Helpful Hints

Remember to Publish New Content

It can be easy to forget to change a content to the "Published" state, or to "Published to group" if within Group Spaces, to grant viewing access of the content to the site members.  Since the contributors and administrators who add the content and can view it in all states, they can overlook the fact that regular users are not able see "Private" content unless it is published or made available to group members.

Working with the Page Content Type

Pages are a nice way to present information on a site, because the information is available right on the web page, and users do not need to download a file or open a separate application to view the content. However, we recommend that you enter and format the text directly in the body Text field, or copy and paste the text only from text editors like Notepad.  Copying and pasting pre-formatted text from applications like MS Word may result in formatting incompatibilities and errors in the pasted text.  It is best to use the content editor to format text within the portal.  See the topic on Pages for more information.

Security of the Portals

The portals are very secure, as long as the site members guard their usernames and passwords properly.  All information transferred between your PC and the portal servers is encrypted including the logging in, and the posting and downloading of contents.

User of More than One Portal

If you are a user of more than one portal and you use the same login service account on all the portals, you should be able to navigate between the portals without having to log in to each.  If you close your browser window before accessing another portal, you will be prompted to log in again.

How to Change a Password

Passwords are managed and updated through the service providing the user ID and password.  If your user ID and password were issued by the IMS Login Service or NIH Network, you can find the link to change your password by selecting Preferences in the User Account Menu located at the top right corner, and then follow the link under the Password tab. 

Review User List and Remove Inactive Users

Site Administrators should periodically review the portal user list and remove inactive users.  There are a few reports useful in determining whether the users are active and what permissions they have.  The User Access Log report shows when the users last logged in, and the Group Membership by User and Group Membership by Group reports show the memberships they have that may grant additional permissions to certain areas of the portal.

On the Users overview table, there is a Remove column that can be used to remove inactive users.  See Users for more information about the Users overview table.

Linking to Portals from Microsoft Documents

If you attempt to access a portal from a link in an external document, you will be shown the Collaborative Portal Login System page where you must identify the source of your login authorization.  If you do not have an NIH Network ID or an IMS Login Service ID, you will not be permitted access.