Edging towards commercial launch

Starting tomorrow -- with the new look for bCisive Online -- we will be rolling out updates culminating in commercial launch.

For posterity, here is a comparison of the old public page, www.bcisiveonline.com:

 and its replacement:

To follow later this month, before we remove the "beta" insignia:

• Free sites will continue to be available, but we will be restricting the number of Spaces per site, probably to 3.
• Pricing: Expect a base rate of around $25 per user per month / $250 per user per year
• Lots of tweaks and improvements

Making a PowerPoint presentation

While bCisive Online is great for capturing a group discussion or problem-solving session, the resulting map can be large and difficult to present to others in a way that's compelling and encourages buy-in.

Using parts of your map to tell a linear story in the form of a well-crafted PowerPoint presentation can be much more powerful. And it's easy: no copy-and-pasting required. Here's how bCisive Online's built-in export-to-PowerPoint feature works.

1. Take your slide snapshots
Hover over a box and click the small camera icon in the bottom right corner to take a slide.

A slide will be created containing your selected box and anything below it: its entire branch (excluding currently hidden boxes).

Tip: Use hide and show to arrange the map as you want it to appear on your PowerPoint slides, hiding unnecessary sections.

After a few seconds, the slide counter in the menu bar above the workspace will update from 0 to 1. Continue taking slide snapshots of other parts of your map until you are happy.

2. Export your slides to PowerPoint
When you are ready, click the Export button next to the slide counter. PowerPoint will be launched with a new presentation containing -- as separate slides -- the snapshots of your bCisive Online map you've just taken.

3. Edit your presentation in PowerPoint
Add style templates, your company logo, headings, notes and so on around your map images to flesh out the presentation and tell your story. So much better than endless bullet points!

Related posts

• Compelling presentations: why diagrams are a valuable format for presentations
• Compelling presentations, faster: avoiding 'Death by PowerPoint'
  
• Presenting a map in bite-sized chunks: more detail on breaking up your bCisive map for conversion into a great presentation

Uploading and attaching documents

Uploading and attaching supporting documents to your bCisive Online map is often a helpful way to keep information relating to an issue together.

To attach a document, select a box, double-click to open the text edit window and click the Edit Hyperlink/Attachment button:

Next, click the Link to uploaded file button, and either select a file from the list or click the + button to navigate and add one.

Select a file from the list or click + to add one

Click OK and the document will be uploaded, and a link to it will appear in the selected box. When clicked, the link will open the document.

Clickable link to document appears in box

The document also appears in the list of attached files in the header bar of the workspace.

Note: You can also insert hyperlinks to online content.

Adding hyperlinks

When you're working with bCisive Online, it is often helpful to include in your map hyperlinks to useful websites and online information.

To insert a link into a box, double-click on the box to open the text edit window, and click the Edit Hyperlink/Attachment button:

Next, enter the URL to which you'd like to link.

Pro tip: You can also enter a text description if you want to. If you do, the text will appear as a link in your box; if you leave the Text field blank, the URL will appear as a link in your box.

When you're ready, click Save and your link will be displayed at the bottom of the selected box. When you click on the link, the website will be opened in a new window in your browser.

Clickable link appears in box

Note: You can also insert links to documents.

Excising a box

Deleting a box from your map without removing its children is called 'excising'. To do it, select the single box you'd like to remove and press Ctrl-Delete (for both Mac and Windows users).

The selected box will be deleted and its child or children attached to its parent:

After excising the Idea box

If you make a mistake, it's easy to go back: just press Ctrl-Z (for Windows users) / Command-Z (for Mac users).

Adding a box by double-clicking

In bCisive Online, you can add a new box of your choice to the workspace by dragging it out from the left panel and dropping it onto the space.

There is another easy way to create a new box: simply double-click on a clear area of the workspace and a plain box will appear.

To enter text into your new box, simply start typing. When you are ready, you can connect it to your map by dragging it near an existing box and releasing, or change it into a different box type.

Extreme Graphic Design makeover

In the run-up towards commercial launch, we're giving bCisive Online an extreme makeover.  Here's a taster:

Before (Current Spaces page):

After (early mock-up of the new "Home" page):

Click to enlarge

We certainly enjoy bringing in David Urbinder to help with this aspect of our products.  Inevitably there's a nice interplay between graphic and interaction design.

We hope you like the way we're heading.