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The School of Information's WorkTools is a set of online applications design to facilitate faculty and staff research. Its primary functions are related to collaborative research between faculty and staff members - file sharing, announcements, and discussion, for example. You might use WorkTools to coordinate a research study you've undertaken with several of your colleagues so that everyone can share data and current information without using e-mail attachments or floppy disks. Best of all, you can add colleagues from other institutions to your WorkTools Workshop! WorkTools is easy to use. All you need is a uniqname and password and a few minutes to complete the registration process.

Quick Links

>Introduction to WorkTools: Highlights and Features
>Reading and Making Announcements in WorkTools
>Using the Chat and Discussion Features in WorkTools
>Using the E-mail Archive Feature in WorkTools
>Using the My Work Feature in WorkTools
>Using the Resources Feature in WorkTools
>Using the Schedule Feature in WorkTools
>Using the Tasks Feature in WorkTools
>Workshop Tools: A Little Something Extra
>Participating in an Existing WorkTools Workshop
>Creating a New Workshop in WorkTools
>Adding Participants to Your WorkTools Workshop

Introduction to WorkTools: Highlights and Features

WorkTools will help you create a web site for collaborative research or add your research to an existing web site. You will be using two different parts of WorkTools: My Workspace and Worksite.

The My Workspace area is a web page that contains links to your Worksites, tools to change your password, and a link to WorkTools online help. If you have Worksite administrative privileges (See Creating a New Workshop in WorkTools) your workspace will contain a list of all the worksites you are the owner of, and tools to create and delete your worksites.

The Worksite area is the actual web site where you and your colleagues collaborate. It may have been designed with many or just a few of the possible WorkTools features. One person, the administrator, creates and maintains the Worksite, and permits others to become participants. Each of the features in the Worksite area is explained below.

Reading and Making Announcements in WorkTools

Announcements are messages that are available for all members of a Workshop to read. The Workshop administrator may choose to have all new announcements automatically e-mailed to every member of a Workgroup. Typically, announcements are used to inform participants of changes in the schedule, tasks and policies, to make general comments, and to answer questions.

To read new announcements in your Worksite simply click the Announcements button. Now you can choose read any of the announcements listed or add your own new announcement by clicking the New button at the top of the page.

You will be taken to a "Draft Announcement" screen and asked to fill in the following fields:

Title (Try to be descriptive yet brief. Remember, your announcement will be archived in a long list.)

Enter or edit your announcement here (Don't worry about the size of the text box on your screen - you can type as many words as you need.)

Choose resources to link to this document (If you'd like to refer to a specific article, web link, or dataset you can choose it from the list of Resources.)

Save Options (Preview or Post. Choose Preview if you'd like to review your announcement once more before it is posted publicly.)

Using the Chat and Discussion Features in WorkTools

An online "chat"is a virtual area in which people converse at the same time. A discussion, on the other hand, is a way to organize conversations in written form. People communicate at different times in this type of discussion area. (More like a bulletin board than a telephone conversation.) WorkTools offers both Chat and Discussion features though your Worksite administrator may have decided to install only one feature and not the other. If you'd like to know more about online discussions, please refer to our Complete Guide to Online Discussions

Using the Chat Feature in WorkTools

  1. Click the Chat button in the Worksite area.
  2. The "Chat applet" will open, and possibly an applet signature box will open as well (don't worry if this doesn't happen). If In the "applet signature" window, check the box next to Always trust this signature and click Yes below the question "Before running this applet, do you trust this signature?".
  3. Once you are connected to the server the message "Connected to chat server in chat room (insert name of your worksite here)." will flash across your screen.
  4. The chat applet has three separate areas. Messages will appear at the left and the names participants currently signed in to chat will appear at the right. Type your message into the area at the bottom of the screen an use the Send button to post it to the chat.

Using the Discussion Feature in WorkTools

To open a discussion click the Discussion button in the Worksite area. Now click the Expand All button to view all the main topics and responses. Find the thread you want to open and click its link. If you would like to create a new topic in the discussion area click the New button at the top of the screen. A "Draft Discussion Topic" window will open requesting you to fill in the following fields:

Category (Choose a category from the pull-down list to the right.)

