One of the advantages of using an ELN is being able to create content quickly and accurately. Many times we are following a protocol, that varies but slightly from one experiment to another. Alternatively, we might have some images or diagrams, such as cloning vector diagrams, that we want to reuse between different unrelated experiments.

RSpace offers multiple ways to reuse content – snippets, templates, forms and copying. This is flexible, but can be confusing if you’re new to RSpace. In this and subsequent posts, I’ll cover some of these features, so you can choose those that suit your work best.

We’ll start off with the simplest approach – simply copying whole documents. If you’re in the Workspace, you can select one or more notebooks, documents and folders, then click the ‘Copy’ button which appears. Everything that’s copied will be completely separate from the original – including diagrams, sketches, attachments and images. If you copy a folder, then all subfolders and their contents will also be copied.

If you’re editing a document, there is a ‘Save’ option that combines ‘Save’ with making a new copy. This is called ‘Save and Clone’. In this case, the document will be saved, a complete copy made, and the new copy opened for editing.

Here’s a summary of what we’ve covered:

Copy whole document is useful for:

• Bulk copying operations of multiple documents.
• Copying simple, single-text field documents.
• When you only want to make a few changes to the document once copied.
• When you’re in a hurry and don’t have time for a more advanced technique.

Save & clone is useful for:

• When you’re creating a series of similar documents in one session.

In the next post, we’ll cover Forms, which are a great way to standardise document structure within a group, or just for personal use.