Click-to-Skype is here

bCisive Online now has simple (and easy to use) Skype integration for two-way voice, video and chat.  Having a voice channel such as Skype is ideal for getting the most out of real-time collaboration with bCisive Online.

The click to Skype button also appears next to Skype-enabled occupants within a space.

How to tell bCisive Online that you are on Skype
By adding your Skype name to your profile, you can allow other users to see when you're available to Skype, and call you with a single click.  Simply click on your name in the People section (above) and add your skype name to your profile:

Notes

• If Skype isn't running on your computer when you click-to-Skype that's ok: it will launch automatically
• You can use your Skype settings to control whether people can see that you are online.
• If you try to initiate a conference by clicking on a second person's Skype button, you don't get a three-way conference call (yet) -- perhaps Skype will help us out with this!

Real-time collaboration overview

bCisive Online offers orderly real-time collaboration.  Multiple site members can access a Space simultaneously, but only one will be in control at any one time.

However, the other occupants will be able to see that person adding and moving boxes around in real-time, and everyone gets a remote pointer to gesture with while they talk over an audio link (e.g. try our click-to-Skype integration):

Learn more about the details of bCisive Online's features for real-time collaboration here.

What you can do when you're not in control

In a real-time collaboration session you may be in control, hence able to edit the workspace and everything else besides.  When you're not in control there are still several useful things that you can do:

1. Explore the workspace by panning and zooming
2. Use remote pointing and audio tools to contribute to the discussion
3. Request control

Using remote pointing

When you're in a Space, but you are not in Control you can still point with your mouse, and other occupants of the space will see what you are referring to:

This feature is mainly intended to be used in conjunction with an audio link.  Here Dan Prager is gesturing from a remote computer, and making a verbal point about the Question over an audio link.

Notes

• The Pointer of the person in control appears in red, everyone else's pointer appears in purple
• You can't see your own pointer: you just see your regular mouse pointer

Using audio and video tools with bCisive Online

Real-time collaboration with bCisive Online works best with an audio link (video is nice too).  You can use whatever service you and your colleagues prefer.  The simplest choice right now is Skype, which is now integrated with bCisive Online to allow one click calls.

With an audio hook-up to other participants your remote pointer becomes a real aid to discussion.   It allows you to point at a box on the workspace with your remote pointer, and everyone can see what you're referring to, whether you are in control, or not.

Also,  the power to edit the space can be passed around in an orderly fashion.

Who's in the Space?

From the Spaces area in the Home page of your site, you can expand the information about a Space by clicking on its black triangle:

Among other things, this tells you who is in the space -- the current occupants.  If you now enter the space you should be able to engage in real-time interaction with them.

From inside the Space, click on the Occupants drop-down to get a listing:

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 on the toolbar, and the Slide Presentation panel will slide out:

Clicking on the panel's Export button will download a PowerPoint presentation containing -- as separate slides -- the snapshots of the bCisive Online map that you have 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 undo.

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.

Controlling access to Spaces, plus renaming and deleting

To control who has access to a space that you own, or rename it, or delete it, click Manage from the Spaces area of the home page:

Only the spaces that you own will have a Manage link.

Details
In an organizational setting, not everyone should have access to every Space. To this end we have introduced a new set of roles to bCisive Online. In any given space you will be exactly one of the following, in increasing order of power:

1. Denied: The Space will not appear on your Spaces page, and you cannot access it
2. Viewer (coming soon): You can view the space, but cannot edit it
3. Member: You can edit the space, request control, and pass on control
4. Moderator (coming soon): Like a member, plus you can grab control, and you can invite guests (non-site-members) temporarily into the space
5. Owner: Like a moderator, plus you can set the level of access of other site members

When you create a space you will automatically be appointed its Owner.

From a space's "Manage" page

you can:

• restrict and limit access of site-members to the space, 
• control guest access to the space
• rename* the space, and 
• delete the space (not shown)
• set a default level of access for new users (members) of the site

Notes and tips:

• Appointing someone else a co-owner of the space facilitates hand-off.
• Owners can demote other owners
• Making everyone except the owner of the space a Viewer effectively freezes the space.
• Renaming the space does not kill hyperlinks to the space, but deleting it does

Save snapshots of the workspace

Although bCisive Online has periodic auto-save there are times when you want to go back to an earlier version of the workspace. Saving allows you to do just that:

• Before exiting a Space while in control, to keep any changes
• In case you lose work by accident, error, or technology failure
• To replay the history of a discussion
  

When you click the "Save" button the current state of the workspace is saved and stamped with current date-time (for now the time at the central server).

