Hello,
I haven't been able to find a way of controlling who can print off paper copies of documents from QPulse. This causes an issue of having multiple, non-document controlled paper documents scattered around the place.
Does anyone know of a way of controlling printing, or have any suggestions on how to manage the paper copies?
Thanks.
Hi,
In my company for those document which need to be protected, we are printing them in PDF format and protecting using Adobe Acrobat proffessional. One who want the hardcopy of the documents they approach the document controller for printing hardcopies.
While googling came across following MS office addin "Protector™ add-in for MS Office (PaM™)" , i
http://www.aegisdrm.com/digitalrightsmanagement/benefits/Control_and_protect_word_excel_and_other_office_documents.htm
Thanks,
Khaja Lashkari
Almarai
KSA
Thanks - does Adobe Acrobat Professional allow you to prevent the printing of documents (except by the author)?
If you have Adobe Acrobat (not just the free Adobe Acrobat Reader), you can disable printing in PDF files.
To disable printing, you should:
Unfortunately, if people REALLY want to print the document, they could simply use the PrintScreen button to copy the screen's contents as an image and print it from Paint or similar.
Daniel Rae Web Community Champion Gael Ltd t: +44 (0)1355 593 435 f: +44 (0)1355 579 191 w: www.gaelcommunity.com
don't know if this will work for you, but we are adding a footer to our documents that shows the date and time of printing. We haven't yet set an expiration time (e.g., do not use a document that is more than a week old) but it does give the user a way to check if the document is current.
Hello Elmer, thanks for your post unfortuantely the ability to print from MS Word, Adobe Acrobate, Lotus Notes, is configured within this software and is something we have no development control over.
As mentioned in a previous post if you use pdf documents and have the full version of Adobe Acrobat then it is possible to disable the print feature within this sfotware.
Steven Scott Support Engineer Gael Ltd t: +44 (0)1355 593 400 f: +44 (0)1355 579 191 e: support@gaelquality.com w: www.gaelquality.com
I still say that the most secure way of ensuring that uncontrolled documents aren't printed is to make it quite clear within an organisation that the perpretrators will be executed ............ or worse!
Otherwise it simply becomes a challenge to some miscreants to breach any safeguards. I'm glad to say our workforce is far too busy or in any way inclined to circumvent our system of document control.
As you say there are ways if you really are that way inclined and determined enough to be a nuisance. It is therefore up to management to state that such a practice will lead to disciplinary action.
Quality starts in the boardroom!
p.s. Can someone please edit the "Select Tags" options .... some have spelling errors.
Hi.
OK, this is fairly straight forward.
As long as your document control procedure/specification clearly indentifies that all document Master Copies are of a certain format and follow certain rules, then no problem.
Here, all Master Copies are printed onto a specific colour paper, as identified in the procedure, and signed by the originator & Doc Control Supervisor.
The colour paper is strictly controlled and can only be made available to Document Control.
All Master Copies are kept in Document Control of course.
Any copies that need to be made must be taken from these with perrmission from Document Control.
Copies that are printed off or sent via internal email etc are regarded as "Uncontrolled".
Only Document Control Personnel are allowed to send documents externally with a receipt of acknowledgement etc. Again, these are regarded as "Uncontrolled" copies.
Simple and straightforward.
I have had this process in place for over 14 years, and never a probelm. As long as everyone in your organisation understand this, not an issue.
Lea.
Regards, Lea.
I am making an assumption that there is no malicious attempt by personnel to circumvent the system here, anyway here is our method.
Documents in Q-Pulse are in a controlled environment, understood. Documents may be retrieved, for example, for the purpose of purchasing, manufacturing (drawings), or quotations. The retrieved documents, therefore, are identified and maintained with the controlling purchase order, work order or quote number, and the date of issue for that document. This applies to hardcopy and electronic scenarios.
A hard copy number is assigned to a document if a hard copy must be issued. Fortunately we only have two cases of this. Q-Pulse identifies hard copies with the number on the distribution list.
