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FirmWorks Files Documentation

Documentation for FirmWorks Files, the native Salesforce application for storing, tagging, finding and sharing files.

FirmWorks Files

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FirmWorks Notes

FirmWorks Notes is a note editor built on Salesforce Enhanced Notes. Notes are stored as Salesforce Files (ContentVersion records of type SNOTE), so they can be tagged with the same custom fields as your documents, searched, shared with records, versioned, and converted to PDF.

Setup

  1. Enable Enhanced Notes. Setup > Notes Settings > Enable Notes. Notes are ContentNote records, so this Salesforce setting is required.
  2. Enable the FirmWorks Notes license feature. FirmWorks turns this on for your org. If it is off, the Note Manager shows “FirmWorks Notes License Was Not Found”. Contact support@getfirmworks.com.
  3. Assign permissions. Give users the FirmWorks Notes User permission set, or one of the FirmWorks Files Admin, User or Reporter permission set groups, which include it. See Permissions and Licensing.
  4. Optional: create a configuration. A FirmWorks Files Configuration controls which tag fields appear on notes and which fields can be searched. The Filter Fields step and the Suggested Field Relationships setting apply to Notes. Set the configuration on the component’s FirmWorks Notes Configuration Developer Name property. Component Height sets a fixed CSS height such as 700px; left blank, the component fills the window from where it sits.

The Note Manager tab is part of the FirmWorks Files app. To add it to another app, use Setup > App Manager > (app) > Navigation Items.

Notes are not available to Experience Cloud users.

The Note Manager

The Note Manager is one fixed-height frame with two areas:

The explorer can be collapsed to give the editor the full width. On narrow screens and in Salesforce Mobile it collapses by itself.

Controls in the explorer:

Control Action
Plus Create New Note
Magnifying glass Show or hide the search panel
Sort Items Change the sort order of the list. Remember keeps the choice.

Controls in the editor:

Control Action
Auto Save Turn automatic saving on or off. With it off, use Save Note.
Show Tags Show or hide the note’s tag fields.
Advanced Formatting Show or hide the extra toolbar options.
Show Sharing, Show Versions Open the Sharing or Version History panel.
Note Actions Duplicate, Create PDF Copy, Show In FileViewer, Delete.

Creating and editing notes

Click the plus icon to create a note. Give it a title and start typing. Notes autosave as you type; the editor tracks unsaved changes and saves them after a short pause. A note needs both a title and content before it saves.

Type @ followed by a record name, for example @Acme, to link records as you write. The mention opens the Related Records section with that name searched.

Refresh Current Note (Losing Changes) reloads the note from the server and discards anything not yet saved.

If another user saves a version of the note you have open, the editor is notified in real time so you do not overwrite their work.

Searching notes

Open the search panel with the magnifying glass icon.

Tagging notes

Tag fields appear beside the note body. They are the custom Content Version fields chosen in the configuration’s Filter Fields step. Values save with the note.

Because notes and files share the same fields, a File Report can include notes, and File Manager can find notes by their tags. File Manager excludes notes from results by default through the Exclude File Types view setting (snote). Remove that value from the configuration to see notes alongside files; they show an Open In NoteManager button.

Version history, compare and restore

Every save of a note creates a new Salesforce file version. Open Version History to see them. Each row shows the version number, Content Version Id, when and by whom it was modified, and a text preview.

Note actions

Each note in the list has a row menu:

Action What it does
Duplicate Creates a copy of the note, including its tags.
Create PDF Copy Converts the note to a PDF file linked to the same records. The PDF is tagged with the note’s field values. Running it again on the same note adds a new version to the existing PDF instead of creating a second file.
Show In FileViewer Opens the File Search tab with this note selected. After Create PDF Copy, the PDF opens the same way.
Delete Deletes the note.

Salesforce’s PDF renderer does not support every font style. The conversion strips font family and size so the PDF renders reliably.

Exporting notes with their tags

A File Report exports notes as a spreadsheet with their tag values and their text.

  1. Build a report whose document criteria match the notes you want, for example a tag value that only notes carry. In Step 2, add the tag fields you want as columns.
  2. Run the report and switch the results to the Details view, one row per note.
  3. Open the grid’s actions menu and choose Download Data With Note Contents.

The download is a CSV named after the report. Each row holds the record the note is linked to, the note’s title and Ids, the tag columns you chose, and a final Note Contents column with the note’s text as plain text, line breaks kept. The menu item appears only in the Details view and only when the results contain notes. Notes you cannot read are exported as “[Note contents unavailable]”. Note text is loaded fifty notes at a time with a progress message, so a large export takes a moment.

The same report can be placed on a page or flow screen with File Report Results, or scheduled.

Read-only notes

When the configuration’s Check Record Access setting is on, a note you cannot edit opens read only: the title is locked, there is no Save Note, and the notice “You can view this file but can’t edit its details.” shows above the editor. Delete is left out of the note menu when you cannot delete the note. See Read-only files for how access is decided.

Sharing notes with records

Click the document preview icon to open the Sharing panel. It lists the records the note is linked to and lets you add or remove links. New notes created from a record page are linked to that record with the record’s sharing settings.

The Related Records tab shows records mentioned in the note. When your configuration has Suggested Field Relationships, related records such as an Opportunity’s Account are suggested for one-click linking.

Text in a note that matches a record name shows a Search button that opens the Related Records section for that record.

Opening a note by URL

The Note Manager tab accepts two URL parameters:

Parameter Value
c__noteId The ContentVersion or ContentDocument Id of the note to open.
c__configurationName The developer name of the configuration to apply.

Example: /lightning/n/firmworks__FW_Notes?c__noteId=068XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

File Manager’s Open In NoteManager button uses these parameters to open a note in the Note Manager.

Notes on a record page or in the utility bar

The FirmWorks Notes component can be added to any Lightning record page, App page or Home page. On a record page it shows the notes linked to that record and links new notes to it. Set FirmWorks Notes Configuration Developer Name to choose the tag fields and Component Height to fix its height. See the Component Reference.

The same component can be a utility item: Setup > App Manager > edit the app > Utility Items > Add Utility Item > FirmWorks Notes. Notes then open in a panel from the utility bar on every page of the app. The utility item takes the same configuration name and Component Height; left blank, the height fills the utility panel. A utility item has no record context, so it shows every note the user can see, and new notes are linked to records through the Related Records panel.