One current drawback of a Ning is that it doesn't have a native collaborative document space. That is, there is no word processor or spreadsheet built into Ning that any participant can work on collaboratively with any other participant.
There are, however, many options around this. Depending on what the Ning's administrator has set up, any of the following options are available:
We looked at option #1 before in this training. Option #2 is basically a link from Ning to Google Docs. You will need a Google Docs account created in order for this option to work.
If your Ning is set up for Option #3, you will see a tab that says "Google Docs" in the navigation bar. Clicking on that will bring up the following pane:
Here, you can share any presentations from your Google Docs account so that they can be viewed by all other participants within the Ning itself. Likewise, you can view presentations that other participants have shared. You can also create a presentation or upload a power point, but this will take you to the Google Docs site.
For option #4, you will need to create a box.net account. The free "lite" version works great. To do so, you will need to have an email address.
Once you have your account, in your Ning, click on the Box.Net tab. You will see a screen that looks like this:
This is where you put in your email address and the password you created at the box.net website. Click Login. Next it will ask you to create a folder in your "MyBox". By creating a folder, you will be able to share your files easily with other members. Go ahead and name your folder and click OK.
After you do so, you will see your MyBox space with your folder. As with any window on a computer, you could open (download) any file by double-clicking on it, and you can open the folders by double-clicking on them as well.
Go ahead and open up the folder. Inside, you'll notice that the folder is empty. You can upload a file by clicking on the upload link in the middle of the window, or you can go under the menu in the upper right corner. If you click on the menu, you will get this:
Among all the options you have is "upload", which will allow you to select files from you computer and then put them in your MyBox. After you do so, your screen will be updated. Here, I have added a .jpg image and a .doc file, as well as another folder.
To get back to the original folder, I can click back on MyBox in the upper left corner.
Next, I will want to share my folder with others. To do so, I can click on the upper right corner of the folder's box, and a drop-down will appear.
By picking the first option "collaborate", it will let me select individuals to share my folder with. I will need to use their email addresses, and determine whether they can edit the files in the folder, or just view them.
By the way, if others share their folders with you, they will appear in your MyBox as well. By hovering over them, you will see who the owner is, as well as how many collaborators and what your permission is.
Unlike Box.net, Zoho is a collaborative online site, meaning that people can edit their files via the internet instead of downloading and then re-uploading the files. Zoho is very much like Google Docs, only not as well known. However, Ning has a plugin for it.
If your Ning's administrator added Zoho to the Ning, you can use that to share files. Just like Box.net, you will need to create a free account. However, you can start on your Ning. Click on the Zoho Docs tab, and you will see a screen like this:
Here, you can click on the sign up link to get started. Even better, if you have a Google account or a Yahoo account, you can click on the button in the lower row, and it will use the same information from your other account (no signing up necessary).
After you have signed in, your screen will change. You now will see something that looks like this:
Much like a Google Docs screen, it lists all the files that you have. When you hover over one, two icons will appear. The one with the red x will delete the file. The one with a hand holding a piece of paper will let you share the document with other users, bringing up a field to type in their email addresses.
By clicking on the title of the file, it will open it up in a different window and make it available to edit.
You will also notice that you can create a new document. If you click on the New Doc link, it will let you choose from a document, spreadsheet or presentation.
There is an even easier way to access other people's files if you are using option #3, #4, or #5 (Google Docs presentations, Box.net, or Zoho). If you go to the Members tab, you will see a list of all the members. Click on one the member's names to go to his/her profile.
After you click on their name, their profile page will come up. On the left side, you will see a pane that looks like this:
Click on the bottom link, where it says that person's Apps. Clicking on the link will bring up all of the files they have shared by either of the last 3 methods (for Zoho, you will still need to have an account).
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Date last modified: October 21, 2009.
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