Here are answers to some frequently asked questions about BCshare. If you don't find the answer to your question here or in our other documentation, send your question to websupport@bc.edu. Please include a phone number where we can reach you, because many how-to questions are best handled by a phone call.

The ShareHelp email account is monitored Monday through Friday, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. If you need immediate help during other times when the BC Help Center is open, try a phone call to 617-552-HELP (617-552-4357).

QUESTIONS

Questions about Space

Q: How much space do I have on BCshare?
Q: How can I tell how much space I have used?
Q: Can I request more space? If so, how?

Questions about Access

Q: Who can see my content?
Q: Can I give access to an assistant to edit my BCshare site?

Questions about Uploading Files

Q: Can I copy and paste from MS Word?
Q: Can I upload more than one photo at a time?
Q: What kinds of files can I upload to BCshare?

Questions about Specific BCshare Features and Functions

Q: Once I've created a Profile, how can I make changes to it?
Q: How can I change the overall color/design of my BCshare space?
Q: What is an Album?
Q: Are BCshare albums a good alternative to Flickr, Picassa, Shutterfly, etc.?
Q: What is a Wiki?
Q: How do I create a Wiki?
Q: What is a Forum?
Q: What is a Blog?
Q: What is a CV (curriculum vitae)?

Questions about BCshare and the BC Personal Web Server

Q: Can I move my personal web page from www2 to BCshare?
Q: Is the BC Personal Web Server being discontinued?

Questions about the URLs that BCshare Creates

Q. Why isn't my BCshare site identified by my BC user name?

ANSWERS

Questions about Space

Q: How much space do I have on BCshare?
A: Each BCshare user is allocated 40 MB of space for uploaded files. This is divided into 20 MB for photos in albums and 20 MB for other files in your personal file space. This quota applies only to uploaded files — in addition, you may have up to 100 MB of text elements as Blog entries, Pages, Comments, Resumes, Group Forums, Group Wikis, etc. Remember that you can write links to files stored elsewhere on the Internet (for example, in "MyFiles"), so you may wish to store large files at another location.

Q: How can I tell how much space I have used for uploaded files?
A: Log into BCshare. Click "Settings" on the right side of the screen. Click the "Personal Files" tab. About halfway down the page you'll see a line of text like this:
   Limits: File size = 100 KB, Dimensions = 500x500, Quota = XXX.XX KB/XXXXX KB
The number following "Quota =" is the amount of space you have used so far.

Q: Can I request more space? If so, how?
A: Due to system restrictions, we cannot grant individual users more space. Send us a request via ShareHelp@bc.edu explaining the reason you need additional space, and we'll use this to project future needs.

Questions about Access

Q: Who can see my content?
A: Personal content is shared with all BCshare registered users by default. You can also choose to make it available only to certain Groups you belong to, or make it Public and available to to anyone on the Internet. Group content is visible only to members of that Group by default. The Group homepage can be made Public, but with certain restrictions as to adding content.

Q: Can I give access to an assistant to edit my BCshare site?
A: At this time, you cannot give access to anyone to edit the Personal section of your BCshare site. If you create a Group, you can make an assistant a member of the Group, and he or she can then edit documents owned by the Group. You can also make an assistant the administrator of the Group, giving him or her access to change Group Settings.

Questions about Uploading Files

Q: Can I copy and paste content from a Microsoft Word document?
A: Yes, you can. Select and copy the content you want to move into BCshare from MS Word. In the BCshare text box, click on the "Paste from Word" icon in the toolbar. This brings up a dialog box that allows you to paste in your Word copy. Hit "Insert," and the content is pasted into your text box.

Q: Can I upload more than one photo at a time?
A: Yes. If you put multiple photos into a ZIP or TAR archive file and upload that file, BCshare will add each photo as a separate photo to your album.

Q: What kinds of files can I upload to BCshare?
A: You can upload most common file types to the Personal Files space in BCshare, including:

Questions about Specific BCshare Features and Functions

Q: Once I've created a Profile, how can I make changes to it?
A: Log into BCshare. Mouse over the "Settings" on the top right side of the screen. Scroll down to the "Edit Profile," which brings up your Profile. When you've made your changes, click the "Save" button at the bottom of the page.

