The Discuss Application
The Discuss application is a great way to communicate with friends and colleagues over the Internet. Like online discussion boards, it has the immediacy of instant messaging combined with the permanency of email. People don't have to be logged online at the same time to see the discussion, and everyone can easily view all the posted messages, no matter when they were made.
Discussions are collections of comments posted by multiple users, organized together under a single topic. They are as easy to create and use as KeepandShare's documents and folders.
Discussions are organized by folders, just like other information in KeepandShare.
When you create a new Discussion, besides giving it a name, you have a short starter document in which you can place text to start the discussion. Your starter text might be a simple question or query, but it can also be as many paragraphs long as you like. You can use all the formatting and graphic richness of KeepandShare's editor. You can even place photos in your Discussion starter document.
Creating a Discussion
To start, choose the Discuss application and then the blue "New Discussion" command. You'll see the familiar document editor. Be sure to choose a folder to store the discussion in. Assign a Topic title to the Discussion and enter your starter text into the main document window.
The alternative method to create a new Discussion is quicker since it obviates the need to select a folder. Whenever you are viewing a list of documents and folders, you will see a 'New Discussion' command located just underneath each green folder name. Click on that command and the discussion is automatically placed in that folder.
Sharing Your Discussion
There are two steps to share your discussion:
- Use the Sharing Control to give permission for others to view your discussion.
- Give them a link to your discussion by copying one of the gray link boxes after you Save and Exit.
You can also set sharing at the folder level as well.
Adding Comments
You and your friends can then add or "post" to the discussion at any time by using the "Comment " button. Comments are appended in the order they were made, and each comment is identified by the author's user name and the time and date.
Your friends will find notifications in their Dashboard whenever there are new comments in the Discussion, and they can click right through from their Dashboard and be taken instantly to the Discussion.
(discuss application; discussions discussion tab; gray discuss tab; forum; discussion forum; online discussion)
