Among a number of great presentations at this year’s Let’s Connect online conference an in-depth overview of Connections 7 definitely caught our attention. Here are some of the key points of interest.
Customize your experience
First, it’s important to note that Connections 7 comes with a tailored experience so that you can customize the app to fit your needs precisely. Because one size does not fit all anymore you can get the tailored experience through:
- Wizard
- Templates
- Highlights
Faster Communities creation
You can also create Communities faster with the new Wizard:
- Step-by-step process which guides users through the process of creating a Community;
- A clear design which reduces clicks and steps, making the process more efficient;
- The whole experience is available on mobile devices (tablets for the time being, phones will be included soon).
Templates will help you populate new Communities with:
- Layout
- Community applications
- Content (Files, Wiki, Blog, etc)
- Get consistency across the organization through Template Manager approved Templates;
- As Community owners get a great professional layout rather that working on design;
- Use existing content for new projects, thus saving time.
Highlights come with:
- Apps and Widgets side-by-side
- Improved layout builder
- Replaces Overview for new Communities
- Highlights is now the default landing page
- Aggregated views for Files, News, Blogs, etc.
Microsoft 365 Ecosystem Support
Teams Integration:
- One-To-One Chat: start a chat from the Connections Profile card, Important-to-Me bubble or Profile page;
- Share with Channel: Share with just a click a Connections page to your team in a Channel;
- Messaging Extension: In Teams, share a recent Connections Community, File, Wiki or browse your files from your chat window.
- Connections Tab App: Get the Connections Community app to a Teams channel so that all members can easily find important project information.
Outlook Integration:
- Reduce clutter: Save an entire email or just attachments where they are useful to others; shared File, to-do, knowledge article, etc.
- Minimize redundancy: you can send emails with links to Connections rather than attaching the same file again and again.
- Files
- Save entire email as .eml
- Save attachments only without email header/body
- Configurable sharing
- Upload to My Files or Community Files
- Status Update
- Post to Profile
- Post to Community
- Option to include attachments
- Activities
- Search for an Activity
- Search for Community with Activities
- Save as email or Todo
- Todo – assign user & due date
- Wikis
- Search for a Wiki
- Search for a Community with Wikis
- Editable before posting
- Include attachments
Sharepoint integration:
- Single access point
- One place to access all of your Community content
- Seamless
- Access to SharePoint documents and folders is now easier: view, edit, upload SharePoint files from within a Connections Community
- Widget or full-page view
- Embed a widget on your Community landing page.
MS Office integration:
- Edit Connections files right from the file viewer by simply clicking the edit button in Connections;
- Office files will be downloaded and opened locally automatically;
- Saving and closing will automatically upload a new version of the file back up to Connections.
Export to PDF
- Content Focused: PDF export creates content-only pages of Connections content without header, footer or side navigation, reducing the unnecessary clutter.
- Templates for consistency: Templates add corporate wide identity or project specific designs for consistency and clarity.
- Control: Community owners control if members can expert via PDF
- Supported Apps:
- Activities
- Wikis
- Blogs
- Ideation Blogs
- Forums
- Desktop and mobile devices
If you’re interested in learning more about this, you can check out the full presentation here for even more examples and demos.