Subject (Type in a short but descriptive title. Remember that this discussion will be archived in a long list.)

Type your item here (Type your discussion item in this large message field. Don't worry if you need to type more into the text box than you can see at once.)

Choose resources to link to this document (As with announcements, you can choose to refer to a Resource like a journal article, a URL, or a dataset.)

Save Options (Click the Preview button to save the discussion item as a draft, or click Post to display it immediately.)

Click the Preview button or the Post button to submit your discussion topic. (Note: If you save your post as a draft, you can always access it later by clicking the My Work button and then choosing My Discussion Drafts and publicly posted documents.

Using the E-mail Archive Feature in WorkTools

All announcements posted to your Worksite and all messages sent to your WorkTools email group are automatically stored in an e-mail archive. You can look through archived messages, sort them by sender or subject line, and even search for a certain message or thread of messages. Click the E-mail Archive button in the Worksite area to begin using the e-mail archive.

As you can see, e-mails are archived by Sender, Date, and Subject Line. If you'd like to simply look through all of the e-mail messages use the Previous and Next buttons at the top of the page. If you'd like to sort the messages, click the column header (either Received, From, or Subject) by which you want to sort the messages. Now the window will reload to make the appropriate changes. If you'd like to search the e-mail archive click the Search button near the top of the screen and type in your criteria.

Using the My Work Feature in WorkTools

The My Work feature is probably the simplest feature in WorkTools. It's also probably the most useful! The My Work link provides a quick way to view all the documents you have created in WorkTools, including discussion drafts, posted documents, and all documents that you have "hotlisted," or bookmarked. To access your My Work area simply click the My Work button at the top of the screen in the Worksite area.

Adding Resources to Your Worksite

WorkTools allows you to add documents, electronic files, and URLs to your Worksite for participants to use. There are two types of resources: attached documents (Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, slide presentations, plain text, etc.) and links to other web sites. To view resources others have added to your Worksite, click the Resources button. In order to download documents from WorkTools click the Go to it button next to the name of the file you wish to save.

To create a new resource click the Resources button in the Worksite area then click New. A "Resource Document" screen will pop up asking you to choose between the following options:

Document (To upload and store a file (such as a Word document, a PowerPoint Presentation, etc.)

URL (To link to an existing web page.)

Plaintext (To type text directly into WorkTools for others to read.)

Dataset (To create a visual representation made available through SPARC.)

After you've made your selection click the Continue button. If you've chosen "Document" or "Dataset" a form will appear asking you to fill in the following fields:

Short description (Choose a brief but specific title! Remember this title will appear in a long list.)

Long description (You can use greater detail here.)

Attachment (Use the Browse button to find the appropriate file on your computeršs hard drive. Make sure the filename is all one word!)

Links to this Resource (Choose the place(s) where you want a link to this resource to appear: on the homepage and/or on the public homepage.)

Link Options ­ (Choose how you want the document to display: inside the worksite, in place of the worksite, or in a new window.)

Copyright Information (By default, the resource will be attributed to your copyright and the present year. If you need to attribute this resource to another source, type that information in here.)

For a Plaintext resource fill in the following fields:

Short description (Choose a brief but specific title! Remember this title will appear in a long list.)

Enter/Revise the text you want to share as a resource here (Type your text in here.)

Links to this Resource (Choose where you want a link to this resource to appear: on the homepage and/or on the public homepage.)

Copyright Information (By default, the resource will be attributed to your copyright and the present year. If you need to attribute this resource to another source, type that information in here.)

For a URL resource fill in the following fields:

Short description (Choose a brief but specific title! Remember this title will appear in a long list.)

Long description (You can use greater detail here.)

URL (Type the URL here. It is important to type the whole address, i.e.,
http://www.umich.edu, not www.umich.edu.)

