Speed up your file sharing!

Image thanks to our friends at XKCD.

We have implemented a quicker way to share your files on CORUS by dragging and dropping them onto any open CORUS page.

Watch how in this screencast below. Note this only works with the latest FireFox, Chrome and Safari browsers. Waiting for Microsoft IE….

Readers of this blog will note we have a speed meme or rather a mantra. So anytime we find a way to reduce a mouse click or speed up some aspect of the CORUS platform we breathe a little easier.

Introducing keyboard shortcuts

Listed below are the keys which will speed up your CORUS experience.

- Create a New Message (home page only): m
- Upload a File: u
- Create a Calendar Event: e

- Open the Homepage: h
- Open the Calendar: c
- Open the Links: l
- Open the Files: f
- Open the To-do: t
- Open the Tags: g

Clicking on them will open the pages or let you quickly upload a file. Give it a try and let up know if we can add more.

Nature leads the way

This week we introduce themes to CORUS. Personalize CORUS by selecting themes to match your day or your company logo. (HINT: We are about to offer branding options. So you can brand CORUS with your company logo).

To kick this off, we have crafted 3 color schemes with more on the way.

Soothing Green

Vibrant Blue

Cool Gray

To change your theme, click your Settings tab and then make a selection.

I’m shifting to blue!

Creating a Topic and sharing it with people

In every business every day we communicate with a number of contacts at the same time in the same place. Some do this by conducting a meeting. Outside the office we may achieve this by creating a “community of practice”.

Currently, you achieve this face to face or by sharing emails and files. After a period of time a big issue arises!

We call this “Inbox Hell”

On CORUS we address this by creating what we’ve called a Topic. A topic can be about anything. A work project – a shopping list – a forum for a shared interest – a repository for research saved from the net.

Simple steps for setting up a Topic in CORUS

On the Topics banner click the +add button.

A Topic Wizard will open, enter a name (say – Project xxx) and a description (optional). If you have grouped some topic also select the group. eg. You may have created a topic group for a client.

When done click, Next: Sharing>>

Now enter the name or email addresses of the contacts you wish to share the topic with.

Once complete click, Next: Settings

The Settings page is where you manage email notifications. To keep your Topic members in the loop of updates CORUS automatically sends email notifications. The email contains a link which will open the topic.

Finally click, CREATE TOPIC.

Now you can add messages, files, links, calendar events and To-Do’s to the topic.

To recap. You only need to do this topic setup once. You can return at any time to edit the topic name or add and remove contacts by selecting Settings, on the left of the topic page.

What is my CORUS account status?

You became a user on CORUS by either being invited or signing up.

If you signed up, you either chose a free demo account or paid account.

With a paid account, you can upload files, invite users, create topics. Basically you get the full functionality of CORUS.

If you signed up for a free demo account, you can create a limited number of topics and are restricted in uploading files.

If you have been invited to use CORUS by a friend or colleague, you are a guest on their account. As a guest, if they have a paid account, you can upload and access all the information on the topics they have created. However, you are limited in creating topics and restricted from uploading files.

To check your account status login and navigate to Settings > Account Admin. See an example below.

Here’s our plan info page.

The Topic

In any business, through the course of a day, we work on many different things. You will send and respond to emails about those things. You will edit and share files with colleagues about those things. You will organise meetings to discuss these things. You might even bring some of these things to a resolution. So, in your business this thing might be a project.

On CORUS, we call these things Topics.

Topics lie at the heart of CORUS. A topic is a repository for messages, files, links and calendar events. (Much like a folder on a file server). Putting everyone on the same page means decision times can be sharpened and productivity enhanced.

A topic can be about anything. A class project – a shopping list – a forum for a shared interest – a repository for research saved from the net.

The topic wizard makes it easy to create a topic and add contacts in 3 easy steps.

Name our topic and give it a description. For example, “Marketing”. On the second screen add the people we wish to share the topic with. On the final screen there are some optional topic settings.

Once you have selected Create a Topic, the page is refreshed and you have a topic ready for Content.

Next you want to share some content like, files, messages, links and calendar events that relate to the topic.

To upload a file, on the left select Upload Files.

In this example 4 files have been selected from my computer and I can write a note describing what they are. When uploaded we will see the files on our topic page. Also 2 emails would have been sent to the members of our topic, alerting them to the recent upload.

So, to recap,we have now created a secure and private topic where our 3 participants are able to access, upload and share work related to the “Marketing” topic.

Bringing someone up to speed

Let’s say you have a new staff member or collaborator. Having just joined your firm/project, you are tasked with getting them up to speed on the status of your projects and the way you deliver them. How would you achieve this? We thought about this and came up with a typical scenario.

You would need to share some or all of the following items:

1. Existing emails explaining the work and correspondence to date
2. Files and documents
3. A calendar of events
4. Web pages of relevant research
5. Introduce them to the existing team members
6. Your workflow practices and procedures
7. Your supplier list and their contact information

Your task would start with a search through your email archives reviewing and setting aside ones to be manually emailed. Then you’d request the IT department to provide credentials and access to your file server. You then step them through the relevant files and the directory structure. Then you might open up your calendar and print it out so they could enter the items in their one. And depending on how organised your bookmarks are you’d have to perform some complicated procedure exporting them so they could be emailed. Finally you’d show your new recruit around the office and briefly introduce them to their colleagues. And then you’d hand over a copy of your work practise manual. Phew!

How long do you think this would take – a couple of hours, days even? Even if you are really organised there’s a lot involved and you’re guaranteed to miss things…

That is of course unless you’re using CORUS

Readers of this blog know we like to time things around here. Scroll down to see how long it takes to sign someone new onto CORUS and provide them with all the above data.

Here’s how

On the Contacts page there is a link – Add a Contact. Click it and fill in the email address then click Add and if prompted then their full name. When done click Finish.

You’ll see the newly added contact and click on the “Add to a topic” and a window will open…

..displaying your topics. Select Add to share and then check the message, files and links boxes and then Finish.
Important Note: Only share existing items if you want the contact to see all the material in the topic prior to when they are added.

Takes about 30 seconds. Maybe a minute.

So if you had your work ordered in topics and you wanted to bring on a new staff member, they would be up and running in minutes. You could then spend all that time saved getting them productive!