SW07610 - Plug-In: Introduction to the Plug-in

The plug-in is not essential to the use of Shared Workspace.

It is not currently available to Customer Members.

The plug-in is a small program that is designed to enhance the user experience in Shared Workspace. It is available to all Shared Workspace users. These are the benefits of the plug-in.

  1. Easier editing

Without the plug in edited documents need to be saved to your home workstation/computer and then uploaded to the Shared Workspace Room. The benefit of the plug in is that documents can be automatically saved directly to the Room.

  1. Rich Text Editing

The Rich Text Editor enables you to format your text, insert pictures and links, and check your spelling. This is useful for enriching the format of text, for example, in database fields with free text, discussion entries, and description fields

When you use Shared Workspace without the plug-in, the standard format for editing text boxes and fields is plain text. This means that text fields created with Rich Text elements (such as images, hyperlinks, or font changes) cannot be edited without using the plug-in.

  1. Create a file in Shared Workspace

The plug-in will enable the creation of files of standard formats such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint within Shared Workspace. Without the plug-in the files would have to be created on your home workstation computer and then uploaded to Shared Workspace.

  1. Drag and drop

The plug-in enables you to Drag and Drop files from your workstation or desktop into Shared Workspace Rooms and vice versa. Simply select the file(s) from your workstation folder or desktop and drag into the Shared Workspace location you have chosen for the file. If you use Drag and Drop to add a file and a file with the same name and type already exists in the new location, Shared Workspace will display a warning and create the dragged file as a new version of the existing file.

There is a limit to the size of the files you can drag into Shared Workspace. You should not exceed 9Mb for any file transfer. If the file is larger than 9Mb you should zip the file, then drag and drop.

If you are intending to drag a large number of files into Shared Workspace you must do this outside normal office hours (08:00 to 18:00) to avoid degradation of the service to other users.

  1. Synchronisation between Microsoft Outlook and Shared Workspace

The plug-in allows you, through the eRoom Monitor, to set up synchronisation between Shared Workspace and Outlook. Calendar entries and tasks created in Shared Workspace can be added to Outlook using the synchronisation.

The synchronisation is a one way process only - tasks and events can be synchronised from Shared Workspace to Outlook but not from Outlook to Shared Workspace.