Working with Communities

Add a Contact

You can start building your community by adding contacts. Click the My Contacts link at the top of your screen. Next, click the "Add" icon. To add a contact, enter the person"s email address. You can check their eXpresso status by clicking the Check Status button. This will let you know if they are a registered eXpresso user. If they are not, you will be prompted to invite them to join eXpresso when you add the contact. Next, fill in the remaining contact information and click "Add Contact."

You may want to remind your contacts to add no-reply@expressocorp.com to their list of allowed senders of email so that your invitations and alerts are not placed in a spam or junk folder.

Share a File

Click the box next to the file you want to share. Click the Share icon from the toolbar. If the person you want to share the file with is a member of your contacts, set the Select From dropdown to My Contacts and select the highlight the person's name in your list of contacts. Click Add. If the person is not a member of your contacts, set the drop down box to Other Users and type the person's email address. Click Add. Next, assign rights to each user by expanding the rights view next to the user"s email address. Check the box for each right you want to assign and the close the rights box. You may add a note to be sent to your contact if you would like. When all of the users have been added and right shave been assigned, click Share.

eXpresso does not email files. Instead, it sends a link to the file to those you invite. This way, you are in control of who can access your file and what privileges or "roles" they are assigned. Your contacts will find your file in their "Shared Files" folder.

Share a File with a non-eXpresso User

If the person is not a member of your contacts, set the drop down box to Other Users and type the person"s email address. Click Add. They will receive an email with your invitation and instructions on how to register for a free eXpresso trial.

Assign Rights

You have the option of assigning different rights or combinations of rights to each user with whom you share a file. The following rights are available:

View Only: This user may see your file online but may not make any changes, or download it to their desktop. For Excel and PowerPoint files, you may choose to "Hide Regions" if you don't want the contact to see the entire file.

Limited Editing: This user may make changes to your file, but may not open it using the Add-in for Excel or download it to their desktop. By default, the user will be able to see and edit the entire file, but for Excel and PowerPoint you may limit which portions of the file they may edit and see by choosing to "Set Limits."

Full Editing: This user may see and edit any portion of your file either online or offline using the eXpresso Add-in.

Troubleshooting Sharing Issues

We are sometimes asked, "I've shared a file with someone and they can't find it. What should I do?" Here are the most common issues related to sharing a file:

The contact with whom you have shared the file will find it in their "Shared Files" folder. Ask them to make sure they are looking there and not in the "My Files" folder.
Many people have more than one email address. Make sure you have used the same email address to share the file as your contact used to sign up for eXpresso.
The file must be accepted before it can be opened. The user must log into eXpresso, access the "Shared Files" folder and click the "Accept" link next to the file. Users with full edit rights can also accept the file from the eXpresso Add-in.
If the user is trying to open the file with the eXpresso Add-in, they will not see the file if they have been given View Only or Limited Editing rights. Users with these rights must access the file online.

Set Alerts

eXpresso alerts generate automatic email messages when a selected user takes an action on a spreadsheet. You can receive alerts when users edits, accepts or rejects a file you have shared. To set an alert, click the bell icon next to the shared file. Next, click the actions for which you would like an alert next to the email address of the user. Click Save. Each time the user takes a selected action, an alert will be sent to your email address.

Chat

eXpresso supports 2 types of chat. You can have a general chat with any of your contacts who are online. Simply open the My Contacts tab and click the yellow chat icon next to any of your contacts. (Gray chat icons indicate that your contact is not currently logged into eXpresso.) eXpresso also supports file specific, archived chats. To chat about a specific file that you have shared or one that has been shared with you, click the lighted chat icon next to the shared file. If any users of that file are on line, the happy face next to their email address will be yellow. Click the box next to the email address or addresses of the people with whom you would like to chat. The chat will be archived and stored with the file for future reference.

Lock a File

At any time, you can stop your shared users from editing a file by locking it for editing. Simply click the lock icon and no one will be able to save changes to your file. Click the icon again to unlock the File. Note: Files will also be locked for editing when they are opened in the eXpresso Add-in.

Interact in Real Time

The sophisticated technology behind eXpresso allows simultaneous editing by multiple users. You can even use eXpresso's chat feature to have a conversation about the file while you are working on it. These chats are attached to the file and saved for future reference.