Create Content

You'll find the content you need with Jive SBS. But if you use it long enough, you're going to want to make your own contributions. And that's where things get interesting. As you join others in the community — getting answers to your questions, finding documents you need day to day, reading others' thoughts in a blog — you'll discover ideas you wouldn't otherwise have seen. And you'll want to get them out of your head and into your community.

Ask a question, get some quick feedback. Discussions are great for those brief questions and comments. It might start with a simple question.

1. Click New > Discussion to start asking a question or make a quick post to find out what others think. If you're prompted, select a place for your post -- choose from places you've visited or browse for the right one.
   
   
2. Mark your post if it's a question. You can simply post a comment for feedback from others. But if you're asking a question, be sure to mark your post so that others know you'd like an answer.
   
   
3. Tell others which responses got you where you wanted to go. When someone responds to your question with a post that's helpful or correct, mark it as such so that others know which is the best answer. You and others get status points for helpful and correct answers.
   
   

Create a document to preserve team thoughts. Documents and uploaded files give you a way to get content into the community. With documents, you edit the content right in Jive SBS. You and others can work on the same document and it's searchable. As you'll see later, you can also specify that other people should review or approve the content. By uploading a file, on the other hand, you can add something that was created outside Jive SBS. Uploading the file makes it available to other people; you can tag the uploaded file to make sure it gets found.

A document is for capturing information that others on the team would be interested in (or might just need) — things like agendas, plans, meeting notes, equipment lists, and the like. They're team documents and they tend to be more long-lived than a blog post.

1. Click New > Document to start a new document.
   
   
2. Start a new document by picking a place where you want it to go. Notice that one of the locations is "Your Documents". Create a document there when you want one that might be just for yourself.
   
   
3. Give the document a title and type your content in the editing window. Notice that you can work on the document using tools that are like those included in most word processors.
   Note: On the right side of the toolbar, you can also click HTML to view and edit the HTML markup for the content you're working on. Think of this as a power user feature -- edit the HTML carefully!
   
   
   
4. Add tags to describe the document to other people. This is one of best things you can do for your team. As you and other people add tags, you'll develop your own expressions to describe the content you all use. For those expressions to be most useful, try to use existing tags whenever possible. You can type the tag names, letting Jive SBS finish the name where the tag already exists; you can also click the tag in the Popular Tags list to add the tag to the document.
   
   
5. You can click Save and Continue to save your work and keep writing or click Save Draft to finish later. Click Publish when you're ready for others to see your document.
6. After you've published the document, notice that the Actions list lists tasks related to the document. In particular, notice the Manage versions and Manage collaboration links. Click Manage versions to display a page that lists versions of the document. You can select document versions in the list to compare changes to the document over time. The comparison shows additions and deletions.
   
   
   Tip: You can make a document from a discussion. View the discussion in the community, then click the Convert thread to document link under Actions.

Upload an Office document so it's easier to find and comment on. Keeping the document in the community can save you the trouble of emailing it for reviews or keeping it on a shared file system. In the community, it can be found when searching, bookmarked, and tracked using notifications.

1. Click New > Document to start a new document.
2. In the dialog box that appears, click Upload a file, then choose a location.
3. Click the Browse button to browse for the document you want to upload.
4. If you want, type a description in the editing window.
5. Add tags to help people find the document.
6. You can click Save draft to save your work to come back to later. Click Publish when you're ready for others to see your document.
7. After you've saved or published an Office document, you'll get a preview of the document you can search, browse and comment on.
8. Click the Add inline comment button to add a comment next to the text it's associated with.

Post your views to your blog. While documents are often authored by the team, blogs are for more individual kinds of content. A blog might be the voice of a department (such as human resources) or of an individual (such as you). A blog is a like a column in a newspaper — it's there when you look for it, now and then offering something new to read. Unlike a newspaper column, though, others can comment on a blog.

If you've got a blog, you might post your views on something you just read that others in the organization might be interested in. Or you could evaluate or summarize something for the team, providing a way for others to give feedback through their comments on your blog.

1. Click New > Blog Post to post to your blog.
   
   
2. If you're prompted, select the place where you want your blog post to appear.
3. Notice that the blog editing page is very much like the discussion and document editing pages: you can use the editor to add and format content. Notice, too, that you get a number of shortcuts to tools that are specific to blogs. You can view the posts you've made, comments to your posts, trackbacks (links to other sites that have linked to your blog), and blog options such as moderation and feed settings. The Extended Options section expands when you click its title. There, you can set options specific to this post — even set it to be published at a certain time.
4. In the editing window, type a title and the content of your blog post.
   
   
5. You can Save a draft of the post before you publish. As with discussions and documents, be sure to add tags before you click Publish; tags will help your post be easier for others to find.

Upload video. If your community supports it, you can upload video for others in the community to watch. If you have a webcam, you can even record your own video. As

1. Click New > Video to start uploading.
   
   
2. If you're prompted, select the place where you want the video to be kept. You can upload a video to your own profile, where you can view it. You can also upload it to other places in the community.
3. On the Create New Video page, select the place where you want the video to be kept.
4. Add a title and description.
5. Choose whether you want to upload a video file or record a new video from your webcam. After you click Upload, it might take some time for the video to be prepared for display. Until it's ready, you won't be able to view it in the community.
   
   
6. As with other content, you can add tags to make your video easier to find.
7. Once the video has uploaded, click Publish to make it available in the community.