Q: How can I change the overall color/design of my BCshare space?
A: BCshare lets you easily change the color and design of your BCshare space by selecting one of our professionally designed themes. A theme is applied to all the interface elements of your personal BCshare space. In addition, any Group space that you manage can have its own theme.
   Change the theme for your personal space with the "Settings" button on the right side of the screen. Then select "Edit Account" (see "Changing Page Themes in BCshare"). You can change a theme for a Group you manage with the Group "Settings" button (see "How to Create and Use Groups").

Q: What is an Album?
A: An album is a place to upload photos you want to share via BCshare. It includes a photo viewer to step through the album. Members of BCshare can leave you comments on your albums. You can also display photos from your albums on pages, Blog entries and in the Group functions.

Q: Are BCshare albums a good alternative to Flickr, Picassa, Shutterfly, etc?
A: BCshare is not intended as a photo repository. Photos uploaded to BCshare are always compressed to screen resolution, and file space is limited, so you'll want to keep your original photo files in some other location. BCshare will store about 400 screen resolution images.

Q: What is a Wiki?
A: A Wiki is a collaborative web space. Members of the Group that owns the Wiki can update content and create new pages. A Wiki includes tools for tracking revisions and reverting to earlier versions.

Q: How do I create a Wiki?
A: To create a Wiki, you must have a Group or be a member of a Group in BCshare (see "How to Create and Use Groups"). Once you are in your Group space in BCshare, you'll have a set of Group functions on the left side of your screen that includes a "Create Wiki Main Page" option. This link will create the Group's Wiki Main Page and let you start adding content to it. Click the "Submit" button when you are ready to save your initial content in the page. For more details, see the "Using Wikis" page.

Q: What is a Forum?
A: A Forum is a Group discussion area in which one member of the Group can post a topic and other members of the Group can post comments on the topic or reply to another Group member's comments.

Q: What is a Blog?
A: A Blog is a web site generally organized in chronological order, with the most recent content rising to the top. Most Blogs allow other people to post comments on your Blog entries.

Q: What is a CV (curriculum vitae)?
A: CV is shorthand for "curriculum vitae" (Latin for "course of life"). Faculty members generally use the term CV in preference to "resume" for their summary of education, publications, academic positions held, research interests, courses taught, professional activities, and accomplishments.

Questions about BCshare and the BC Personal Web Server

Q: Can I move my personal web page from www2 to BCshare?
A: We do not have a migration tool to automatically move material from the BC Personal Web Server (www2.bc.edu) to BCshare. Here are a few options:

• If you want your web site to have one of the BCshare themes and to be able to use BCshare's easy editing tools, we recommend that you make new BCshare pages, then copy whatever content you want to bring forward from your old www2 site into your new BCshare pages. You may have to do significant editorial work on what you copy into BCshare to get it to look and work the way you want it to
• If you want your site to retain the look of your old www2 site, you have the option to upload HTML pages and the graphics and images they use into your Personal Files space in BCshare. Note that if you choose this route, you'll need to have a text or web page editor to edit your HTML files, and you'll be responsible for creating your own interface and ensuring that links are correctly structured.
  To access the Personal Files area, log into BCshare. Click "Settings" on the right side of the screen. Click the "Personal Files" tab.

Q: Is the BC Personal Web Server being discontinued?
A: We have no immediate plans to discontinue the BC Personal Web Server (www2.bc.edu). We think BCshare will be a better solution to the personal web publishing needs of most people in the BC community, but we plan to run the two services in parallel for the foreseeable future.

Questions about the URLs that BCshare Creates

Q: Why isn't my BCshare site identified by my BC user name?
A: On the personal web server, URLs contained BC user names. The Computer Policy & Security team within ITS now discourages this practice. Based on this recommendation, user names have been replaced with random ID numbers in all URLs within BCshare. Currently, we do not offer the capability to create aliases to sites on BCshare.