To go back to an earlier saved version of the workspace, click on the "History" tab and click on the "Revert To" button to call up the old version.  Tip: Consider Saving the current version first!

Wishlist functionality:

• Text comments when saving, for a more informative history
• Graphic preview before reverting 

Keyboard shortcuts

Undo and redo

• Undo* (Ctrl+Z): Multi-level undo
• Redo* (Ctrl+Y): Redo

* Apple users: Use "Command" instead of "Ctrl" for these shortcuts.

Delete a box or a branch

• Delete (Delete or Backspace): Delete the selected box and its children
• Excise (Ctrl+Delete): Delete the selected box only

Add a new box to a map

• Add sibling (Enter or Shift+Right Arrow): Add a new box of the same type to the right of the selected box
• Add child (Insert or Shift+Down Arrow): Add a new plain box below the selected box

Text editing

• Enter edit mode: Select a box and start typing
• Exit edit mode (Shift+Enter): Save changes and exit the text editor

Inserting a box above multiple child boxes

The most obvious way to build a map is by progressively adding new boxes below and next to existing ones (new children and siblings). However, you can also insert boxes into the middle of your map - new parent boxes. There are two ways to do this:

• Inserting a box above an individual child box
• Inserting a box above multiple child boxes (read on)

To insert a new box above multiple children, drag the new box until a red horizontal indicator line appears underneath the children's existing parent box.


Release the mouse button and the new box is inserted as a new parent to all child boxes.

Inserting a box above an individual child box

The most obvious way to build a map is by progressively adding new boxes below and next to existing ones (new children and siblings). However, you can also insert boxes into the middle of your map - new parent boxes. There are two ways to do this:

• Inserting a box above an individual child box (read on)
• Inserting a box above multiple child boxes

To insert a box above an individual child box, drag the new box until you see a horizontal red indicator line above the appropriate child box.


When you release the mouse button, your new box will be inserted into the map as the new parent box for that single child box.

Detaching and attaching a box or branch

To detach a box or an entire branch from your map, click on the box (or the parent box, for a branch), hold and drag it away to a clear part of your workspace. When you release, the box or branch will drop onto the workspace, detached from your map.


You can use this detach function to turn part of your map into two separate maps, or as an intermediate step while restructuring a map; detached boxes and branches can be reattached later.

To attach a box or a branch to your map, just reverse the detaching process. Click and hold the box (or the parent box, for a branch) you want to attach, drag it to where it should go, look for the red indicator line, and release:


Remember:

• Each bCisive Online workspace is infinitely big and can contain as many separate maps as you like.

Reordering sibling boxes

Siblings are boxes that share the same parent box. Swapping them around is a simple matter of drag-and-drop.

Take this example:


To relocate the Challenge after the Pro and Con, just click on it, hold and drag it until you see the red vertical indicator line to the right of the Con box, and then release:

If the box you're moving has child boxes, the entire branch will be moved together, as in this example:

Deleting a box or a branch

It takes only a keystroke to delete a box or a branch from your bCisive Online map. Just select a box with a mouse-click, then click the Delete button, or press the Delete key:

After:

If your selected box has anything below it - children, grand-children, etc. - these boxes will also be deleted. But don't panic! If you delete something in error, you can easily undo your action.

Pro tip: To delete a box without deleting, try excising instead.

Moving around the workspace: panning, zooming

A bCisive Online workspace is infinitely big, and you can build multiple maps within it. Once your map or maps get large, you won't often want to see all of the space you've used at once; here's how you can move around your bCisive Online workspace and focus on different parts.

Panning

You can pan around by clicking on any empty bit of the workspace and dragging it. This effectively displays a new part of the workspace in your viewing window.

Zooming

To zoom, use the slider or the - and + buttons at the top of the workspace:

Fit All / Fit Map

These handy shortcut buttons, next to the Zoom slider, allow you to zoom automatically to show the entire selected map, or the whole workspace. You can then identify and zoom in on the area you want to work on.

Interesting to note: Unlike in the desktop version of bCisive, in bCisive Online you can't zoom in and out on your map using the scroll button on your mouse. Instead, the scroll button does what you'd expect in a browser: scrolls the browser window.