Fingertip Information Organizer

Fingertip is a web-based document management system you can access from any device using the same user interface. It supports virtually any type of document with version control and organization and includes additional features for HTML and PDF documents.

Fingertip is intended for one or more people who need controlled access to shared documents and structured document management without relying on major cloud-based office platforms.

Structure

Fingertip organizes documents into a 3-tier hierarchy and allows users to attach attributes to each document version.

1. Organizational hierarchy

1. Area: The top-level folder representing an organization, department, division, or any other category.
2. Archive: A sub-level folder within an Area that groups related or unrelated documents.
3. Document: The individual document level stored inside an Archive.

2. Document attributes

Document attributes can be applied to every document version in Fingertip for searching and filtering purposes:

• ID: Document identifier (e.g., defaultID000123)
• Title: Descriptive document title
• Type: Document category (e.g., Procedure, Specification)
• Status: Lifecycle status (e.g., Draft, Approved, Signed)
• Author: Identifies who authored the document version
• Approver: Identifies who should approve the document
• Tags: Custom multi-tags (e.g., Tag 1 and Tag 2)
• Language: Document language
• Recipient: Intended target audience
• Note: Summary notes
• Tool: File format (e.g., HTML, PDF, ZIP, TXT)

Versions

Fingertip protects document integrity by keeping previous document versions and providing traceability of who did what and when, including document version attribute changes.

• Version tracking: When a document is updated, Fingertip creates a new version number for the document (e.g., 1.1, 1.2, 1.3).
• Version history log: Previous versions are preserved. You can inspect, download, or publish any past version at any time.
• Team editing (locking): When you lock a file to make updates, Fingertip prevents others from making conflicting edits or overwriting your work.
• Revisions: Approved document releases can be assigned revision letters (such as Rev A, Rev B, or Rev C) to distinguish draft updates from formal revisions.

User settings

The system administrator can manage user accounts in the user settings:

• Account passwords: Set initial passwords, change passwords, and request password resets.
• Theme: Toggle between light mode and dark mode for comfortable reading.
• User and access management: Administrators can create new user accounts, assign roles, and grant archive access and visibility.
• Storage monitoring: Show server disk space and usage.
• Email: Required for signature notifications and password resets.

Archive settings

Managers and administrators can use archive settings to configure and customize areas and archives:

• Description: Set descriptive text defining what documents and files belong in the archive.
• Intranet: Toggle whether documents in an archive are published on an internal intranet site or accessible on a public website.
• Create area/archive: Name and create new areas and archives.
• Remove area/archive: Remove existing areas or archives.
• Freeze baseline: A baseline can be listed as frozen, so that a baseline document version can no longer be added to or removed from the baseline.
• Aliases: Customize attribute names (such as renaming "Author", "Approver", or "Type") to fit your terminology.

In Fingertip, four optional special-purpose archives exist:

1. The Templates archive is for HTML templates you can select when creating a new HTML document.
2. The Stylesheets archive is for HTML stylesheets (CSS) selected when creating a new HTML document, according to the specific area, archive, and document type.
3. The Scripts archive is for custom Perl scripts used to process plain text documents during the publishing process (e.g., to transform data records to HTML).
4. The Trashcan archive receives deleted documents from any other archive, unless a local Trashcan archive exists in the current area.

Create/Upload

To add initial document versions to an archive, select the archive and click the (+) button.

• From device: Upload existing documents (PDFs, Office documents, spreadsheets, images, or ZIPs) from your computer into the archive. You can upload a single document, multiple documents, or a ZIP file with or without a folder structure. A ZIP file can be added as a single file or unpacked and added as individual documents. Multiple uploaded PDF documents can be merged alphabetically according to filename and added as a single file.
• Cloud documents: Create HTML documents and web pages directly inside your browser without uploading local files. Plain text files can also be created.
• HTML templates: Create new HTML documents from one of the HTML templates you have created or use the default template.
• Stylesheets: When creating a new HTML document, the default stylesheet or a stylesheet corresponding to the specific area, archive, and document type is used if it exists.

Update/Upload

To update a non-HTML document to a new version, select the existing document version in the archive and use the Put function to upload and save the new version.

Before saving a new document version, you can enter a version message describing the changes made.

For ZIP files, you may select files to be appended or excluded from the existing version to reduce upload size when packing many large files into a ZIP archive.

If you have made changes to several non-HTML documents, you can save the new versions in a single operation if you have locked the documents.

HTML document features

For HTML documents, the Edit function replaces the Put function described above and is used to open the built-in editor and edit the document. You can then save the HTML document as a new version or as a private pre-draft if you want to come back later and finish your work.