As stated on all of our documents “Copies without the red issue stamps or hard copy control numbers are not officially controlled copies, and therefore may not contain current information”. Employees look for that red control stamp or control number on the documents they are using. A flag goes up if they see black (a copy) or no controlling identifiers on the documents they are using.
So training is required here but this is very effective once understood.
Hope this helps
Rick
Thanks for all posts.
As with all security, there is a trade off between accessibility & security & there seem to be downsides to all solutions
Has anyone followed up on Khaja's link to see how much the 3rd party charge for the add in?
I saw that Microsoft have made a similar add-in available for Office 2007 only that converts MS Office files to .pdf or .xps (& I think you can set printing restrictions although I can't find this again on the MS site).
see http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=4D951911-3E7E-4AE6-B059-A2E79ED87041&displaylang=en
Unfortunately, my organisation upgrades to a strict programme so I can't just upgrade one machine to 2007 & I don't want to take documents home to print-protect them.
Also, maintaining a print-restricted .pdf file using just a free or cheap converter (the NHS won't pay for a full Adobe Acrobat unless you are producing glossy brochures all day) means you have to maintain two copies of your documents (the pdf & the MS Word, which you use to base the next revision on. You can link to both files in QPulse, but this puts a dialogue box between the user & the document & allows them to open the Word document (unless you deny them this with file level permissions)
I use Lea's option of coloured paper, which I thought was a foolproof & clever way of exploiting the NHS's (or at least my Trust's) tight-fistedness in banning coloured paper until I found out (the day before an inspection) that someone else had pleaded an exception & was using the same coloured paper in bulk!
Another department uses specially watermarked paper, but this is too expensive for us.
Neither of these solutions will stop the determined photocopier with access to coloured paper or a colour photocopier, however.
A while back I came across a printer from Kyocera that allowed you to print a hidden watermark that only showed up when a document was photocopied (one of their top-of-the-range ones).
I thought I had reached document control Nirvana until I saw the price (3 times that of a Dell/HP equivalent).
Perhaps I should invest in a signet ring & some sealing wax!
Gary Cheung
Quality & Risk Manager
Department of Haematological Medicine
King's College Hospital
garycheung@kch.nhs.uk
We also use "Spec Stations" where pre-printed stamped controlled paper is used.
These "Spec stations" are locked with a padlock & metal bar so the user cannot physically pull out the document and photocopy it. Each department has one with only the documents related to them contained. This way, documents are easily acceible for reading etc. In time, of course I want to go fully electronic to reduce paper. However, not everyone has access to a PC. We are a manufacturing site & I dont want people in an office reading all day.
Of course, this does not prevent anyone from printing off via Q-Pulse (unless restrictions in Admin have been applied). However, all staff here are aware that any copies that are made via printing are deemed "un-controlled copies" and must be destroyed once they have been finished with. We have never had an issue with QS/ISO audits, and the system is robust.
Just another idea for those of you who are struggling with pesky employees!!!
First thing I ask my client if they want to control printing is for what purpose. Document Control and Document Security are two distinct but interrelated issues. Document control is focused on workflow and lifecycle of the document and a simple footer declaring all printed copies to be uncontrolled is good enough to comply with this requirement, to cover yourself against unauthorized printed copies. On the other hand, document security pertains to how documents are classified, labeled and handled by its users. Organizations normally discourage printing of documents depending on their security classifications (public, confidential, restricted, top secret, etc). A company may have a document control procedure that may not take into consideration document security and vice versa. Therefore, to print or not to print is not a document control issue but a document security issue - which I believe can be effectively addressed by policy, procedures and awareness campaigns...or execution as the last resort
The issue of documents is controlled by the Documentation Department and we give all our controlled documents (all in pdf) an unique perforation, so if someone makes a copy this perforation is "closed" , simple but it works.
regards,
John
Preventing the printing of copies is always going to be difficult, people can still do a "print-screen" and paste into a new document to print copies. I've seen some people put a footer on Word documents that incorporate the current date (the date is inserted when the document is opened).
For example:
This document is designed for on-line viewing. Printed copies, although permitted, are deemed Uncontrolled from 6pm on 24/09/2009
In this example, 6pm is the office closing time.
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