Community Platform User Guide
Accessing the Community
1. Navigate to your Community's URL. If you are not already signed in, you will be redirected to the login page.
2. If you are not signed in, enter your membership account credentials and click Login
3. If already signed in, or after signing in to your account, you will be redirected to the Communities home page. Click a community to view its Community Page.
Community Page
4. The Community Page contains four tabs:
- Community Members list
- Community Information page
- Posts, which contains all Member discussions
- File Library
The Posts tab is selected by default
5. The Community Members tab displays all members that belong to the community and can be filtered using the search field. The community list can be exported to Excel.
6. The Community information tab can contain important notes added by the Community Moderators. Moderators have access to edit the contents of this page.
7. The File Library tab contains a repository of files uploaded by Members and Moderators. Files can be saved inside folders or directly in the main file list. There are options for both a text search and a tag search to filter listed files.
Creating a New Post
8. To create a new Post, click the Submit a new Post button. The button is at the top of the page by default and moves to the bottom right of the window when scrolling down.
Below shows the location of the new Post button in its default location
9. And the location of the new Post button when scrolling down the Posts page
10. A popup dialogue will then appear. Enter the title of the Post and your Comment.
11. Then, click the Add Post button to create your Post.
Uploading Files
12. Click the File Library tab from the Community Page. Then click the Upload New File button
13. Select a folder to save your file, if desired. Then, give your file a friendly name.
You have the option to either upload a file directly to the Community File Library OR enter a URL where the file can be located. Entering a URL is helpful when you want to collaborate on a live document, for example.
Finally, you can enter a comma-separated list of tags you would like to be used to identify the document in a search and click the Add button to complete the file upload process.
Subscribing to Posts
14. On the Community Page, Posts section, click the Subscribe button to receive an email notification when new Comments are added to that Post.
NOTE: You will automatically be subscribed to a Post that you create as well as one that you comment on.
Editing Posts/Comments
15. Post/Comment Authors have access to Edit and Delete their Posts/Comments. Moderators also have this ability.
To Edit, Click the Edit button for the respective Post/Comment. A popup dialogue will appear where you can edit the Post Title or the Comment.
Replying to a Post
16. On the Posts section of the Community Page, click the Reply to This Conversation button. A popup dialogue will appear where you can enter your comment.
The Reply to This Conversation button has similar behavior as the new Post button and will float at the bottom of the page when scrolling down.
17. After typing your Comment, click the Add Comment button to submit. Your comment will be added and subscribed Members will be notified via email.
Likes/Quoting
18. You can Quote a Member's Comment by clicking the Reply with Quote button at the bottom of their Comment. This will open a Comment popup dialogue where you can enter a response to the Member's Comment. Once submitted, your Comment will have the other Member's Comment in a Quote block above your Comment.
19. Click the Like button to Like a Comment.
20. Example of a comment liked by the Member
Searching
21. The Search Widget is located at the top of the screen in most views. Enter your search criteria to view a list of all Posts and Comments that have results relevant to your search criteria.
File searches should be made in a Community's respective File Library
Recent Posts
22. The Recent Posts Widget is located at the bottom of the page in most views. The three most recent Posts are listed in this widget.
Subscriptions
23. The My Subscriptions page allows you to modify how often you receive a digest of recent post activity as well as for which Communities you receive email notifications when a new Post is created.
Subscriptions are edited in the My Subscriptions link in the Account Dropdown Menu.
Digest options set how often you would like to receive an email digest of recent Posts.
Community New Post Notifications set which Communities you wish to receive new Post notifications for.
24. Click "Update Preferences" to save your Subscription preferences after making any changes.
Profile Updates
25. Click the Edit My Profile link in the Account Dropdown Menu to open the Membership Information Update form in a new browser tab. This form will update your overall Membership Account.
Private Messaging
26. Private Messages allow Community members to chat directly with each other. Other Community members cannot view Private Message conversations.
You will see an alert in the Account Dropdown Menu if you have unread Private Messages. You can click the Private Message badge at any time to see your chats with other members.
27. On the Private Messages page, click a chat to view the private discussion
28. To reply to a conversation, enter your message in the text input field and click "Send"
