Getting Started with Zillable

This guide discusses the minimum number of steps required to jump-start your use of Zillable in your own secure collaboration network.

Introduction

Zillable aims to accelerate innovation, enhance collaboration, and foster continuous improvement through a suite of tools designed to improve team communications and dynamics.

Zillable allows you to create a secure private collaboration network to which you can add or invite your own team members. Anyone who creates a private collaboration network on Zillable automatically becomes a member of our public network. Although active participation in our public network is optional, we hope you and your team will share its knowledge across the board, as a way of giving back.

Using Zillable, you can create Spaces that link you to other members of your network with the same interests. Spaces may be public or private. Anyone can join and communicate with one another in public Spaces. On the other hand, only members can communicate with each other on private Spaces.

Boards are another of Zillable's killer features. From within a Space, you can create Boards revolving around topics of common interest to the Space's members. Boards can represent a number of different things within your private network.  Use boards to enhance a challenge, manage a project, evaluate ideas, create workflows, or as a means to further develop anything on your network.

Zillable's free Basic plan is ideal for evaluation, light users, and small organizations. With this plan, you can try Zillable's premium features to see what paid plan is right for you. There is no limit to the number of people you can add to your network. Moreover, you can easily upgrade to a paid plan when you're ready. To see our paid plans, click here.

Signing Up for a Zillable Account and Creating a Private Network

If you don't have a Zillable account yet, you need to sign up for one. You are required to set up your own private collaboration network during the signup process.

To sign up for a Zillable account, follow the steps below.

  1. Go to https://www.zillable.com.
  2. On the Zillable home page, click Create a collaboration network.
  3. Click Sign Up & Create your Network to open the Sign Up wizard.
  4. Enter your email address twice, then click Next.
  5. Enter the name for your network, then click Next.
  6. Enter your desired network URL, then click Check Availability. If the URL is already taken, enter another one until you get an available URL.

    Note: Only letters, numbers, and dashes can be used for the network URL.

  7. Click Done.

Wait for the email from Zillable notifying you that your network has been created. Once you get the notification, click the link on the email to activate your Zillable account, set up your password, and log on to your network. For more information, see Logging On to Your Zillable Account.

After logging on, you can start adding users to your network. For more information, see Adding a User to Your Zillable Network.

Joining an Existing Zillable Network

If your organization or team already has a Zillable account, you can ask your administrator to invite you to your team's Zillable network. Your administrator will send you an email invitation to join the network. Click the link on the email to join your team's Zillable network.

Logging On to Your Zillable Account

Once you have set up your Zillable account, you need to log on to the system to be able to access your network.

  1. Go to https://www.zillable.com.
  2. On the Zillable home page, click the Log inlink on the topmost right.
  3. On the Login page, enter the email address and password you defined when you created your Zillable account, then click Log In. You will then be taken to your Account Dashboard.
  4. Alternatively, you can link your LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+ or Twitter account to your Zillable account by clicking the respective icons for these services below the Log in button. Click Accept on the window that opens to link your social network accounts to your Zillable account.
  5. Repeat Steps 1-3 to log on to another Zillable network.

Zillable allows you to log on to all your networks at the same time, and switch from one network to another while still logged on to another network. For more details, see Signing on to Another Network.

Navigating Across Zillable

If you are logging into your Zillable network for the first time, you'll see a tour open by default. We recommend running the tour so that you can be guided across the system. Note that the tour is admin-configurable - it can be set up to run for first-time users only, or every time someone logs on to your network, or not at all.

Your Zillable network's home page revolves around a navigation bar on the top right that allows quick access to your News Feed, a hamburger menu containing your Innovation and Discovery tools, a Create Menu (denoted by a + button) for creating and sharing all sorts of content, a Messages box that contains all your direct messages, emails, and system notifications, a Help Menu that links to our Support Center and Blog, and a Profile Menu that provides access to your Profile page, Preferences, and other account-related information.

On the top right is the Search bar, which you can use for searching all content available across your network.

Below the Search bar is a secondary navigation bar, which points to Quick Links, and links to Discover, Notebook, Idea, Inbox, Profile, and Invite Team. Discover groups all content on your network for easy search and access, Notebook is where your notes, books, and tasks are kept, Idea pertains to all your saved ideas, Inbox links to your Direct Messages and Notifications, Profile opens up your Profile page, and Invite Team is where you can invite team members to your network (the Invite Team link is only available if enabled by your network administrator).

If you click Quick Links, a slide-out menu appears from the left. Here, you can see your Spaces, Boards, and Books. Click a Space, Board, and Book to open them up. Numbers to the right of a Space's or Board's name indicate the new activities under that Space or Board.

While navigating through Zillable, you will see tool tip icons everywhere. Clicking a tool tip icon displays context-sensitive information about the specific area in Zillable you are in, helping you understand what information you need to enter, and explaining terms and concepts behind Zillable's architecture.

At the bottom right of the Zillable home page is our Help button, which allows quick access to the Zillable Help Center.

For more details on Zillable's home page navigation features, see Navigating Across Your Home Page.

Managing Your Zillable Network's Sign-Up Settings

Before everything else, and if you are a network owner or administrator, you need to set up your Zillable network's sign-up settings so that your teammates will find it easy to look for and invite themselves to your network on the Zillable.com home page. To do this, follow the steps below.

  1. Click the Profile menu on the top navigation bar.
  2. Click Manage My Network.
  3. Click Network Settings, then Sign Up & Invitation.
  4. Toggle the On button under the Sign Up Settings section, then check the Always box if you want to make the sign-up link always active. Otherwise, check the other box below, then enter the number of days the sign-up link will remain active.
  5. Click Save.
  6. Enter the email domains that can sign up to the network, then click Save.

    At the minimum, you need to perform Steps 4-6 above, although you may also perform Step 6 below at this time if you want.

  7. Optionally, you may turn on the Do not allow registered members to change email address and Enable "Invite Team Members" for all network members buttons, set the default Spaces that new members will automatically become members of, turn on the Enable First Login Tutorial button, and set the minimum number of categories and spaces which members must choose when they log on to the network for the first time. 

Aside from making it easy for your team members to join your network from the Zillable.com homepage, you may also manually invite team members to join your network. This is discussed in the next section.

Manually Inviting a User to Your Zillable Network (for Network Administrators)

 If you're the network owner or if you've been designated as an administrator, you may manually invite users to your network. To do this, follow the steps below.

  1. Click the Profile menu on the top navigation bar.
  2. Click Manage My Network.
  3. On the Manage My Network page, click the Add People tab.
  4. Enter the email address and other optional details about the user, including the first and last names, and select the new user's role, e.g. User or Network Admin, then click Invite. To add more users, click the Check button on the right, then repeat until you are finished adding all the users you want to add to your network.
  5. Alternatively, click the Invitation tab, enter the user's email address, press Enter on your keyboard, then click the Invite button to the right. To add more users, repeat the process before clicking the Invite button.

Invited users need to click the link on the email invitations sent to them to verify their account and join your network.

Manually Inviting a User to Your Zillable Network (for Non-Administrators)

If you are a network member, but not a network administrator, you may invite a team member to join your private network by performing the steps below. 

  1. On the Profile menu, click Invite Friends.
  2. On the Invite Friends window, enter the team member's email address. If you are adding two or more members, separate their email addresses with a comma.

    NOTE: If you can't invite your team members, request your network administrator to set up your email domain as a pre-approved domain on the network.

  3. You can also invite your contacts from Google+, Yahoo Mail, or your desktop email client by selecting the appropriate icon on the window.
  4. Click Send Invitation to send the email inviting the team member to join your network.

Adding a Space to Your Zillable Network

Collaboration in your Zillable network occurs through Spaces. To add a space to your Zillable network, follow the steps below.

  1. Click the Create menu, then Build a Space.
  2. On the Build a Space window, enter a name, then a purpose for the space.
  3. By default, access is set to Network, meaning all members/users can join the space. To make the space private, check the Private box. This also removes the check from the Network box.
  4. By default, category for the space is set to General. Click the Category button to display the Select Categories box. Here, you can add more categories for the space, or remove the space from the General category.
  5. Click Done to close the Select Categories box.
  6. Back on the Build a Space window, click Create.

Adding a New Member to a Space

A member's ability to join a space is determined by its access type, which is defined when the space is first created.

By default, a space's access type is set to Network, which means that all members of the network may join the space without being invited.

If a space's access type is set to Private, you need to invite a network member before they can join the space.

If access type is set to Open, users are required to request permission before they can be given access to a space.

As a new user, we recommend that you set the access type for your initial spaces as Network. This ensures that anyone can view and join the space. When you're more familiar with how Zillable works, you can then set up Private and/or Open spaces.

Sharing Updates and Sending Messages

Zillable understands how important it is to have the right tools for communication. Just posting an update and hoping the right people will read it is not enough. Use @mentions in posts to tag someone to your Posts. People you mention in your post will get an immediate alert. You can also use !title to reference any created content on your network that has a title. For instance, if you like that someone created an idea entitled “New Ways to Use Mobile”, start your post with an @mention and insert the related idea into your text. You can attach files to an update or message, and share it with the entire network or a specific space.

Searching for Content Across Your Network

All content posted on your network is searchable. To search for content on your network, enter the search term on the Search bar at the top.

