Files overview
Files enables you and others to upload, organize, share, and collaborate on files easily.
Files provides an easy way to share files and ideas with people and communities, and a central storage place for your work. Files can be shared, tagged, organized in folders, and accessed from other applications, such as Activities.
- Working with Files as an external user
- External users might be partners, third parties, contractors, or vendors from outside of an
organization. If you are an external user, you can perform the following tasks:
- View and download files that are shared with you.
- Share files with people.
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- Uploading files
Click Upload Files from the Files screen and optionally add tags, comments, and specify sharing options. See Uploading a file.
- Opening and editing a file
- Open a file for view or edit by opening its file page and clicking Download.
- Downloading a file to a device
- Download a file by opening its file page and clicking Download. Click and specify the folder to save the file to.
- Sharing files
Keep files private so that only you can read and work with them. Share files with specific people or communities, and optionally allow them to share the files with others. See Sharing files. If external collaboration is enabled in your implementation of IBM® Connections Cloud, you also can share files with external users. This sharing includes people such as partners, third parties, contractors, and vendors from outside of your organization.
Or you can make files public so that anyone who can access IBM Connections Cloud can read them.
- Finding files
Find files by looking through lists of files in different views. Sort views by column and then filter views to list files by date, how they are shared, or by their access level. Search for files by using tags. Pin files that you work with often to make them easy to find. Finally, organize files in folders to easily group them. See Finding files.
You also can use the Thumbnails gallery display to sort through visual representations of files by using the Previous and Next buttons to navigate through the gallery of images.
To find the file that you need, preview file contents by viewing a thumbnail or by clicking Preview on a file's summary page to see whether the file suits your needs.
- Following files
Open a file and click Follow to receive update notifications. You receive an email notification each time the file is edited or a new version is uploaded. You also receive descriptive updates in your My Dashboard News Feed. See Tracking file and folder changes. External users can follow files.
- Access levels
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When you share your files with people, groups, or communities, you can give them Reader or Editor access. When you share your folders with people, groups, or communities, you can give them Reader, Editor, or Owner access. External users would have the same access to files and folders.
When you share a file with the public, anyone can view and download that file. See Using file sharing to collaborate with others. External users do not have access to view or download public files.
- Recommending and commenting
Recommend (like) files. See Working with other people's files.
- Commenting
Comment on files. See Working with other people's files.
External users can comment on files.
- Organizing files with tags
Add descriptive tags to files to make files easier to find later. See Using file tags.
- Organizing files in folders
Organize your files in folders. Like files, you can follow folders to receive notification when they are updated.
Folders can be private, shared, or public. Keep folders private so that only you can work with them. Share folders with people, groups, or communities and choose their access level. You can make folders public so that anyone can see them. See Creating folders.
- Versions
When you add a file, it becomes the first version of the file. A new version is generated if you restore a file from an older version, or upload a new version of the file. If you have the access to read or edit a file, you can see its versions. If you are the owner of a file, you can delete versions. See Using a file version.
- Trash
Move files to the trash to remove them. Files in trash are not yet permanently deleted until you delete them from the trash view. To find a file that you moved to the trash view, click Trash in the navigation pane. Other people cannot see or link to files that are in your trash. See Removing files.
- Synchronizing files (Sync)
Add files to the Sync folder so that they can be synchronized to your desktop, which allows you to work with those files offline. Syncing is a way to share a file and keep it synchronized when multiple people are updating it concurrently.
Keep your local files synchronized with files on the server. If you change a local version of a file, the changes are uploaded automatically to the corresponding file on the server.
Conversely, if you or another user changes the version on the server, then the changes are synchronized to your local file.Note: Being able to synchronize files depends on the desktop plug-ins being installed on your client.