Understanding Workspaces

Workspaces are a key ingredient of Blue Box Intranet and form the areas that users will spend most of their time accessing. Each workspace is a specific collaboration tool and exists within a category which is used to organise the intranet into logical areas. If you are an intranet administrator and have followed the getting started section of this user guide then you will have planned and possible already added a number of categories and workspaces to the intranet.

The Types of Workspace

A workspace can be one of five collaboration tools:

  • 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.

Adding a New Workspace or Category

Adding new workspaces and categories is done via the administration area of the intranet. You will need to be an intranet administrator to be able to complete this task.

To add a new category:

  1. Click "Categories" within the "Administration" area of the intranet
  2. Click the "New Category" icon.

To add a new workspace:

  1. Click "Workspaces" within the "Administration" area of the intranet
  2. Click the "New Workspace" icon.

Editing, Moving and Deleting Workspaces and Categories

Once a workspace has been added to a category its location can be moved at a later date or it can be deleted entirely. You can edit the details of a workspace at any time by accessing the administration area of the intranet. When editing a workspace you can also determine whether you wish to make a workspace inactive or hide it in the workspace navigation. A count of the items associated with the workspace can be seen in the information panel on the workspace edit screen. If a workspace is empty then you are also able to change the type of workspace.

To move a workspace:

  1. Click "Workspaces" within the "Administration" area of the intranet.
  2. Select the workspace you wish to move.
  3. Select the category you wish to move the workspace to in the associated drop box and click save.

To delete a workspace:

  1. Click "Workspaces" within the "Administration" area of the intranet.
  2. Select the workspace you wish to delete.
  3. Click the delete icon and confirm that you wish to delete the workspace. Note that you cannot delete a workspace if there are items within it; these must be deleted first.

To delete a category

  1. Click "Categories" within the "Administration" area of the intranet
  2. Select the category you wish to delete.
  3. Click the delete icon and confirm that you wish to delete the category. Note that you cannot delete a category if there are workspaces within it; you must move or delete the workspaces first.

Allowing Access to a Workspace

Before a category or workspace becomes available for use, an administrator must grant permission rights to the intranet users. More information can be found in the getting started and user access sections of the user guide.

Further Information: