How to make M‑Files more user-friendly with CtrlPortals
On its own, M‑Files shows a list of records and the details of the one you pick. With CtrlPortals, that screen can also hold metrics, a calendar, comments, and instructions with buttons.
In this article
M‑Files stores, organises and gives access to any type of information. While you work, it shows a list on one side and the details of the selected record on the other.
CtrlPortals lets you decide what that screen contains. Dashboards cover the vault as a whole and open from the left-hand menu. Portals belong to the record you have selected, and each kind of record can have its own: customers, projects, opportunities and products can each get a different layout. Tabs split a portal into pages, each with its own content.
Get more insights#
A portal shows more of the record than the metadata card does, and a dashboard shows the numbers behind it. Three components do most of that work:
- Metrics and plots. Charts, indicators and reports on live vault data: open opportunities by state, pipeline value, deals closed this month. You configure which figures appear.
- Calendar. Events organised and scheduled in a day, week or month view, inside M‑Files.
- Threaded comments. Comment on any object, reply to an existing comment and mention a colleague by name. Mentioned users get an email.
The data comes from the vault, so the figures on the dashboard are the figures in M‑Files. The rest of the CtrlPortals components work the same way.
Instructions and buttons beside the record#
You can also put pages you write yourself beside a record: knowledge-base articles, embedded video, and buttons that carry out an action.
The example below comes from VisualQMS, Solution Management’s quality system, which uses CtrlPortals for screens like this one. A review record in plain M‑Files shows its properties and stops there. In the portal, the same record carries numbered instructions beside it, and a button opens the document to be reviewed, so nobody has to go looking for it.
Improve opportunity management#
Sales is an obvious place to use this. Open opportunities can sit on a board with a column for each stage, so you see at a glance where every deal stands, who owns it and what it is worth, and a card moves on when the deal does.
If customers, contacts and deals already live in the vault, the pipeline can live there too. M‑Files as your CRM system goes through that in more detail.
Manage your projects#
Projects work the same way. A dashboard can list the projects you are on with their customer, contact person and progress, and each project’s portal keeps its dates, its completion figure, the discussion and its documents in one place, so you can follow the project from the record itself.
Figures from a view or a chart can be exported to Excel, and a project report kept in M‑Files can be shared with people outside M‑Files through CtrlShare.
Ready to try CtrlPortals?#
CtrlPortals is configured in M‑Files Admin, runs in the M‑Files desktop and web clients, and needs M‑Files 25.1 or later, on the server and in the clients. To see the components working, book a demo: we will go through what you need, show the relevant parts and help set up a demo environment so you can try it yourself.