Managing Your Notebook

Your notebook serves as your digital footprints in your network. It contains all the content that you’ve created or want to remember.  From Ideas and Papers, to Poll and Challenges, and even Files and Spaces, everything you’ve created is neatly organized in a single content library, divided into the actions you can perform within your network.

To Create a Note

Notes are little reminders to yourself or your team. Organized into private or shared Books, a note is a useful tool to keep track of the things you need to remember. Have a favorite link you want to read up on later? Create a note. Have a thought about something useful but not really sure how to formulate the Idea yet? Create a note and come back to it later. Notes provide an unlimited number of snippets of thoughts and ideas and just about anything you want to tuck away for later.

To create a note, follow the steps below.

  1. Click Notebook on the secondary navigation bar to open your Notebook, which defaults to Your Stuff and contains all the content that you have created and interacted with in your network, including Updates, Files, Ideas, Papers, Inventions, Challenges, Polls, Spaces as well as any Drafts that you have created.
  2. Click the Notes tab.
  3. Click the + button to open a new note panel on the right.
  4. Enter a title and a description for the note. You may include any text and attachments to the note, although this is not required.
  5. Optionally, you can create a book to store the note in. For instructions on how to do that, see To Create a Book.
  6. After adding the note to the book you created in Step 5, click Save.

To Create a Book

Books help you keep your Notes and Bookmarks organized. Create Books for teams, projects, or ideas to help keep relevant information close at hand.

To create a new Book that you can use for storing a note, follow the steps below.

  1. Click Notebook on the secondary navigation bar to open your Notebook, which defaults to Your Stuff and contains all the content that you have created and interacted with in your network, including Updates, Files, Ideas, Papers, Inventions, Challenges, Polls, Spaces as well as any Drafts that you have created.
  2. Click the Notes tab.
  3. You will then need to create the note that you want to store in the Book. For instructions on how to do that, see To Create a Note.
  4. After creating the note, click the Add book icon.
  5. On the Add this Item to a Book window, enter a name for the book, then click Create.
  6.  Click Done to add the note you created in Step 3 to the Book.

You can view all Books you created from your Quick Links.

Managing Your Map

Map is your personal GPS, helping you connect the dots between ideas, papers, and people. Content-based connections help you visualize what your network members are thinking. Use these connections to collaborate on areas of mutual interest to network members, or as a springboard for ideas.

Just posting your idea on Zillable is not enough. You can’t just post it and leave it. Sharing your ideas with other like-minded individuals helps it grow and develop. Map helps you find those individuals. The Zillable Map contains 2 things, namely, Nodes and Edges. The former represents People, Ideas, or Papers, and the latter represent the connecting lines or relationships between those Nodes.

NOTE: The relationships between Nodes, as displayed on the Map, are based on tags that users set on their Ideas and Papers. You need to remember to set Tags on your Ideas and Papers so that these relationships can automatically be set by the system.

Using Discover

Discover helps inspire and innovate by providing a platform for all content created within your Network. Quickly see what others are working on and be inspired to make your own innovation through Discover.

Click the Discover link on the secondary navigation bar or expand the Hamburger menu and then click Discover to quickly get to Discover.

You can choose to show everything on Discover, or filter the content by category and type, e.g. Spaces, Ideas, Publications, Polls, Boards, Challenges, and Inventions.

Most items can be interacted with right from Discover. Vote on a Poll, Join a Space, Follow a Network Member, Bookmark, Share. Discover is an easy way to quickly see and be inspired by all the content on your network.

Switching to Another Network

Zillable allows switching from the network you are currently on to another network you are currently logged on as well. To do this, follow the steps below.

  1. Click the Profile menu.
  2. You will see the other networks you belong to at the bottom. Click the link to the other network you want to switch to. This opens the other network's home page.

Signing On to Another Network

  1. Click Sign in to another.
  2. On the Login page, enter your email address and password to sign in to the other network. For more details, see Logging On to Your Network.

 Logging Off from Zillable

To log off from Zillable, click the Profile menu, then Log Out.

Resetting Your Password

If you forget your password and can't log on to Zillable, follow the steps below to reset your password:

  1. Go to Zillable.com.
  2. Click Log in.
  3. On the Login page, click Forgot password.
  4. Enter your email address to reset your password.
  5. Verify that you are not a robot, then click Reset password.

Wait for the email from Zillable with the instructions on how to reset your password.

Summary

That's Zillable in a nutshell. Check out our videos and support site for more detailed help and guides. Click here to go to the Zillable Support Center.

Make sure to download our Android and iOS mobile apps and take your network with you on the go!

iOS:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/zillable/id1163564389?mt=8

Android:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zillable.pz&hl=en

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