Help/FAQs

A: You will use the same username and password that you use to log in to the main site. If you have forgotten your login credentials or need assistance with your login information, click here.

A: From your profile page, click "Edit Contact Information."

A: Go to "My Profile”  and click on the “Settings” tab. Choose "Privacy" from the drop-down menu. This will let you control what information is visible to whom. After you’ve made changes, click the “Save” button at the bottom of the page.

A: Click the “Directory” link found in the main navigation bar. The Directory lets you search for other members based on:

• First and/or last name
• Company/Institution name
• Email address

Switch to the “Advanced Search” tab to increase your search to:

• City
• State
• Country
• Community
• Education

A: There are several ways to add contacts. When you perform a search in the Directory, you will see an “Add as contact” button to the right of each person in your search results. Just click this button to send a contact request. If you click through and view an individual’s profile, you can click the contact request link to the right of his or her profile picture.

A: Creating this virtual address book makes it easy to send your contacts messages through the community site to stay in touch, ask questions or even build a referral network. Additionally, when you view another member’s profile, you’ll be able to see any contacts you have in common. You can also choose to let your contacts view certain demographics in your profile that others can't.

A: Communities allow you to participate in discussions and share resources with other members.

A: Go to “Communities” in the main navigation bar. Select “My Communities” to view the communities you’re currently a part of.

A: Hover over “Communities” and click on “All Communities” in order to see a list of available communities. Click on the community that you wish to join and simply click "Join," then choose a delivery option for posts (Real Time, Daily Digest, Legacy or No Email).

A: Under "Communities" > "All Communities," there is a button called "Create New Community." This will open a "Manage Community" page that will prompt you to name the Community, set the viewing permissions, create an affiliated Resource Library and Discussion Group, and invite other users to join the Community.

A: Go to My Profile and click on the "Settings" tab. Choose Subscriptions from the drop-down menu. On that page, you'll see an option for Text or HTML. By default, this is set to HTML, and we encourage you to leave it set to this if your email client can support it. However, if you are having problems viewing the HTML version or if it takes too long to open, please switch to the text version.

For each discussion, you have the following delivery options:

• Real time: sends an email every time a new message is posted
• Daily digest: sends one email to you each day, consolidating all of the posts from the previous day
• Legacy: sends real-time text versions of the posts, which are compatible with Blackberries and most other handheld devices. This option also allows you to reply without logging into a web browser, but it does NOT allow you to include attachments with your post.
• No Email: allows you to be part of the group without having emails sent to you. You can still post and read others’ messages by logging into the community site.

A:  Go to My Profile and click on the "Settings" tab. Choose Subscriptions from the drop-down menu. Here, you will see a list of available communities and those to which you’ve subscribed. Select “Unsubscribe” for the discussions you wish to leave and click the “Save” button at the bottom of the page. You will get a message confirming that your subscription options have been successfully updated. This can take several seconds if you change your settings for several groups at the same time.

A: Click “Reply to Discussion” to send your message to the entire community or “Reply to Sender” to only send your message back to the sender; both links are located to the right of the post. We recommend replying to the sender for simple comments like “me, too” that add little value to the overall discussion; and replying to the entire community when you are sharing knowledge, experience or resources that others could benefit from.

A: Go to “Participate" > “Post a message.” From an email (HTML version) for a particular discussion forum, you can use the “Post Message” link in the right navigation bar.

A: If images are not appearing, it is likely that your email client is set to suppress images. This should be something you can change in your security or viewing options. If you would rather receive text-based email, go to My Profile and click on the "Settings" tab. Choose Subscriptions from the drop-down menu. Select the “Text” format option near the top of the page. Be sure to hit “Save” at the bottom of the page once you’ve made this change.

A: There are many features made possible because of the web interface:

• When you send an attachment through this new system, it automatically places it in the Community’s library and sends a link to members.
• Because it sends a link, you can share files up to 1GB in size and just about any file type.   
• All posts and associated resources are automatically archived and easily searchable.

A: Yes. Enter a keyword in the search bar. From the results page, you can filter on content type, date range or posted by. Click on "Advanced Search" for even more options.

A: Locate the community you are interested in viewing from the appropriate communities page. Click through the community's landing page, then click on the “Discussions” tab. If you see a post you’re interested in, click the subject line which will take you to the entire thread. “Show original message” at the bottom of all of the posts in a thread will display the original message that started that discussion. The “Author’s Messages” link will show you all of the posts that particular member has contributed to that community.

A: If you know which library the resource might be located in, find the community on the appropriate communities page. Click through the community's landing page, then click on the “Library” tab . If you do not know where the resource might be, enter search terms in the main search box the same way you might enter search terms into Google or another search engine.

A: Yes. Enter your desired keyword in the main search box. From the search results page, click "Show Advanced Search."  Then click on “Search for Specific File Types.” This gives you the option to specify file type: Document, Image, Spreadsheet, etc.

A: The libraries are populated in two ways: When you include an attachment in a discussion post, the system automatically places it in the library. You can also upload documents directly by using the “Share a file” link found under “Participate” in the main navigation or "Create a new library entry" on any community's library page. Library resources are not required to be associated with a discussion thread.

A: Select the “Share a file” link found under “Participate” in the main navigation or "Create a new library entry" on any community's landing page. Please note that uploading a document is done in a few steps, and each step must be completed before you can move on to the next:

• Choose a title for your document, include a description (optional), select the library to which you’d like to upload it, select a folder to which you’d like to upload it (optional) and choose an Entry Type (most will be Standard Files, but be cognizant of any copyright licensed material). Then click “Next.”
• Browse and upload your file. Click “Next” if you want to add tags to your file or click “Finish” (you may have to scroll down to access these buttons).

A: The system supports dozens of file types including hyperlinks, standard files (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), webinars, images and YouTube videos.

A: Tags are another way of organizing and searching for documents. You can help others find the file you uploaded by including tags when you upload it. There are many pre-loaded tag categories to choose from.