Shared Folders: Your Online Conference Room
Novell Cool Solutions: Feature
By Doug Anderson
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Posted: 1 Jun 1999 |
Sure,
e-mail
has
transformed
business
communication.
You
can
now
send
messages
to
pretty
much
anyone
on
the
planet.
But
as
useful
as
sending
and
receiving
e-mail
is,
e-mail
is
still
entirely
too
limiting.
I
mean,
you
send
a
message,
you
sit
around
and
wait
for
the
reply,
then
you
reply.
And
if
you
want
other
people
included
in
the
conversation,
you
have
to
forward
stuff,
attach
stuff,
blind
and
carbon
copy
stuff.
What
you
really
need
is
a
place
to
meet
and
talk,
a
place
to
not
only
discuss
stuff,
but
a
place
to
put
the
stuff.
Well,
the
future
is
now,
and
GroupWise
Shared
Folders
constitute
the
online
conference
room
you've
been
waiting
for.
While
e-mail
has
come
a
long
way,
GroupWise
has
already
taken
it
to
the
next
level.
A
shared
folder
is
really
just
like
any
other
folder
you
create
in
your
Cabinet,
except
with
a
shared
folder,
it's
like
you're
putting
it
in
everyone
else's
Cabinet
too.
Then,
everything
you
put
in
the
folder
in
your
Cabinet
appears
in
the
same
folder
in
their
Cabinets.
And
everything
they
put
in
the
shared
folder
in
their
Cabinets
appears
in
the
folder
in
your
Cabinet.
Get
it?
Here's
an
example:
You
work
for
a
large
company,
but
you're
organized
in
small
teams
of
about
10
people.
Each
team
has
a
lead.
You
have
e-mail,
and
you're
always
firing
off
messages
about
this
project
or
that
deadline,
but
to
have
a
real
discussion,
you
need
to
call
a
meeting,
or
worse,
a
conference
call.
Well,
with
GroupWise
5,
you
create
a
folder,
call
it
Project
X,
and
you
share
the
folder
with
everyone
in
your
group.
When
you
share
the
folder,
everyone
receives
a
message
informing
them
of
the
honor,
and
a
copy
of
the
folder
appears
in
their
Cabinets.
Now
if
you
have
a
document
you
need
feedback
on,
you
just
place
it
in
the
shared
folder
(make
sure
you
grant
everyone
in
the
group
rights
to
the
document)
and
send
a
message
asking
for
comments.
Everyone
in
the
group
can
open
the
document
directly
from
the
folder,
and
when
someone
has
a
comment,
he
or
she
can
simply
right-click
the
document
reference
in
the
folder,
click
Reply,
and
type
the
comment.
The
comments
appear
in
order
directly
under
the
document.
You
can
change
the
display
of
the
folder
so
that
any
comments
appear
indented
below
and
to
the
right
of
the
item.
Voila!
You've
got
a
discussion
thread,
and
you
didn't
have
to
leave
your
desk.
[ Top of Page ]
Sharing
a
Folder
Creating
a
place
for
co-workers
to
share
documents,
to
collaborate
on
projects,
to
follow
important
online
discussions,
just
to
create
more,
dare
we
say
it,
synergy,
sounds
like
a
pretty
daunting
job.
So
what
do
you
do
if
your
boss
thinks
you're
just
the
one
to
do
it?
Never
fear,
you
are
the
one.
In
fact,
with
very
little
effort,
you
can
look
like
a
GroupWise
guru.
Here's
what
you
do.
Create a folder in your GroupWise Cabinet. If you don't know how, see To Create a Folder in online Help. (Creating folders is very easy, honest).
Right-click the folder you just created, then click Sharing. This opens the Properties dialog box for the folder. The Sharing tab should be visible. Since you haven't shared the folder with anyone yet, all the lights are off (all the options are dimmed). Click Shared With to get things rolling.
You can add users to the Share list one at a time, or you can create a group in the Address Book, and share the folder with the entire group, all at once. If you've already got a group ready, simply type the name of the group in the Name box and click Add User. Notice how everyone in the group gets dumped into the Share list. If you don't have a group, it's almost as easy to type the users in one at a time. Click in the Name box, then start typing the name of the person you want to add. As you type, GroupWise searches the Address Book for the right name. When the name appears in the box, click Add User. Repeat for each user or group you want to share the folder with.
You can modify the rights for individual users right now if you want, but each user you add has Read and Add rights by default. Go to Understanding Shared Folder Rights for more info about assigning rights to users.
Click OK to move on, and the Shared Folder Notification dialog box appears. On the left it tells you who is being notified, and on the right you can see the subject of the message you are sending, and the text of the message. You can modify the subject and message any way you want to be more informative or just to jazz it up a little. Click OK to send the Shared Folder Notification on its way. Each person you've shared the folder with will get an e-mail message telling them you've shared a folder with them. If they accept it, a shared folder will appear in each of their Cabinets. Now anything you put in the folder, they can see. And anything they put in, you can see. You're connected.
[ Top of Page ]
Understanding
Shared
Folder
Rights
So
you've
shared
a
folder
with
your
group
and
your
boss
thinks
you're
a
genius.
Just
to
get
things
rolling,
you
post
a
message
about
your
organization's
abysmal
telecommuting
policy.
