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Using Connections 7.0
Welcome to the HCL Connections™ documentation site, where you can find information about Connections. Connections is social networking software designed for the workplace. Its features help you to establish dynamic networks that connect you to the people and information you need to achieve your business goals.
Communities
Get together with people who share your interests.
Members - use your community effectively
Use community apps, such as Wikis and Blogs to share information, collaborate with others, and bring your expertise to the community.
Finding out what’s going on
Find out what's going on in the communities you're a member of.
Seeing who's in a community and communicating with them
Find out who's in a community, follow that community, and email its members.

Using Connections 7.0
Welcome to the HCL Connections™ documentation site, where you can find information about Connections. Connections is social networking software designed for the workplace. Its features help you to establish dynamic networks that connect you to the people and information you need to achieve your business goals.
- Accessibility features for Connections
  Accessibility features assist users who have a disability, such as restricted mobility or limited vision, to use information technology content successfully.
- What's new in Connections?
  HCL Connections 7.0 gives collaboration a boost with these new features and enhancements.
- Overview
  HCL Connections™ is a collaborative tool that makes it easy to connect with others and exchange ideas. Start sharing important information, building a network of useful contacts, and following people that interest you.
- Home page
  Use the home page as a command center to scan and manage items that need your attention. You can view your most recent project updates, check in on the people you follow, and review your action items all from one place.
- Profiles
  Use profiles to connect with others, showcase your skills, and find the people you need.
- Activities
  Use activities to keep a team informed, collect and share project resources, or to assign and track tasks.
- Files
  Using the Files app, you can upload, organize, share and collaborate on files easily. Files can be shared, tagged, organized in folders, and accessed from other applications, such as Activities and Communities.
- Communities
  Get together with people who share your interests.
  - Getting started
    Find out about communities. Then, search for the communities you're interested in and join them. If you've a mind to, start your own community.
  - Members - use your community effectively
    Use community apps, such as Wikis and Blogs to share information, collaborate with others, and bring your expertise to the community.
    - Finding out what’s going on
      Find out what's going on in the communities you're a member of.
      - Seeing who's in a community and communicating with them
        Find out who's in a community, follow that community, and email its members.
      - What's happening in your community - viewing updates
        Keep up-to-date with what's happening using the Recent Updates and Status Updates pages.
      - Sharing related communities with other members
        If you learn about a community that's of interest, share that information with other members.
    - Unsubscribing from community emails
    - Bookmarking important places
      Have you seen something on the web you'd like to share? Bookmark the site to make it available to community members.
    - Getting the discussion going in a forum
      Share ideas with others and discuss topics of common interest.
    - Sharing information in community files
      Upload, share, and work with community files using the Files app.
    - Assigning tasks in a community activity
      Add activities to your community to give members somewhere to assign tasks and to share information and resources. You can grant access to the activity to all community members, or you can restrict access to a subset of members.
    - Blogging your point of view
      Share your thoughts on any subject with others and get their feedback.
    - Creating information in a community wiki
      Use a wiki to share resources with your community and collaborate with others.
    - Sharing ideas in an ideation blog
      An ideation blog is a space where you can contribute and vote on ideas related to the community's area of focus.
    - Organizing your documents in libraries
      Use the Libraries app to upload, manage, organize, and collaborate on community files.
    - What's going on - scheduling events
      Use the Events app to share information about important events and dates relating to your community.
    - Conducting surveys to find out what people think
      Create a survey that allows people to give useful feedback on any subject. When the survey completes, you can analyze the responses to get an idea of what users think.
  - Owners - manage your community effectively
    Give your community and its members the tools they need to collaborate.
- Blogs
  Use blogs to share your announcements, updates, and opinions with others.
- Forums
  Share information, brainstorm ideas, ask and answer questions, and discuss topics of mutual interest in a forum.
- Wikis
  Tap the wisdom of the crowd by building a body of knowledge in a wiki. Everyone on your team can make a contribution.
- Bookmarks
  Use Bookmarks to collect and organize shortcuts to websites.

Seeing who's in a community and communicating with them

Find out who's in a community, follow that community, and email its members.

Before you begin

Restricted communities can include users that are external to your organization. External users' picture have an icon superimposed on them

external user

.

Procedure

Viewing a community's members

To view the members of a community, perform one of the following steps:
- Use the Members area on the community Overview page to view members.
- Hover over a member’s name to access their business card.
- Use the Filter by menu to sort the membership list according to role.
- Use the Sort by options to sort the display order.
- To find someone, click Find a Member and enter a name.

Following a community

Follow a community when you want to be notified about the latest updates to, for example, activities or blogs.

Tip: If you don't want to follow an entire community, you can follow specific content. For example, you can follow the entire wiki or a specific wiki page.

To follow community content, open that content and click Follow.
To follow an entire community:
1. From the menu bar, click Communities > My Communities and use the filters to find the community that you want to follow.
2. Click Follow this Community.

Emailing a community

Email fellow members to give them the news.

From the community's Overview page, select Community Actions > Mail Community.
Choose one of the following options:
1. To send the notification by using your default email client, click Click to compose using your default email client.
2. Use the email form provided to send the email.