Managing project information successfully means having good communication
with other project members and staying on top of new and changing information.
With eRoom, you can
In comment threads,
announcements,
and owner credits for
all eRoom items (for example, "a database created by Joe Doe"),
a member icon appears. This icon shows one of five potential states, as
follows:
When you hover over one of the member icons, ToolTip text shows the
member's status. Clicking a member icon displays a menu with these potential
choices:
Contact via email
-- Opens the email client registered with your operating system, and creates
a new message. If the member has provided an email
address, the "To" field is pre-filled with that email address.
Contact via instant
message (eRoom Instant Messaging Integration Services only) --
If you're using the plug-in, and if the member
has permission
to use IM and has valid IM
account information, eRoom attempts to open Windows Messenger on your
local machine, with the member's IM name pre-filled in the IM window.
You can alert other members about new or changed items in your eRoom,
either by email, or, if you have eRoom
Instant Messaging Integration Services, by instant message. When you
send an alert about an item, eRoom sends the alert even if recipients
have notification for the item
turned off. The message (email or instant message) includes a link to
the item and a link to the item's notification settings.
In order to receive alerts in email,
members need email addresses.
In an eRoom, click ("send an
alert") in the eRoom control
bar.
The Choose Members page opens.
Pick or search for the
member(s) you
want to alert and click "OK".
The Alert page opens.
If instant messaging
is available, you can pick how you want to sent the alert, either by email, or by instant
message.
Customize the Subject and Message
if appropriate. The default message includes a link to the page from which
you are sending the alert.
Click "OK"
to send the alert.
If some of all of your recipients can receive alerts in the manner
you specified, a message confirms that your alert was sent; click "OK"
to return to your eRoom.
Note: From the intercom, you can send email
directly to a member by clicking their name in the list of members present.
Notifications
Whenever a particular item changes, or anything in an eRoom changes,
you can receive notification by email, or, if you have eRoom Instant Messaging
Integration Services, by instant message.
You can receive notification either instantly or overnight. For immediate
notification, you can choose to be sent an instant message
if all of the following is true:
You can choose to receive your email notification messages in HTML format
or in plain text format, depending on how this option
is set in Community Settings.
To change notification
settings:
In the map or in the item box, right-click an
item's icon and pick "Notification" from the pop-up menu.
To change notification settings for an entire eRoom, go to the map
and right-click the icon to the left of the eRoom's name. Pick "Notification"
from the pop-up menu.
Or, select an item's check box and click "notification" in
the command bar.
Or, in an email change report, click the link to change notification
settings.
On the Notification page, choose whether you want
to be notified about changes as they happen, just once a day, or not at
all.
If the choice is available,
pick whether you want notifications by email or by instant message.
If you
want email notification sent in HTML format, select that check box on
the Notification page.
Click "OK" to put your settings into
effect.
Note: If you turn
off notification for the entire eRoom, you can limit change reports to
the selected item.
In addition to standard notification
settings, a dashboard has one of the following notification options, depending
on the item type:
show in
My eRooms (for a dashboard item)
summarize
this {database | calendar | project plan}
in My eRooms
summarize
these items in My eRooms (for a multiple selection)
If selected, the dashboard appears
on the Dashboards tab of
My eRooms.
Change reports
Information in a nightly change
report includes:
the eRoom
or item name, the notification date, traffic light and status summary
(for eRooms, but not for items), plus a link to where you can modify your
notification settings for the eRoom or item being reported on
names of
database entries that are waiting for your approval or that are overdue
your upcoming
calendar events (this might also indicate your upcoming real-time meetings)
any other
changes within the scope of the report (eRoom or item)
In general, the changes eRoom
reports are when an item is created or edited. For some items, however,
eRoom reports additional change information:
Polls --
eRoom reports when a poll closes, reopens, is reset, or when its display
settings are changed. eRoom reports changes to votes as long as you can
see poll results; if you can see results and
votes, you can see voter names too.
