Matterial Feature Set

Overview of Matterial functions with brief descriptions

Back to overview

Dashboard

Left-hand navigation

  • Access to Administration, browsing all documents, document templates, your personal collection, and a quick overview of saved searches

Logo

  • Clicking the logo takes you to the Dashboard

Language switcher

  • Set the document language and display after a search

New document

  • Creates a new document
  • Optionally creates a new document from an existing template

Notification Bubble

  • Shows the number of all unseen notifications

Search

  • Searches all documents in the system

Quick access

  • A personally editable area: frequently used categories can be displayed here. Clicking a category shows all documents in that category.

Recently used

  • Documents recently used by me (default setting)

Saved searches

  • Searches saved by me or for me

Page navigation

  • Quick navigation for the Dashboard

Search

  • Full-text search of all indexed documents including attachments. Technology: ElasticSearch
  • Search suggestions as you type
  • Wide range of filtering options, sorting of search results
  • Prioritization of new content (can be turned on/off)

Save search

  • After a search, it can be saved with all configured filters using the Save search button
  • To do this, you must enter a name for the search and choose whether the search should be saved only for me or for groups
  • Optionally, the search can be shown on the Dashboard. If the search is saved for groups, they will also see it displayed on their Dashboard
  • If the “show on Dashboard” option is not selected, the saved search appears in the left-hand menu

Administration

Manage people

  • Invite people
  • Edit a person’s groups, roles, and permissions

Manage groups

  • Edit groups of people who can read, edit, or review documents
  • Manage access to documents
  • Unlimited number of new groups possible
  • Unlimited number of people assignable
  • Working groups
    • Define access to documents for all people in a group (read & write permissions) directly on the document
  • Review groups
    • Those responsible for approving documents, assignable on the document

Roles & permissions

  • Freely definable, unlimited number of roles
  • Any combination of the following permissions is possible:
    • Comment
    • Edit tasks
    • Edit documents
    • Publish unreviewed documents
    • Edit categories
    • Review/approve documents immediately
    • Edit groups & roles
    • Access the system trash
    • View the archive
    • Create Wissensblitz
    • Enable and view read confirmation
    • Edit document templates
    • Edit document properties
    • Edit public saved searches
    • Edit people
    • Super administration
  • Default roles: Administrator (management of the instance), Administrator, Editor, Reader

Categories

  • Two hierarchy levels: category types and categories
  • Unlimited number of category types possible
  • Unlimited number of categories possible
  • Categories can be freely combined on a document
  • Categories make it easier to find the right information

Manage document properties

  • In addition to the document properties preset by default (wide view, Urgent, News), you can create your own document properties here.

Manage instance

  • Manage company information
  • Set document languages
  • Manage logo display
  • Presets
    • Display name of the instance
    • Restoration of default settings
    • Enable / disable the Wissensblitz
    • Switch editor
    • Set the initial editor (Markdown/HTML)
    • Validity settings
    • Settings for displaying PDFs
    • Retention period in the trash
    • Document lock in the editor
    • Gravatar settings
  • Indexing of all documents

System trash

  • The system trash holds all documents that have been moved to the trash by all users and are still within the configured retention period before they are permanently deleted. You need a special permission to view this trash. The retention period of documents can be set under Administration > Manage instance > Presets > Retention period in the trash.

Manage account

  • Overview of people, storage space, and licenses of the instance
  • Edit administrators
  • Delete account

Documents

View

Metadata

  • Version number, last edited on, last edited by, ID, document status (draft, reviewed, etc.))

Table of contents

  • Lists all content formatted as headings, with the option to jump directly to the heading

Image index

  • Lists all images used in the document, with the option to jump directly to the image

Thank you

  • Sends an email with a thank-you message for a document version

Watch

  • When enabled, the user is notified when a new version is published

Download PDF

  • The PDF opens in a new tab for viewing

Delete language

  • Deletes the respective language version of the document

Versions

  • Opens the version comparison, with the option to compare any document version with any other document version

Attachments

  • Unlimited number of attachments possible, support for almost all file types, sortable, insertable into document content, downloadable

Tasks

  • Assign one-time and recurring tasks to a person or a group

Comments

  • Write a comment on the document, mention users

Related documents

  • A list of Matterial documents linked to within the current document. A list of Matterial documents that link to the current document.

Change history

  • A list of all changes to the document up until the next save

Archive

  • The document is archived and, by default, removed from search results, and receives the “archived” label

Move to trash

  • The document is moved to the trash and deleted from the system after a definable retention period

Duplicate

  • A duplicate of the current document is created

Use as template

  • The document is converted into a template

Add to personal collection

  • The document is added to the personal collection

Editing

HTML WYSIWYG

  • HTML editor with all common formatting functions, based on TinyMCE. In the editor, documents already appear formatted just as in the document view.

Markdown

  • Editor with Markdown formatting functions, based on CodeMirror. Simple formatting with formatting characters or via a toolbar.

Editor

  • Text-based editor with the ability to embed images, tables, PDFs, video, audio, and download files directly.

Attachments

  • Files can be dragged directly into the document content via drag & drop. They then also appear in the attachments section.

Tasks

  • Document-related tasks can be assigned to individuals or groups on the document. One-time tasks or tasks that recur at intervals can be created.

Comments

  • Comments always apply to the entire document. Using “@”, people are added to a comment and notified.

Responsible person

  • A responsible person can be assigned to each document. They appear in the document view. Expert knowledge can be requested from them, or additions can be requested.

Categories

  • Set the document’s categories using search suggestions or by selecting from all categories.

Document properties

  • Set the document properties (e.g. “urgent” or “News”) on the document – it appears marked accordingly in the search results and on the Dashboard.

Permissions

  • Define access to the document (read/write permission) for groups or individuals.

Read confirmation

  • Enable read confirmation for the authorized groups or individuals. A request for read confirmation is sent by email and marked as a request in the system.

Availability

  • Archiving effective immediately or from a specific date. Set the validity of the document.

Wissensblitz

  • The Wissensblitz button is located at the bottom right. It can be hidden in the settings
  • With the Wissensblitz, rudimentary documents can be created quickly and at any time, to be fleshed out later
  • You can also simply add files such as images or similar
  • If I want to request the knowledge from someone, I select the corresponding person or group. They are then assigned a task to develop the Wissensblitz into a document
  • If I don’t select anyone, a task is created for me personally, indicating that the Wissensblitz still needs to be developed into a document

Version comparison

  • The ability to compare any version of the document with any other version. Both versions are displayed side by side. Removed elements are marked in red, newly added ones are marked in green, and changes are marked in blue. Using the change index, you can jump to the respective change. The version comparison can be accessed either via the “Version X” metadata in the header area of a document or via the “Versions” button directly beneath the document.

Notification center

  • Access via Dashboard > profile picture at the top right

Urgent

  • All documents I have access rights to that were recently marked as “urgent”. The Notification Bubble is shown in red instead of yellow.

New documents

  • All documents that were recently added and are still unread by me

Favorites

  • All documents I have marked as a “favorite”

Mentioned

  • All documents in which I was mentioned via “@” in a comment

Read confirmation

  • All documents for which a read confirmation request was submitted to me that I still need to confirm

Created tasks

  • All tasks created by me

Tasks

  • All tasks that were assigned to me

Wissensblitze

  • All Wissensblitze that were assigned to me

Responsible

  • All documents for which I was marked as responsible

Review requests

  • All review requests to me that are still pending

Notification by email

Users are only notified by email about the publication of a document if they follow the document (directly or via a category). No email notification is therefore sent for initially published documents. However, they are informed about it in their notification center within the software under “New documents”.

If a person or group is to be informed by email about an initially published document, read confirmation must be enabled for that person or group.

Each person in Matterial can set for themselves whether and when they want to receive email notifications (immediately, once daily, never): Open the right-hand menu > Settings > Contact & notifications.

Save & publish

  • Saving in Matterial does not happen automatically but remains a deliberate decision, also so that the change and version history remains traceable. As soon as a document is saved, it has the status “draft”. This means people who may already be following the document are not yet notified, and only authorized people are allowed to see the draft.
    When publishing, the version number is incremented and notifications are sent. Only a published version can be compared with other versions.
    It is not necessary to first save and then publish. “Publish” already includes the saving process.

Review

  • A review can be requested via the “save” button in a document’s edit mode. To do this, click the arrow next to the button and select Request review. Then select the appropriate review group and the review request is sent.

Multilingualism

  • With the multilingualism feature, it is possible to set both the language of the user interface and of the documents or document versions. The document is not duplicated in the process. It keeps the same ID, and only new language versions of the document are created, between which you can switch.

Single sign-on

  • Instead of using a username and password, single sign-on can be used with Matterial. The following are currently supported:
  • Google
  • Microsoft
  • Cobot

Customers with installations on their own servers can also use their Active Directory. NTLM and LDAP are supported.

Left-hand navigation

  • Here you will find browsing all documents, document templates, all Administration functions, your personal collection, and a quick overview of saved searches.

Find documents

  • This is an alternative way to search to find a document. First, all documents are shown. They can be sorted or filtered by categories. This is helpful when a document was not found via the search or you don’t know exactly what information you are looking for.

Find people

  • This is the directory of all people in an instance (people do not appear in the normal document search). Here you can search or filter for people. Clicking a person shows their personal information as well as related documents.

Document templates

  • An overview of all document templates created by me and shared with me. From here they can be used, edited, or saved as a favorite.

Trash

  • This is my personal trash, containing all documents I have moved there that are within the configured retention period before they are permanently deleted.

Help

  • A link to the help page at matterial.com

Personal collection

  • An overview of all documents in my personal collection. A document can be placed there via the button in the document view at the bottom of the page. Multiple documents can be added after a search via the “select” button. To do this, they are marked with the checkbox and placed there via “Add to personal collection”.
    There, various batch-processing actions can be performed on all documents in the personal collection.

Saved searches quick overview

  • Here you can access all your personal saved searches, including those that are not on the Dashboard.

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