The user needs to download the EBF Files app from the Enterprise App Store.
4.1 First start
On first start-up EBF Files will ask the user to define an encryption password. This password is used to encrypt all documents that are loaded from a server into device memory. After confirmation of the new password the user can decide to activate Touch-ID / Face-ID to simplify login to EBF Files next time started. A password policy may force the user to have a minimum length and special characters to be used for the encryption password.
The encryption password can be deactivated by your administrator to omit this initial step.
4.2 Main screen
The main screen of EBF Files provides the configured data sources (containers) that are available for the user right after starting the app.
In the bottom area the user can switch between different views
- Locations: This is the list of containers. The user can open a container simply by tapping to view the content.
- Recents: This view lists the lately opened files in chronological order. It can contain up to 20 entries. Users can access the files to view or edit them in this list easily.
- Favorites: This list is a user defined collection of important files, folders and sites (SharePoint). Users can use this view to quickly navigate into deep nested locations of your data sources and to open important files with a single tap.
- Sync: This view is a user defined list of folders and files available for offline access. The app will regularly check for changes of these files and download the most recent versions.
- Conflicts: In this view the user will see possible conflict files arising from document changes by multiple users on different devices. The user may choose for a conflict file to keep his changes (create a copy) or dismiss the changes he made. Conflicts are only relevant for SMB file share containers.
- Copy a file or folder to a different location/container
- Move a file or folder to a different location/container
- Rename a file or folder
- Delete a file or folder
- Share a file or folder (only OneDrive and SharePoint) with another user
- Add / Remove a file or folder to / from the favorites list
- Add / Remove a file or folder to / from synchronization
- Remove the file from this device (delete local copy)
- Remove folder content from this device (for folders only)
- Duplicate a file
- Open a file in another app
- Admin configuration
- The status of the file
- The permissions of the user in this container and specific location
- Create new office documents (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, PDF, text files)
- Create new photos and videos
- Store a set of photos into a PDF file
- Scan one or multiple document pages including OCR detection (iOS only)
- Upload images and videos from the device’s personal storage to EBF Files
- Upload document and other files from the device’s personal storage to EBF Files
- Text marker (highlight)
- Free drawing
- Eraser
- Signature
- Text field
- Strikethrough text
- Underline text
- Draw circle / ellipsis
- Draw rectangle
- Draw line
- Draw arrow
- Add bookmark
- Add note
- Hand tool for navigation/scrolling
- Adding new pages
- Moving a page
- Exporting a page range
- Delete a page
- Undo changes
- Redo changes
- Registered for: The company name of the licensee
- Save files automatically: Office and PDF files can be save automatically after a defined interval to minimize the risk of loosing changes. Choose 5 minutes, 10 minutes or “Inactive”.
- Save files on import: When activated, opening a file from an external app to EBF Files will save the file to the “Local documents” container automatically and open in the EBF Files viewer/editor according to the file type.
If this feature is deactivated, EBF Files will ask the user for a destination container and folder to save the external file. - Location: A subfolder in “Local documents” where the external file is saved before opening.
- Synchronization: This feature is enabled by default and allows caching of documents locally on the device while checking for updates regularly.
- Mobile Data: Allows the Synchronization feature to process data also with a mobile data connection (make sure a large data plan is available for the user).
- Interval: The interval EBF Files will check for changes on synchronized files.
- Storage: Currently used local storage by EBF Files (meta data and synchronized files).
- Clear local data: Use this feature to clean the local cache excluding the files stored in the local documents container.
- Language: Choose between English and German UI.
- Show logs: A log file containing helpful information for the administrator to solve problems. The log file can also be exported.
- Logout: Perform a complete logout from EBF Files removing all locally-stored data.
4.3 Container view
4.3.1 General functionalities
The container view shows the content of the data source which are mainly files and folders. Tapping a folder will open it and show the content. Tapping a file will open it in the corresponding viewer or editor depending on the file type. EBF Files supports the regular office file formats, PDF and the most important media types depending on the OS.
The user will get detail information like filename, last change data and size right from the list view. Also, different icons show, if the file is stored locally (green icon), has pending changes that need to be uploaded to the server (yellow icon), is a favorite and will show in the same named tab (red icon) or is part of the synchronization list (blue icon).
Searching the current folder for a filename is possible for all container types and for OneDrive and SharePoint there is also a global search available to find documents in deep nested folders.
The user may choose a different sort order for the file list, where sort orders available are file type, filename, change date and filesize – all ascending and descending.
For each file and folder a set of actions is available, that include:
Actions may appear or disappear depending on several conditions:
Also, the user can create new content including:
When adding new content/files to EBF Files containers by opening external documents into EBF Files or creating new documents/images/videos, the app will enable the Upload Manager. The Upload Manager will take care of new and changed content being uploaded to the target destination (e.g. your OneDrive). It will retry failed uploads and inform the user about the current upload status and remaining files.
4.3.2 OneDrive and SharePoint Online specifics
When the user wants to enter a OneDrive or SharePoint Online (O365) container the first time, he needs to login with his Entra-ID credentials. A login screen from Microsoft (OAuth) will appear.
When opening the SharePoint container the user is provided with a list of sites he is allowed to access. The user can choose the site and needs to select the document library he wants to enter on the next view level. Opening the document library will finally show the files and folders.
In a OneDrive container the user can switch between different views with the arrow on the title bar. This will allow him to view and use the separate views “Shared with me” and “Shared by me” to find shared content.
The user can open the global search view to find documents stored in deeply nested folders easily. This is available for both OneDrive and SharePoint. Also, a focused search is available for the “shared” views only.
4.4 View and Edit Office documents
The user can view and also edit office files within EBF Files. The editor covers a wide range of options to change content, edit fonts, styles, formats and alignments. Also, printing and exporting of documents is possible. For presentation documents a special presentation mode is available.
The editor also supports plain text files.
Editing a file is done by downloading the file from the server, doing changes locally on the devices and uploading the file back after saving the changes. Collaborative editing is not supported.
Be aware, that functionalities are limited compared to a full featured Microsoft Office editor due to platform, OS and mobile device limitations but all common editing scenarios are covered. VBA macros and OLE objects are not supported.
4.5 View and Edit PDF documents
EBF Files provides a powerful editor for PDF files using annotation and drawing tools also supporting Apple Pencil for handwritten notes and other annotations. The user can navigate through the document and find specific pages using the small preview pages with page numbers easily. The page numbers are shown in the main window and the user may show or hide the preview bar by tapping on the page number.
Editing a file is done by downloading the file from the server, doing changes locally on the devices and uploading the file back after saving the changes. Collaborative editing is not supported.
Searching text in a PDF is possible as well as rotating pages.
The following annotation tools are available for PDFs (from left to right):
The attributes of created annotation items can be changed afterwards which includes color, transparence and line width. These attributes/settings are saved for each annotation tool for next PDF editing sessions.
Also, additional special features are available (from left to right):
Be aware, that changes to the document structure will delete the undo/redo cache.
4.6 Settings
The settings page provides additional information and features a user can enable or disable.
