Reading the Attachments section on Stats

The Attachments section on Stats tells you, in one place, what is attached across the project and what has been decided about it. Read it before you export: it is where a file that could not be converted shows up.

It reads the same figures as Tools › Attachments, and every count in it opens that tool filtered to the files behind it.

Getting there

Open the Tools menu and choose Stats, then scroll to Attachments. Open Attachments, top right of the section, takes you to the tool. See Project Stats for the rest of the page.

The status line

The coloured line at the top answers one question: is anything here waiting for you? Two kinds of file are: one that could not be prepared, and a picture or scan held back because it has no text to search. Every other file is a linked attachment, kept or left out.

• N files in the export could not be prepared, so cannot be redacted yet. A file in the export needs a password or failed to convert. Deal with these first: see Attached files RedactBox can't open.

• N are held back: no text to search. Check them in Tools › Attachments, then keep them. Pictures and scans wait until someone has looked at them and chosen Keep file.

• Nothing here is waiting for you, followed by how many files are left out or kept. Every other file goes with its message.

• No attachments decided yet. Each file goes with its message until you decide otherwise. Nothing is wrong. It means every file goes wherever its message goes.

When some files are on several messages, the line ends with how many, for example 12 files on several messages are kept once.

The line is amber while something is waiting, and green when nothing is.

The figures

• Attached files, with Attached N times in all underneath. A file attached to many messages is counted once, so the second number is usually much bigger.

• Kept once, shown when files are on several messages, with how many duplicate copies are left out underneath. Each of these files is exported and redacted once, with its earliest approved message.

• Junk set aside, logos, invites and the like, left out of the export. If this looks too high, check Junk, by reason below.

• Ready to redact, how many files have been converted so you can redact them. Underneath, the rest of the story, for example 12 ready to redact · 3 preparing · 1 need a password · 2 couldn't convert. This figure appears once files in the export start converting.

• Can't open yet, files RedactBox cannot open at all, such as a zip file. RedactBox can't open these yet. Download them from their message to check.

The lists

Click any row to open Tools › Attachments showing just those files.

• What happens to them. How many files are a Linked attachment, Kept and Left out.

• By type. PDF, Word, Text, Spreadsheet, Presentation, Attached email, Image and Other, as far as the project has them.

• Junk, by reason, under the figures, shown once something is set aside. Logos and banners, Pictures in the message body, Tiny images, Calendar invites and contact cards, Email signature certificates and Copies of the message text (the rtf-body.rtf file Outlook adds to messages in a PST).

At the foot of the section: Files in the export are converted so they can be redacted, under their message.

What to do about each figure

Example: the check before a SAR goes out

1. The office manager opens Stats the day before the deadline. The status line is amber: 2 files in the export could not be prepared, so cannot be redacted yet.

2. Ready to redact reads 46 ready to redact · 1 need a password · 1 couldn't convert.

3. She clicks through. The password-protected file is a pupil's support plan, so she asks the SENCo for an unlocked copy, uploads it as a document, and leaves the locked one out. The other is a damaged PDF that fails again on Try again. She downloads it from its message, finds it cannot be opened anywhere, and leaves it out with a note for the response letter.

4. The line turns green: Nothing here is waiting for you. She exports.