed via the UNC folder path exposed on your LAN or WAN rather than through the URL to your intranet

On the user's local c: drive
Tip: Selecting the portal path c:\\S2winPortal enables Sync Now and AutoSync. NoSync disables them.

To choose any of the Option 2 choices (which disable both AutoSync and Sync Now)

For options 2A, 2C, 2D, or 2E -
(when the user selects Systems2win Menu > Systems2win Portal, they are redirected to YOUR portall)
browse to select the folder where Systems was installed \SharePointSync\home.htm

If this option was not your company's default (that you are switching back to)...
then your IT Department will need to use Notepad to edit the home.htm file
to point to YOUR (newly changed) portal home page
and then mass replace that \zSystems2win\\SharePointSync\home.htm file on every user's computer
along with the \zSystems2win\Systems2win.ini file
(or purchase an upgrade, and your new installation files will be configured for your new choice).

For option 2B -
(when the user selects Systems2win Menu > Systems2win Portal, they are redirected to c:\S2winPortal)
browse to select the folder where Systems was installed \NoSync\home.htm

Final test: Logged in with the user's usual permissions - do a manual sync...
Systems2win menu > Setup and Upgrade > Sync Local Templates with Masters in our S2winPortal

If you get an error saying you don't have sufficient permissions...

you might be able to either:

  1. Copy the system2win.ini file from the folder where Systems2win is installed
    (usually c:\Program Files (x86)\zSystems2win\)
    to any temporary folder outside of Program Files,
    then move it back into the Program Files folder to overwrite the (identical) systems2win.ini file.

    Windows will ask you whether its okay... and once you've given your okay to overwrite the ini file...
    then you will be able to use the Systems2win menu to make your changes.

  2. or... copy an already edited ini file from another user's computer...
    as instructed below...

How to mass change the setup choice for multiple users

FAQ: Is there a faster way to change the setup choice for multiple users?

Once you have changed the portal path for 1 user,
you can simply copy the Systems2win.ini file from that computer
to overwrite the Systems2win.ini file in other computers.

The ini file is found in the folder where Systems2win is installed
(usually c:\Program Files (x86)\zSystems2win\)

Bookmark = OnOff

How to turn Scheduled Auto Sync on and off

What does AutoSync do?

When you open a Systems2win template with Auto Sync turned on,
if it has been more than 14 days since you last synced,
a dialog will appear asking if you want to sync now

If you click the Yes button, it will automatically sync:
from the (potentially personalized) master templates in your S2winPortal
to the default User Templates folder on your local PC

Your Portal Setup Options only determine the initial setting

At any time - Auto Sync can be turned on or off for any user's computer
that has their portal path defined in a valid UNC format. (e.g. \\computername\folderpath\)
In other words, any user always has the option to sync to any S2winPortal on their local PC, or any LAN, or WAN.
It is not physically possible to sync to an S2winPortal on a SharePoint server.
It is possible to sync to an intranet server only if the S2winPortal folder has also been exposed to the LAN or WAN.

There are 2 ways to turn AutoSync On, and 2 ways to turn AutoSync Off
(assuming that the portal path points to a valid S2winPortal)

As of November 2010, there is now a menu item to simply turn Auto Sync on and off.
Systems2win menu > Setup & Upgrade > Turn Scheduled AutoSync On and Off

AutoSync also turns on when you successfully complete a sync:
Systems2win menu > Setup and Upgrade > Sync Now
(old version: Sync Local Templates with Masters in our S2winPortal)

So even with AutoSync turned off - a user can still Sync Now - which then turns AutoSync back on.

Changing a user's setup to NoSync also disables Sync Now.

Bookmark = manualsync

Manual sync

FAQ: How can we distribute personalized templates from a master source to remote users that can't access the server where the master S2winPortal is installed, and can't use Systems2win Sync?

Copy the personalized template file:

from: the tFolder in the master S2winPortal
to: the correct tFolder within the S2winPortal folder installed on the local PC (c:\S2winPortal\)

being careful to overwrite the old file that has the exact same filename - so that hyperlinks will still work.

If the remote user's PC is set up to sync with the portal on their own c: drive
(in other words, if the portal path is c:\\S2winPortal, and Auto Sync is turned on)
then after copying the new personalized template to the portal on the c: drive,
the user should also immediately run a manual sync
Systems2win men > Setup & Upgrade > Sync Local Templates with Masters in our S2winPortal

What if the local PC doesn't have a copy of the portal installed at c:\S2winPortal?

Then install it. (using the S2winPortal exe file that was delivered when you most recently purchased or upgraded your templates)

Bookmark = multi-server

Multi-Server Sync

FAQ: Can we sync from one master portal to additional copies of the portal on additional servers?

This is an option for large companies with multiple networks.

Designate one portal as the "master portal", and whenever a template is personalized, establish a (clearly-documented) system to copy it to the correct tFolder within all other portals (being careful to overwrite the old file that has the exact same filename - so that hyperlinks will still work)

You will also need to establish your own system for remembering to change the portal path for those users that will access a server that is different from your default.

Bookmark = PortalPath

How to find the path to our portal

FAQ: How can we find the folder path to our portal?

Option 1) Look in your Systems2winInstallReadMe file, which should have been personalized by your IT Department to provide your portal folder path.

Option 2) If you know someone else in your company that already has a successful installation – you can find the path to your company’s portal by having that person open Excel and select Systems2win menu > Systems2win Portal. The portal home page will open in a browser window, and the portal path can be simply copied from the browser address bar.

Option 3) You can copy the systems2win.ini file from another another already-successfully-setup computer, as described in tips for faster installation for a large number of users.

Option 4) Use Start > Search to find your S2winPortal folder (on either your own computer, or on a shared drive)

Bookmark = diskspace

Disk space

FAQ: What is the total file size of all of the files within the Systems2win portal?

As much as 150 Mb.

And it is helpful to understand that only FILES are stored on the server.
(There is no programming logic on the server).

How to personalize your templates

FAQ: What can be personalized? And how?

How to personalize your templates

Distribute fewer templates

FAQ: Do we have to give our users every template we own?

How to distribute fewer templates (less than every template you own)

Distribute more templates

FAQ: Can we sync our own (non-Systems2win) templates?

Yes, using the S2winSync folder

For applications older than January 15, 2009 - for Sync to work - the user must have write permissions to write to the zSystems2win folder where the Systems2win application is installed. As of January 15, 2009, these write permissions are no longer required.

Tip: You can download and update your Systems2win application to the latest version for free: