Collaboration tool overview

Learning objective

By the end of this session, you will be able to:

• Understand the purpose of the collaboration tool
• Access a collaboration site
• Contribute to a collaboration discussion

Video tutorial

Video transcript

Overview

In this video, we will review the Zoomforth the collaboration tool. The collaboration tool enables you to securely add comments or request feedback throughout your micro site, with both licensed and non-Zoomforth users.

This video will define the tool, explain how to add collaborators, and the options available for commentary. So what does this tool do?

Collaboration tool

The collaboration tool streamlines your content creation by allowing you to comment and annotate microsites, review, record, and share your screen for easier troubleshooting, and share microsite drafts with colleagues, external stakeholders, and more. Any number of people can be on the site at the same time and have real conversations with each other so you can come to a consensus before the launch of your microsite.

Access

To begin, we need to grant access. The collaboration tool is designed with security settings to authenticate collaborators. Access can be provided to both licensed and non-Zoomforth users.

Please note that only account owners, account administrators, and content administrators will have access to the collaboration tool. Let’s move to our dashboard view.

You can access the collaboration settings in three ways:

• In the more options in the dashboard’s view, select the more dropdown and select Collaborate.
• Second way is the Collaboration button in the site details view.
• And thirdly is inside the site editor of your microsite in the upper right hand corner.

Authenticate collaborators

When the collaboration button is selected, a new window appears to allow you to add collaborators to begin to authenticate the collaborators. This is a familiar screen as it mimics our visitor access settings. For collaboration, you have two authentication options. Email or via SSO.

Please note, if the settings for visitor access are disabled, it is reflected here and affects your collaboration settings as well. So for example, if the account has SSO disabled, it will also be disabled in collaboration. Therefore, you can only have the email option available to invite a collaborator.

Let’s review each option now, allowing user access via email authentication, select email and then manually enter each individual address within the search bar or select the bulk edit and add more than one email address at a time.

I’m going to add my colleague Nicole. It’s really important that you select the send invitation option in order to ensure that the collaborator receives the collaboration link by email to access the collaboration site.

Allowing user access via single sign-on or SAML. Choose a single sign-on or SAML option. Then select your preferred single sign on setting.

Collaboration link

An alternative option is to allow a user access via the collaboration link. You can access it here in the upper right hand corner.

When a collaboration site is accessed via the shared link, it will provide options to either enter an authorized email to continue or request access to the collaboration site. When a request access button is clicked, it will send an email notification to the account and content admins and they can either approve or deny the access request.

You can view the pending access here. When selected, it will showcase anyone who has selected the link and requested access. Here you can accept or deny, accordingly.

How to start or join a discussion

Copy the collaboration URL to a new tab to open the collaboration site. The gray field at the bottom of the screen is where you can access all of the collaboration commands. The far left side indicates how you’re logged in as, which email.

The right side offers communication commands. Review existing comments throughout your site, or add a comment of your own using the speech bubble. When selected, your cursor will change to a purple colored pointer, indicating you can now add a comment to any section or element within the site.

Click on the section or element you want to comment on. Type your comment in the comment box and click save to add your comment.

Here, you can tag a collaborator, attach files, record voice or video notes or screen share. Whatever way your team likes to share feedback, we’ve got you covered.

Tag a colleague

Let’s add a suggestion to this heading. I’m going to tag my colleague, Gabriella. Tags are a useful way to record and save decisions about a site’s content. They can serve as a valuable reference for future use and help in version tracking in the evolution of your site.

Chat GPT integration

Now, what if you’d like assistance in generating copy? Well, get excited because we’ve unleashed the chat GPT integration, bringing AI powered copywriting directly to your fingertips.

Say farewell to the hassle of toggling between multiple windows or tabs. Simply highlight the text, and a rewrite prompt will come up with alternatives. With a click of a button, this powerful tool will give you new ideas. Select the refresh button for even more choices.

If you’d rather express your own prompts or ideas, choose the Ask GPT option. Need brevity? Just say, rewrite to 10 words or fewer. Craving that Steve Jobs’ flair? Command it, saying, rephrase using Steve Jobs’ writing style.

My favorite, though, is asking chatGPT to reword in the voice of a pirate. Ahoy there, there it is. Either way, this AI feature has you covered.

Huddle

Next is the huddle option. When selected, a message will appear on the pop-up browser asking you to allow access to the microphone. If you’ve already enabled this, you should be good to go.

The discussion tools will now appear. Participants have quite a few options to mute yourself, turn on video, screen share, enable an on-screen mouse pointer, or invite collaborators to join the huddle.

Collaborating through comments and discussions creates a lively and inclusive interaction. This promotes open communication, transparency, and ensures everyone is able to contribute to the overall look and feel of the site.

Comment Status

Lastly, we have the comment status bar. Keeping track of the number or statuses of commented comments is an essential component of collaborative work, and this provides a clear means of organizing tasks and conversations.

To add a status or progress in a comment, simply select the drop down. Here, you have an option to indicate the status is open, in progress, or results. You can also select the process indicator on the top right-hand corner to filter comments by sites that you’re collaborating on, comments, or notes assigned to you or added by you, and more.

Go ahead and leverage this tool on each sub-page of your microsite, bringing all stakeholders together in the site building experience.

For information on how to add the Collaboration tool to your account, contact support@zoomforth.com.

For more information on how to use the platform, please see the other modules in the Academy series.