This
is
the
way
collaboration
works.
However,
instead
of
a
great
discussion
thread,
soon
you
start
getting
angry
messages
from
people
telling
you
they
can't
add
comments
to
the
folder.
What's
wrong?
Rights.
Access
Rights
that
is.
When you share a folder with a person or group, each person you share it with is automatically assigned a default set of rights to the folder. People are bugging you because you took away their right to free speech (you must have mistakenly deleted their Add rights). Folder rights go something like this:
Read
By
default,
everyone
you
share
a
folder
with
has
Read
rights.
This
means
users
can
open
and
read
anything
you
put
in
the
folder.
Well,
almost
anything.
You
see,
documents
in
GroupWise
carry
their
own
set
of
rights,
independent
of
the
rights
granted
by
the
folder.
Even
though
users
with
Read
rights
to
a
folder
can
open
any
message,
task,
appointment,
or
note
in
a
shared
folder,
they
must
be
granted
rights
to
documents
separately
by
the
owner
of
the
document.
In
other
words,
documents
placed
in
shared
folders
don't
automatically
adopt
the
rights
of
the
shared
folder
they're
placed
in.
The
reason
GroupWise
works
this
way
is
not
to
annoy
you.
In
an
open
collaborative
environment
like
GroupWise,
security
is
paramount.
It
may
require
an
extra
step
or
two
to
share
documents,
but
the
added
security
is
worth
it.
Add
If
users
only
had
Read
rights
to
a
folder,
they
would
be
able
to
lurk
and
watch,
but
not
participate.
To
truly
collaborate,
users
are
given
Add
rights
by
default
so
they
can
also
place
their
own
contributions
in
the
folder
for
everyone
to
see.
Modify
When
you
give
users
Modify
rights
to
a
shared
folder,
they
have
the
ability
to
not
only
add
and
open
items
in
the
folder,
but
to
actually
change
the
items.
For
example,
if
I
post
a
comment,
someone
with
Modify
rights
could
open
my
comment
and
change
it.
(Remember,
documents
are
different.
Rights
to
documents
must
be
granted
independently
of
the
folder.)
If
someone
does
change
something,
his
or
her
name
will
appear
in
parentheses
after
the
author's
name
in
the
Item
List,
just
so
everyone
knows
who
did
the
changing.
Just
to
be
safe,
you
might
want
to
be
careful
who
you
give
Modify
rights
to.
Delete
Users
with
Delete
rights
in
a
shared
folder
are
truly
special.
These
users
have
the
right
to
delete
any
item
placed
in
a
shared
folder.
(Once
again,
documents
are
a
special
case.
Only
the
owner
of
a
document
can
grant
rights
to
it.)
Usually,
only
the
owner
of
a
shared
folder
is
granted
Delete
rights.
If you ever decide someone should lose some privileges or someone else needs more access, you can change a user's rights at any time. Just right-click the folder, then click Sharing to open the Properties dialog box for the folder. The Sharing tab should be open. Click any user in the Share list, then grant or rescind rights as you see fit. After all, it's your folder.
[ Top of Page ]
More
About
Discussion
Threads
Shared
folders
make
the
most
sense
when
you
change
the
display
properties
of
a
folder
so
that
what's
in
the
folder
is
organized
like
a
conversation.
That
is
to
say,
instead
of
viewing
the
items
in
a
folder
by
date,
or
size,
or
something
equally
inane,
you
could
view
a
folder
by
discussion
thread
so
that
ideas
and
arguments
and
comments
can
be
followed
like
a
discussion.
For example, if you need to get everyone's feedback on the new timeline for your group's latest project, you can post the timeline (in pretty much any format or file type) to the shared folder, and ask for comments. If you have changed the display properties of the folder to view by discussion thread, a comment on the timeline will appear below and to the right of the timeline reference. Comments on other people's comments appear below and to the right of the comment they discuss. In fact, it might look something like this:
To view the items in a folder by discussion thread, just click the Discussion Thread button on the toolbar. Or, you can change the default display for a folder. Right-click the folder, click Properties, click the Display tab, then click Discussion Thread in the View By drop-down list. Click OK. Now every time you open the folder, the items inside will appear as a discussion thread.
[ Top of Page ]
What
You
Can
Put
in
a
Shared
Folder
At
first
glance,
shared
folders
seem
like
the
perfect
place
to
hold
online
discussions.
Well,
they
are.
But
shared
folders
can
be
so
much
more.
You
can
put
in
documents
and
ask
for
comments,
you
can
post
a
controversial
message
and
stir
up
an
argument,
or
you
can
use
the
folder
as
a
sort
of
public
storage
bin.
For example, suppose everyone in your organization needs to run a macro that your local macro guru created. Just put the macro in the shared folder. Or, if you want to make the latest marketing numbers available for your group, put a spreadsheet file in the folder. In fact, you can place pretty much any kind of file in a shared folder, from simple text files, to .EXE files, to .ZIP files. And GroupWise makes it simple. To put a file in a shared folder, just drag the file directly to the shared folder. GroupWise imports the document for you. (Remember, you need to give people rights to the document.) What could be easier? Well, and still be this useful.
[ Top of Page ]
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