- Installing Groove
- Creating a Shared Space
- Inviting Others
- Receiving Invitations
- Shared Space Members
- Groove Tools
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Creating a Shared Space
As you saw in Chapter 2, "What Is Groove?" shared spaces are the essence of the Groove platform. They are the private playgrounds on which you and your peers will meet to use tools and share information. You can text and audio chat, and send instant messages from the base Groove application, but you can't really "groove" without a shared space.
To create a shared space, you can do any of the following:
From the File menu, select Create Shared Space.
Open My Spaces, and click the Create Shared Space button.
Click the Create Shared Space button on the Home page, and select Create Shared Space from the drop-down menu.
Pick a contact from your contact list that you would like to invite, click Invite to Space, and then click Create Shared Space from the drop-down menu.
For now, let's just go to the File menu and select Create Shared Space to bring up the Create Space Wizard. Figure 3.4 shows this wizard.
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Figure 3.4 The Create Space Wizard.
The Create Space Wizard walks you through the steps needed to create a space. The radio button defaults to Individual Tools.
You will see that the Individual Tools radio button is highlighted, but no tools are selected in the check boxes. Checking the boxes will populate your space with each of the tools checked.
If you click the Standard Tool Sets radio button, you will notice that the dialog now lists toolsets. Click on each of the toolsets in the scrolling window to see a synopsis of their use and the individual shared tools they contain.
When you have finished looking, click the No Tools selection, and click Next. Name your space My First Space.
If you have several identities, you can choose the identity you want associated with this space by clicking on the Options button and selecting your identity from the drop-down list. For now, click the Invite No One at This Time radio button and click Next, then Finish.
Groove then creates the space and navigates you to it. In spite of the No Tools option you chose, your new space does have one tool as indicated by the tab—the Add Tool tool. All spaces always have this tool. The "(1)" on the tab shows you that one person in this space is using the Add Tool tool. The panel on the left indicates only one person listed as Active in the space, so the person using the Add Tool tool must be you.
The hammer-and-pencil icons representing the individual tools that can be added are at the top of the list; the toolset icons are at the bottom and are accessible by scrolling down the list.
Adding Tools
Let's add an individual tool to your space, the Sketchpad Tool. Highlight Sketchpad and click Add Selected Tool. The tool is added to the space to the left of the Add Tool tab, and you are navigated to it.
Go ahead and play with the tool for a second, and then add the Notepad Tool, the Discussion Tool, and the Outliner, in that order. You should now have a shared space with five tabs.
Perhaps you don't like that order. Don't worry. You can rearrange the tab order by simply dragging the tabs. Rearrange the tools now to Outliner, Notepad, Discussion, Sketchpad, and Add Tool. Notice that you cannot change the order of the Add Tool tool.
Maybe you think the Sketchpad Tool should be named Whiteboard. It's easy enough to change. Just select the Sketchpad tab, and then pull down the File menu. Find and click Rename Sketchpad Tool. Enter Whiteboard and you no longer have to deal with Sketchpad in this space. Notice that the change refers only to this space. Now add a new Sketchpad Tool. The name applies only to the renamed instance of Sketchpad in the space.
You certainly don't need both a Whiteboard Tool and a Sketchpad Tool, so let's delete the sketchpad you just added. Select it, pull down the File menu, and choose Delete Sketchpad Tool. Confirm the operation, and your Sketchpad is gone.
Deleting and renaming options are also available when you right-click the tool tab.
In Groove, as in other rich and complex programs, screen real estate is sometimes at a premium. Groove helps mitigate that problem by allowing you to open a tool in its own window. If you right-click on the Whiteboard Tool and select Open Tool in New Window, you can maximize the Whiteboard Tool. Make a few changes to your drawing and then close the window. You'll see that your changes update in the original window.
Deleting a Shared Space
Now that you're through playing, let's delete this space. Choose File, Delete Shared Space, From This Computer. Confirm the dialog, and you'll see that the space is gone. Or is it?
In this case, it is gone, but only because you did not invite anybody to it. If you had, the space would have been deleted only from your computer, not from those of the people you invited. The other invitees can continue to use the space even without your participation.