Links to this Resource (Choose the place(s) where you want a link to this resource to appear: on the homepage and/or on the public homepage.)

Link Options (This option will allow you to choose how the resource will display: inside the worksite, in place of the worksite, or in a new window.

Copyright Information (By default, the resource will be attributed to your copyright and the present year. If you need to attribute this resource to another source, type that information in here.)

Click the Submit button to finish.

Using the Tasks Feature in WorkTools

The Task features lists all "to-do" items requested by the Worksite administrator. Tasks are listed in chronological order by the due date. To view the list of tasks for your Worksite click the Tasks button in the Worksite area. To navigate through the list of tasks, use the Previous or Next buttons; to see the entire list of tasks, click the List all button.

Using the Schedule Feature in WorkTools

Scheduling is another great feature of WorkTools! A workshop schedule may contain workshop sessions, deadlines, special events (FYIs), cancelled items, and more. You can view the schedule either as a calendar style or as a list. Switch between views by clicking the Calendar and List buttons at the top of the "Workshop Schedule" screen.

Workshop Tools: A Little Something Extra

Clicking the Tools button allows you to set preferences, ask questions about WorkTools, and report problems you've had using WorkTools. Here are your options:

Set personal preferences (You can choose between a graphic interface and a text interface.)

Send feedback or ask questions about these web tools (Use this form to tell us WorkTools staff what you think! )

Useful software tools (Here's a list of software that may be required to use WorkTools.)

Participating in an Existing WorkTools Workshop

So you've decided to join that research project after all! In order to participate in an individual WorkTools Workshop you must contact the Workshop administrator and request that you be added to the group. If you're not sure who acts as administrator of your intended group you can check the list of workshops. Make sure that you visit WorkTools and register as soon as you request to be added to a Worksite - the administrator can't add you to the group unless you're registered:
http://worktools.si.umich.edu

Click the Register button and complete the "User Registration Form". When you've finished click the Submit Form button and wait for your request to process. It can take up to two minutes for WorkTools to process your request, so be patient. When the screen reloads click the WorkTools Homepage button. Now you should be able to log in to WorkTools.

After you've successfully logged in to WorkTools you will see a list of Workshops you're subscribed to in the My Workspace area. Click on the name of your group to begin using all the features of WorkTools.

Creating a New Workshop in WorkTools

  1. Open http://worktools.si.umich.edu and Register if you haven't already. Fill in the "User Registration" form and click the Submit Request button. Be patient. It may take up to 2 minutes to process your new account.

  2. Click the WorkTools Homepage button and log in to WorkTools.

  3. Now you need to request Workshop Creation privileges. Click the Request workshop creation privileges button in the Tools menu. Now you'll be asked to choose a workshop layout. Next, choose the form of address you prefer and enter an email address. When you've finished, click the Submit button. It may take up to 2 business days to process your request.

  4. After you've received notification that your Worksite is ready open your workspace by logging in to UM.WorkTools. After you've logged in, click the Create a new workshop site button, which is in the Tools menu.

  5. Give the site a brief title in the box provide and check Yes if you would like your worksite to be listed in the WorkTools site directory, which can be viewed by anyone. Provide a brief description of your group's work, then click Next

  6. Choose a group email address for your worksite (@worktools.si.umich.edu will automatically be added to the address you provide) and click Next

  7. Choose which features you would like enabled in your site - you can change these later. Finally, click the Create WorkTools Site button. (Click only once. It will take a few minutes.) When the page reloads you will see your new Worksite listed on your workspace.

Adding Participants to Your WorkTools Workshop

To add someone to your Worksite click the Administration button in your workspace. Now click the Access under the Set Up Site menu on the Administrator Settings page.

Click Participants. From the pop-up menu, choose the first letter of the user's last name. (If you do not see his or her name, he or she may not be registered to use WorkTools yet.) In the list that appears, click the user's name, then click Add. Click Submit.

Still haven't found what you're looking for?

You could check out our frequently asked questions, contact the SN-ITS team for help, or take a look at the WorkTools help site.
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