IBM Connections Desktop Plug-Ins v4.5.1 Now Available

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We just posted to the catalog the latest IBM Connections Desktop Plug-Ins 4.5.1. The IBM Connections Desktop Plug-ins Microsoft Windows is intended for Microsoft Windows, Office, and Outlook users and brings the power of social collaboration to the applications that end users work in.

With IBM Connect 2014 just around the corner, I'm going to hold off talking about any roadmap items. Make sure that you register for IBM Connect today so that you can learn about all the great things that are coming.

This latest version adds the following:

• Support for Windows 8
• Support for Microsoft Office 2013 (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook)
• File downloads via the plug-ins are now accounted for in the Metrics
• Based on customer demand: Now translated into Bulgarian, Croatian, Romanian and Slovak

Here's how the desktop plug-in looks like in Microsoft Word 2013:

Update 22/Nov/2013 - Here's how it looks in Windows 8:

Here's a demo I shared earlier this year:

To download, you know the drill.  

• Cloud customers can get it from the Apps -> Downloads section in the navigation bar as usual. 
• On premises customers can download from our catalog from here for the desktop plug-in and for the Microsoft Outlook sidebar plug-in, go here.

Tip: How to Change the Default View of Community Events

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The other day I was asked how to change the default view of the Community Events app within IBM Connections.

For example, instead of coming into the list view of events, you may want to come into the grid view.

If that's the case, your admin can go in and make the following change to the widgets-config.xml file:

..
<widgetDef defId="Calendar" primaryWidget="false" showInPalette="true" description="calendarDescription" modes="view edit fullpage search" uniqueInstance="true" url="{communitiesSvcRef}/calendar/Calendar.xml?version={version}" iconUrl="{webresourcesSvcRef}/web/com.ibm.oneui3.styles/imageLibrary/Icons/ComponentsGray/CalendarGray16.png" helpLink="{helpSvcRef}/topic/com.ibm.lotus.connections.communities.help/community_events_frame.html"> <itemSet> <item name="calendarRoot" value="{communitiesSvcRef}/calendar" /> <item name="communitiesBaseUrl" value="{communitiesSvcRef}" /> <item name="defaultView" value="grid" /> <item name="version" value="{version}" /> ..

For more information on how to modify this file, please read the instructions here. And that would do it!!

IBM Connections Mobile Apps Updated -- Adds Support for CCM

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One of the long awaited updates for the mobile app is now here. We have just pushed the apps to the App Stores and you can now access the CCM (Connections Content Manager) libraries. This is huge as you can now review files on the go and Approve or Reject right from the mobile device. Now, no matter where you are, you are not a bottle neck and people don't have to wait until you are in your desktop to review files.

Of course, all the social actions around the file (liking, tagging, commenting, etc) are available for files stored in the community library.

Here's how it looks on iOS and Android:

There's also more new features:

• Support for MobileIron on iOS
• Support for Andorid KitKat (4.4)

To download the latest updates for the apps go to the Google Play or iOS App Store and download today!

IBM Connections November 2013 Release Available in the Cloud

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Over the weekend, we rolled out this quarter’s update to IBM Connections, IBM’s Enterprise Social Collaboration platform. this update comes just shy of 8 weeks since our last update which represented our biggest release ever.

In this release, you’ll notice the following updates and new capabilities:

• New layout of the Homepage to consolidate information, make sharing easier, and help you focus on what’s important
• Updated recommendations based on social analytics to more quickly find and discover content you may be interested in
• Community polls and surveys
• Community owners now can set a custom landing page for their members
• @-mention in blogs and ideation to continue the conversation
• More mobile push notifications to drive the engagement of mobile users
• Community managers can recover communities that were accidentally removed
• and more.. !

As before, I’ve updated the IBM SmartCloud Connections presentation with the latest features and you can see that here:

IBM SmartCloud Connections Overview - Q4 2013 from Luis Benitez

For the full list of all the new features, see this document.

Update 7/Nov/2013: Marty Lechleider, the Product Manager for Community Polls and Surveys, created this quick video as a tour:



To go and see the new features or to start your free trial, go to http://ibmcloud.com/social . As usual, customers on-premises will get these features in the next major on-premises release.