• HTML templates: You can create templates for various purposes.
• CSS stylesheets: You can create CSS stylesheets for different document types and area locations.
• Set attribute macros: You can use a text macro for a document attribute in the HTML document or template to set the attribute value directly when saving a document version.
• Get attribute macros: You can use a text macro to insert the document attribute value into the document version when it is published.
• Include HTML document: You can use the include macro to include other HTML documents in a document.
• Calculate: You can use the calculate macro to perform simple four-function calculations inside HTML documents (e.g., +, -, *, /) such as =SUM(A1:A5) or =A2/B7.
• Cross-referencing: You can create cross-references between multiple HTML documents by adding an ID to the target section and referencing that ID from other documents by document ID and section ID (e.g., ID000001#A001). When the documents are published, cross-reference links will be inserted.
• Section numbers: You can insert a section number macro to automatically add section numbers to H1–H6 headings when the document is published.
• Table of contents: You can insert a TOC macro to have a table of contents (H1–H6) inserted when the document is published.
• History: You can insert a history macro to have the document history inserted in the document when published.
• Publish: You can insert the publish macro to have the document automatically published when a new version is saved.
• Purge: You can insert the purge macro to have previous document versions unpublished when a new version is saved.
• Most recently published: You can insert the MrpVer macro to replace specific document version numbers in links with a reference to the latest published version.
• Replace: The HTML editor includes a search and replace feature that affects visible HTML text. You can also use the Replace macro to replace strings (such as link paths) repeatedly in the HTML source code.
• Export offline version: If an HTML document uses cross-references to other HTML documents, you can export an offline version with local links. If an HTML document links to other documents in the archive, you can export the HTML document along with all referenced documents.

The HTML editor allows you to create and edit formatted documents and web pages directly inside your browser:

• Visual web editor: Create and edit web content using a rich visual editor—similar to a word processor—without writing code.
• Rich formatting and media: Easily format text, adjust headings, add lists, insert tables, add web links, and embed images.

Organize

The Organize function is used for:

• Attributes: Set and update document attributes.
• Duplicate document: Create a copy of an existing document.
• Move documents: Relocate documents to a different project area or archive.
• Delete specific version: Remove a single document version.
• Delete entire document: Delete a document along with all of its saved version history. If a Trashcan archive exists, the document will be moved to the Trashcan.
• Reset document: Permanently delete all document versions except the latest and re-version it to 1.1 (not moved to Trashcan).
• Purge document: Permanently delete any document version that is not published or does not have a revision mark.
• Baseline: Mark a document version as included in a baseline (e.g., BL01).

Filtering/Search

The Search and filter tools help you quickly locate documents and customize how your files are displayed:

• Keyword and content search: Search for documents by name, title, document ID, or full text inside the document.
• Field filtering: Filter document lists by specific criteria such as author, document type, approval status, category tags, or language.
• Advanced search queries: Combine search terms using simple operators (AND, OR, NOT) to find precise results.
• Column sorting: Sort your document results instantly by clicking on column headers like Name, Date, Version, or Status.
• Custom table views: Choose which attribute columns to show on screen and save your preferred table view for later.
• Multi-select batch actions: Select multiple files from search results to perform bulk downloads, updates, or status changes.
• One-click clear filters: Quickly reset search inputs and return to the complete document list.
• Saved user views: Save and reload customized search and filter preferences.
• PDF and HTML content search: Search globally within the full content of PDF and HTML documents across archives for which you have permissions. For other document types, search is performed on document metadata only.
• Archive filtering: Once an archive is selected, filter which documents are displayed and save frequently used filters.

Get

The Get function lets you download, lock, and manage files stored in Fingertip:

• Get for reading: Download a copy of any document version to view or read.
• Get using title: Download a document automatically renamed to match its official title for easy filing.
• Lock for updating: Download a file and lock it so no one else can overwrite it while you are working on updates.
• Unlock: Release a locked file when you are finished so other team members can edit it.
• Get offline: Download documents along with their linked files so you can read them without an internet connection.
• Get all versions: Download every saved version of a document together in a single ZIP archive.
• Unpack document: Automatically unzip and retrieve files stored inside a ZIP package.
• Update version message: Edit or correct the note describing changes made to a specific version.
• Multi-select actions: Perform batch operations on multiple selected documents simultaneously.

Web/Www

The Web and Www functions are available for archives configured as Intranet or Internet, respectively, and allow you to publish document versions to either the password-protected intranet or the public internet:

• Publish version: Copy selected document versions to Web or Www. If you have a registered domain name, each document version will have a unique URL.
• Publish all versions: Copy all document versions to Web or Www.
• Publish unpacked ZIP: Unzip and copy bundled documents to Web or Www.
• Unpublish version: Remove a published document version.
• Unpublish except latest: Keep only the newest document version and remove older versions from Web or Www.
• Unpublish all versions: Remove all published versions of a document.

HTML documents are processed before being copied to Web or Www to evaluate macros.

PDF documents are also processed to apply digital signatures.

Sign

The Sign function manages formal document approvals and official revision milestones:

• Sign document version: Electronically sign a document version (password-secured only). For PDF documents, a signature page will be appended to the end of the document. HTML documents can display signature status using the Status or History macro. For other documents, signed status is visible only within Fingertip.
• Unsign document version: An administrator can remove a signature from a document version if necessary. The signee will receive an email notification.
• Assign revision letter: Assign a revision letter (such as Rev A, Rev B, or Rev C) to mark an approved document version.
• Remove revision letter: Delete a revision letter if necessary.

Get started

www.fingertip.dk

1. Use your own Ubuntu host or purchase an Ubuntu VPS subscription.
2. Install Fingertip using Snap.
3. Obtain a domain name and configure it to point to your Ubuntu host.
4. Install Caddy as a reverse proxy for HTTPS (e.g., apt install caddy).
5. Go to your domain and log in as administrator to set up archives and user accounts.
6. Ensure you have a reliable backup solution configured for your documents.

Every published document version has a unique link (URL).

(Supported platforms: Windows PC with WSL, macOS, Linux)