IBM Connections Desktop Plug-ins for Windows

Overview

Use the plug-ins to share files and information between Windows applications and Connections or IBM SmartCloud.

• Upload local files from Windows Explorer or from the desktop
• Share uploaded files
• Work on files locally and publish them to Files, communities, Activities, or Wikis
• View people's contact details and get in touch with them (Not available on SmartCloud.)
• Pin, follow, or like files and folders
• View or contribute comments for a file
• Lock a file when editing it to prevent file conflicts
• View and restore files from the trash
• Share folders with Communities
• Use sync to keep local copies of files synchronized with exact copies on the server. (Not available on SmartCloud.)
• Use document management to manage community files in libraries. Filenet Document Management capabilities must be deployed. Not available on SmartCloud.

The following features from Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint):

• Features added to Word:
  • Add a document to Files or Communities
  • Attach a document to an Activity or Wiki page
  • Publish a document to a Blog entry
  • Search for content in Connections

• Additional Word features (Connections only):
  • Add someone's profile information into a document
  • Add a bookmark from IBM Connections into a document
  • Add a URL from a document as a bookmark in Connections

• Features added to PowerPoint:
  • Add a presentation to Files or Communities
  • Attach a presentation to an Activity or Wiki page
  • Search for content in Connections

• Features added to Excel:
  • Add a spreadsheet to Files or Communities
  • Attach a spreadsheet to an Activity or Wiki page
  • Search for content in Connections

The following features are available from Microsoft Outlook:

• Add an email to Files or Communities
• Attach an email to an activity or wiki page
• Search for content in Connections

Outlook Social Connector features (Connections only):

• View social activities for email recipients and people in your network
• Invite people to the Connections network
• View IBM Connections Business Card for email senders and recipients in Outlook 2010

Limitations

Some features are not available when we are connecting to an IBM SmartCloud server. For example:

• Type-ahead is not available to assist you in finding a group name.

• Type-ahead is not available to assist you in entering the names of external users in the Add to File dialog and the Share dialog.

• If we are uploading a file or email to Activities, the option to create a new activity is not available.

If we previously installed any version of the Connections Plug-in for Microsoft Office and Windows, installing this plug-in silently removes the Microsoft Explorer features from the older plug-ins.

You have two options for installing the plug-in. Individual users can install the plug-in, or we can perform a silent installation to install the plug-in for a group of users.

See

1. Performing a user installation
2. Performing a silent installation
3. Repair Connections Desktop plug-ins
4. Update the desktop plug-ins configuration data
5. Policies for the Connections Desktop Plug-ins for Windows
6. Manage policies with a group policy
7. Customize the branding strings and images for the desktop plug-in
8. Configure dynamic feeds for the Outlook Social Connector

Parent topic:
Install plug-ins to use IBM Connections in other applications