5.7 Personal preferences

5.7.1 Introduction

5.7.2 General configuration settings

5.7.3 HTML interface only

5.7.4 Workspace reports

5.7.1 Introduction

Business Collaborator is a shared system. The information which you see - documents, folders, discussions etc. - is shared with other users. Therefore, if you delete or move a document, its location will be changed for other users. However, the way in which information is presented may be personal to you. For instance, if you "Catch Up" on events (see section 4.7.1), the event icons will only be removed from your view, not that of other users.

Similarly, you may specify a number of configuration settings which will only affect the way in which you see information or, in the case of the "ActiveX Uploader ", how you use Business Collaborator.

5.7.2 General configuration settings

5.7.2.1 User level

5.7.2.2 Preferred interface

5.7.2.3 Displaying different features

5.7.2.4 ActiveX Uploader

5.7.2.5 Email options

5.7.2.1 User level

The "Edit Prefs" page enables you to configure certain aspects of Business Collaborator, in particular the interface. To get to this page, select  User  |  Edit Prefs  . The "Edit Prefs" form is shown in Figure 5.7-1.

5.7.2.2 Preferred interface

The preferred interface is the default interface when you log in. New users automatically start using Business Collaborator with the Version 4 interface. Users of this interface select the actions they require (e.g. "Add Folder" or "Rename") from menus rather than using the buttons and icons available in the alternative interfaces. This interface is considerably more user-friendly than the alternative ones and is therefore ideal for new Business Collaborator users.

To select a different interface proceed as follows:

• Choose your preferred interface from the drop down list
• Decide whether you wish this to take effect
  • when I next log on
  • immediately (default)

You can select from the following interfaces

• Version 4 - The new, improved and streamlined interface for BC 4.0. Enables you to see more information on the screen at once. Compatible with IE4.0+ and Netscape 4.7+. This is the recommended and default interface.
• Classic - The default interface for early versions of Business Collaborator. Quick and responsive to use. Actions are carried out by clicking on "buttons". Interface is relatively "busy" because so much information is presented at all times.
• Toolbar - The text interface with a graphical toolbar and drop-down lists. Useful for users who prefer icons rather than buttons or text in menus. Less information is presented on each page than in the Classic interface and so each page is less "busy".
• Text - The interface to use if you have a slow internet connection. As its name hints this is a text only interface - no slow graphics to download.
• Version 4+ - This interface is very similar to Windows Explorer. The left-hand frame displays the structure of all workspaces and personal folders in your home page. These can be unfolded/folded to display/hide their respective contents in the right-hand frame. The right-hand frame contains a more detailed view of the objects and is of identical functionality to the Version 4 interface. Compatible with IE4.0+ and Netscape 4.7+. Web pages take longer to load initially in the Version 4+ interface than the Version 4 one since the structure in the left-hand frame must be constructed.

Note

If you are sent a web link (URL) which contains a reference to a specific interface, this interface will be displayed when you use the web link to go to that location. Otherwise, you will be shown the location in your preferred interface.

Figure 5.7-1: The Edit Prefs page.

5.7.2.3 Displaying different features

You can choose which features you wish to display within the interface. Select your preferred options by clicking the appropriate check boxes besides the following items:

• Actions - Will show all actions relating to an object (on by default)
• Events - Will show the events that have occurred on objects (on by default)
• Owner - Will show the owner of objects (on by default)
• Date - Will show the most recent modification date of an object (on by default)
• Descriptions - Will show the description relating to an object (on by default)
• Sort buttons - Will permit user sorting of objects by clicking on the appropriate column names - Type, Name, Owner or Modified on folder views and, additionally, Confidence Level on Search results pages.

5.7.2.4 ActiveX Uploader

You can choose to use the ActiveX "drag and drop" uploader if you have a Windows PC and use Internet Explorer 4.0 and above to work with Business Collaborator. For detailed information on this topic please see section 3.1.2.

5.7.2.5 Email options

You can choose whether Business Collaborator sends you emails in plain text or html format. We recommend that you set this to html format if your email package is compatible with HTML since you will then receive clearly formatted notification emails. Emails in HTML will also contain easy-to-use links to the objects to which the email message refers.

5.7.3 HTML (Classic) interface only

These options only affect the Classic interface

5.7.3.1 JavaScript

5.7.3.2 Local icons

5.7.3.1 JavaScript

If your web browser does not support JavaScript you can opt to turn this off to shorten the length of time taken for Business Collaborator to return a page.

5.7.3.2 Local icons

If you have a slow internet connection then you can download our icons to your local machine in one handy zip file and point BC at them. All icons will then be retrieved locally, speeding up the time it takes to interface with Business Collaborator.

5.7.4 Workspace reports

5.7.4.1 Configuring workspace reports

5.7.4.2 Types of events

5.7.4.3 Workspace report format

5.7.4.1 Configuring workspace reports

Note

This functionality, although available in Business Collaborator version 4, has been superceded by notifications - see Section 12 - Event notification.

In addition to seeing the events which have occurred by clicking on event icons (see section 4.7.), you can also be sent notification emails when events occur (see Section 12 - Event notification). In this way, you do not have to log in to find out what has been taking place in your workspaces.

In versions of Business Collaborator before version 4, the only way to receive regular notification about all your workspaces was through Daily Workspace Activity Reports. These are generated automatically overnight and are only sent to you if you specify that you wish to receive them. It is highly recommended that you use event notification (see Section 12 - Event notification) in place of workspace reports as it is considerably more configurable.

To subscribe to the daily workspace activity report and to define the events which you wish to be included in the email, click   View/Change  |  Workspace Report  on your Edit Preferences page.

This will bring up another page. Mark the checkboxes of the event types you want to be informed about. The report will always cover all workspaces you are a member of. If you wish to set different types of notification on different workspaces, you should use event notification (see Section 12 - Event notification).

Note 1:

If you do not select any event type(s), then no report will be generated for you.

Note 2:

This feature may be unavailable on your Business Collaborator server if it has not been activated by the Business Collaborator administrator.

5.7.4.2 Types of events

In the Daily Workspace Activity Report Business Collaborator distinguishes four types of event:

• Create - all actions related to adding new objects (members, folders, meetings, documents, URLs, discussions etc.) to Business Collaborator.
• Move - copying, cutting and pasting, deleting and undeleting, archiving and converting existing objects.
• Change - editing objects, adding versions of documents and modifying metadata (see Section 13 - Metadata) on objects
• Read - all accesses to an object without changing it, e.g. downloading, viewing.

5.7.4.3 Workspace report format

Like any email sent by Business Collaborator, the daily workspace activity report is available in two formats:

• plain text email or
• HTML document.

If you use an email program that can interpret HTML (the email components of the widely-used browsers do so), you should subscribe to the report in HTML format. In this format the report is easier to read and provides links to the objects it refers to, thus enabling you to access them immediately.

Select the email format on your Edit Preferences page, as described in section section 5.7.2.5.