Databases
-- If more than 100 entries in a database change between notification
reports, eRoom reports the number of entries that changed instead of their
individual titles. Entries moved into an approval-process step are reported
as "new" in that step. Detailed change information at the database-field
level is only reported in database-specific notification reports (as well
as database change logs).
Files --
eRoom reports new file versions when version tracking is turned on for
a file.
Using unread
marks
When you enter an eRoom, you see unread marks () in the
eRoom map, and on each individual item. Click on a map icon to go directly
to a changed item, or use the "next unread" button () in the control bar to read through all new and changed items
in the eRoom.
If you don't plan to read an item, you can flag it as read. If you read
an item and want a visual reminder to return to it, you can flag it as
unread.
To mark an item as read
or unread:
Right-click the item and pick "Mark Read"
or "Mark Unread" from the pop-up menu.
Or, in the item box, select the check box next to the item. Then, in
the command bar, click or .
Note: If you click or when no items are selected in the item box, the command applies
to all items on the page.
Offline reading in Microsoft Internet Explorer
Note: Offline reading
is available only if the site option
to enable it is turned on.
If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher, and you
need to work offline (when you are traveling, for instance), eRoom lets
you store and read elements of eRoom while you are disconnected from the
network or Internet. eRoom integrates with Internet Explorer's offline
functionality to provide this ability. You can take both eRoom content
and file attachments offline.
Note: If your site
uses Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), you can only use the offline reading
feature if the eRoom server name in the URL matches the server name in
the SSL certificate exactly.
To make some or all of
your eRoom available for offline reading:
Go to the page in your eRoom from which you want
to download content. For example, from the front page, you would download
everything in the eRoom; from a folder, just its contents.
On the Internet Explorer Favorites menu, click
"Add to Favorites".
In the Add Favorite dialog box, select the check
box labeled "Make available offline".
Click the Customize button to open the Offline
Favorite Wizard.
You can answer
"No" to the question that asks, "If this favorite [page]
contains links to other pages, would you like to make those pages available
offline too?" eRoom ignores any other setting because when Internet
Explorer synchronizes an eRoom page, eRoom automatically downloads all
pages at that level and below. To have the sync take less time, make an
eRoom page available offline at the lowest level that is still useful
to you. For example, if you are only interested in the "Status Reports"
folder in the "Consulting Projects" eRoom, go to that folder's
page and make it available offline instead of the entire eRoom.
You can synchronize the page manually or according
to a schedule. The effect on eRoom is the same either way.
On the screen that asks if the site requires a
password, answer "Yes", and then type your eRoom user name and
password (confirming the password).
The login information is required so that the Internet Explorer Tools > Synchronize command will
correctly obtain the latest version of your pages from the eRoom server.
Otherwise, Internet Explorer synchronization will fail without reporting
any errors and you might not know if your offline pages are out-of-date.
For the same reason, if you change your password, remember to update your
eRoom login information in the Offline Favorite Wizard.
Click Finish, and then "OK".
Internet Explorer begins synchronizing (downloading)
your eRoom pages and making them available offline via a "Favorites"
shortcut to the current page.
Note: Refer to
Microsoft Internet Explorer Help for
detailed information on Internet Explorer offline viewing.
When viewing eRoom pages offline:
Unread marks do not update dynamically.
In order to browse the contents of database items,
you need to make them available offline separately (that is, not just
as part of an eRoom that is available offline).
You can edit a file offline even if you have not
reserved it for editing before taking it offline. In this case, the file
is copied to your Files
for Offline Editing directory as if you had reserved it while connected.
When you reconnect, you are prompted to upload any such edited file, as
long as no one else has an editing reservation on it, and no one else
has modified it since you took it offline. Otherwise, the file upload
is prevented.
Note: Recycle bins in eRooms are not available offline.
) that point you to new or changed information.
-- no instant messaging
-- online
-- idle
-- offline
-- unknown
("send an
alert") in the eRoom 
) in the control bar to read through all new and changed items
in the eRoom.
or 
.