Getting Started

The user guide for Blue Box Intranet is intended to guide users through all the tasks associated with installing, configuring and running the intranet software. The user guide is divided into several sections which are ordered logically by the task you are trying to complete.

User Guide Contents

This chapter is concerned with planning and setting up the structure of the intranet ready for use and is largely for the overall intranet administrator but there is useful information for other users. If you looking for information on configuring and installing the software on your own server or how to accomplish a specific task please see the relevant sections below:

• Getting Started (this section)
  Planning and setting up your intranet.
• Understanding Workspaces
  Setting up new workspaces and project areas.
• Collaboration Tools
  How to use the various collaboration tools such as fileshares, discussion forums, contact, link and tasks lists.
• Personalisation
  Changing the appearance of the intranet and also individual personalisation such as favourites.
• User Access
  Allowing people access to the intranet.
• Administration
  Adding new users, categories and workspaces.
• Installation Guide
  Setting up Blue Box Intranet in-house on your server.

Signing in for the First Time

On first access to the intranet you will be asked to sign in. After installation an administrator login is automatically assigned. The login details are as follows:

Note that both username and password are both case sensitive. By signing in with these credentials you are becoming the overall intranet administrator.

Getting Around the Intranet

The intranet is accessed via a web browser meaning that it functions like a traditional website. At the top of the screen are the main navigational links to the various areas of the intranet and to the left are links to intranet categories and workspaces; hovering the mouse over the categories reveals the workspaces within. The majority of the page is taken up with information relating to the current section of the intranet that you are in.

First Steps

The first step after initially signing in as administrator is to change your administrator password. To do this click "Administration" on the main navigation and then on the following screen select "User Profiles". You will be presented with a list of the current users for the intranet (initially there will only be one - "Administrator"). After clicking on the "Administrator" user the next screen allows you to change the login password. Change this now to your chosen password (this should be different to your computer login for security) and then click the save icon. More information regarding user profiles can be found in the user access section.

Planning Your Intranet Structure

Blue Box Intranet starts out as a blank canvass ready for you to structure it in a way that is suitable for your organisation. Some thought and planning should go into this but the layout can be changed later.

The intranet will revolve around a series of categories, workspaces and controlled user access. All this is definable by one or more intranet administrators and the flexibility is a key feature of Blue Box Intranet. For example you may wish to organise your intranet by department:

The items indicated in bold above are intranet categories and the sub items are workspaces. Workspaces can be one of five types:

• Contact Lists - For storing people and organisations.
• Discussion Forums - For sharing ideas and questions.
• Fileshares - For storing documents and publications.
• Link Lists - For creating lists of frequently used links.
• Task Lists - For assigning tasks and managing project progress.

You can add any number of workspaces and categories to the intranet. It will be useful and faster for you to plan this stage in advance rather than trying to assemble it as you go along. You should also consider at this planning stage who is to require access to each area.

Once you have a plan for the initial structure of the intranet, you can add the categories and workspaces using the administration area of Blue Box Intranet. For details on how to do this please see the "Understanding Workspaces" section of the user guide.

Giving Access

After you have added all the required categories and workspaces to the intranet you will notice that they do not yet appear in the left hand navigation. To do this you first need to set permissions for users to be able to access the information.

Each user within the intranet is assigned a permission group. This permission group determines the categories and workspaces the user can see and also what they can do with the information. For each workspace you determine whether a permission group has read, write and modify access.

For example when the intranet is run for the first time there is a single contact list, one permission group (administrators) and one user (administrator). If you click the permission groups link within the administration area of the intranet you will see the "administrators" permission group. To the right of this item click the permissions icon (the padlock) and the following screen allows you to determine the access rights for this group.

You will see a list of all the workspaces currently added to the intranet. Initially there will only be one, "My Contacts". You will also see that the administrator's permission group has permission to read, write and modify any information within this workspace.

As an example of how this system works, uncheck the "read" access box for the administrators group for "My Contacts" and then click the save icon. You will notice that "My Contacts" disappears from the left hand navigation. To give access back simply re-check the box and click save. By adding a combination of categories, workspaces, permission groups and permission settings you can create a very flexible collaboration environment.

Maintaining Your Intranet

Once your intranet is up and running depending on its size there will be a requirement to keep it maintained and monitored. As intranet administrator this can be done solely by yourself or you can assign other intranet users as administrators.

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Blue Box Intranet is a product of Blue Box Software Ltd. Blue Box Software Ltd provides a comprehensive range of tailored web solutions to the SME market.