New improvements to page editing
One of the biggest requests we've received is improving features and responsiveness in the editor. Here's what's new:
- Instant Edit: Click edit and start making changes fast. Really fast.
- Add Page and News Summaries: News Alerts and Page summaries are easily changed in edit mode.
- Change the Author name: Give credit to the author when posting their content.
- Attachments/Categories/Tags: Add context and relevant documents to pages and news.
Add direct dialogue with Forums
Wikis and blogs are great for content collaboration. We have added Forums for structuring the conversational dialogue beyond the comment thread. Now you can:
- Streamline discussions and Q&A
- Link and integrate other parts of your Near-Time space
- Follow the flow of discussions with quoting and direct replies
- Integrate existing categories and tags for discovery
- Create your community forum as a separate tab
Sample a few of the forum possibilities in our Collaboration 2.0 user community.
- User Community Forums
- Product and Customer Forums
- Peer-to-Peer Communities
Enhance your spaces with Widgets
Near-Time provides integration with widgets and other Web services. This will enable you and your team to create "user generated solutions" on the fly. A widget is a micro-application that you can embed in your Near-Time wiki or weblog.
Enhancements include:
Near-Time will be certifying widget providers to ensure that you and your members have access to best quality widgets. You can submit other widgets by clicking here.
Visit our Widget Showcase to see the full list of supported Widgets.
Invite Members to Spaces
Near-Time brings people and content together without the friction found in formal content management systems. People are invited to become members by the manager of the space. Each member can then extend their own invitations as well. All that is needed to send an invitation is an email address or a Near-Time user name. Invitations are delivered through email, and joining a space upon receipt only takes a minute.
Once you have your user name, you can create your own spaces to account for your various communities of interest. New spaces can be created through the Overview tab. If you belong to more than one space, you can quickly switch between spaces using the spaces listing that runs across the top of each space. The spaces listing also includes a New Space and Logout options.
Work in Private or Public
There may be times when you want some of the content in a space to be readable by the greater public. The manager of the space can specify which tabs in a space should be made public through the space’s access settings, accessible within the Overview tab. Public access can be further restricted to content categorized as “Public”.
Clone Your Spaces
You can clone the entire contents of a space. Once the process has completed, a new space will have automatically been created, containing all the content and design of the original space.
Our Enterprise Plan features the ability to do a full or partial clone of any of your Near-Time Spaces. For more information on Cloning and how to use it, see How to Clone a Space in our Help Center.
Create Pages
The Pages tab enables you to create pages that become instantly editable by each participant in the space. As a wiki, participation in a Near-Time space is democratic. While the manager of a space has special access to space settings (like themes and public access), each member has the same ability to edit and comment on the same content. Near-Time encourages participation—version and change history is automatically tracked and you can always go back in time if needed. Page authoring is supported by simple wiki formatting. Each page can include links, images and file attachments, such as PDFs and media files. Feedback can be added to the page directly or appended as a comment.
Post News Articles
The News tab provides a team weblog, ideal for making announcements and sharing ideas. Each member can post a new article or comment on existing posts. Blog articles can contain links, images, or attached application files.
Link it all together
News articles, wiki pages, and calendar events are companion components to effective collaboration. For example, news articles are great for information sharing, while the wiki supports content synthesis. Ideas are often initially expressed in a news post, with a link to a wiki page for further discussion and synthesis. Similarly calendar events typically link to associated content in the form of wiki pages, such as directions, itineraries, and meeting notes.
Wiki syntax can be used to link your Near-Time resources together. Linking is also facilitated through the editing toolbar. When linking to an article, page, or image the toolbar prompts you to enter the name for the link and the title of the resource. As you enter the title, Near-Time will offer matches for selection in a drop down menu.
Interoperability with Email, RSS, and Weblog APIs
The News, Pages, and Events tabs in a Near-Time space each have a corresponding email address that you can use to post to the space directly through email. You can also subscribe to receive email notifications of changes made within News, Page or Events.
Similarly, Near-Time offers a variety of RSS feeds, enabling you to monitor new activity within a news reader. Feeds are available for all content or at the tab-level (New, Pages, Events). Attached files are captured in the RSS feed as enclosures – a quick and easy way to automatically capture local versions of the files added to a Near-Time space.
Near-Time supports the MetaWeblog API, enabling you to post news articles directly from external weblog editors such as MarsEdit.
You can also track other feeds from your Near-Time sidebar. Use an aggregation service like Google Alerts to bring in content from keyword searches.
Stay Notified
In addition to email and RSS notifications, Near-Time includes an internal notification system that enables you to quickly discover the latest contributions by your team. A star icon will appear on the spaces listing whenever new content is added by a team member. Mousing over the star will highlight the specific areas where updates have been made. The star will also appear next to any new articles, pages, or comments.
The Recent Activities option of the Overview tab offers a more granular view of changes within a space. This listing will point to the latest content updates and also includes category changes and new memberships.
Manage Files
The Files tab provides centralized access to the files attached to articles and pages throughout this space. You can download a file by clicking on its name. To perform other file management options (Replace/Edit/Check-in/Check-out), click the Manage button. Use the Check-Out button if you intend to update the file and want to let others know that you will be working on it. Use Check-In when you are ready to make the updated file available to the other members.
You can perform multiple file actions at once within the Files tab. Once you have selected the desired options, click Save to complete the process(es).
Task Management
By assigning tasks to other space members, you can manage project timelines. You can set due dates, task status, and mark items as completed. Space members can comment on the task assigned to them, as well as attached related files. Near-Time keeps a history of all the changes to the task timeline.
Review and Schedule Events
The Events tab enables you to plan and review upcoming events. Each event can include links to related articles, pages, files, or external web resources.
Categories and Tags
In addition to links, organization is enhanced through categories and tags that can be applied to pages and articles. Categories provide a group-wide classification scheme, while tags enable you to associate keywords or other useful metadata with a particular piece of content. Categories and tags can be used in tab-level and global content filtering (via Search), enabling you to quickly find the content of interest.
Search and Filter
The Search link enables quick key word searches as well as advanced searches involving a wide range of metadata (category, tag, contributor…). Searches can be saved to create dynamic views that filter and re-mix the space’s content based on a custom rule-set. Saved searches appear as links within the Search interface and are dynamically updated as new matching content is added.
Near-Time's Advanced Search now includes File and Attachment Search. Search within titles of Wiki Pages, News, Files, and search text within .doc files and PDFs.
Rate Your Content
You can rate your space content with the addition of a ratings system and sidebar. Enable ratings in the sidebar section of your Space management options. You can choose the rating terms.
The Space Bar: Master Control
The space bar along the top of Near-Time includes links to additional information and the ability to collapse the entire bar. Here you can quickly.
- Create a New Space
- View All Spaces
- Find out "What's New"
- Visit and Edit your Near-Time profile
- Manage your Near-Time account
Involved in more than one space? Stay up-to-date by clicking on "What's New In Your Spaces" (formerly titled Dashboard)
