Month: March 2017

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Want to improve your Box skills?

You logged into Box created a folder or file or uploaded some data and now you want to learn more.  You want to improve your skills and  be more productive with Box.  Problem is, you just don’t know where to go for that information.  Well here are a few links to help figure out where to go.

One of the first places you could start is the OSU Box site and specifically our Getting Started with Box and FAQ pages.  On the Getting Started page you will also find links to the local information sessions we conducted at OSU during our Box launch phase.   This blog is also a good source of information as we will try and publish new and relevant information for OSU Box users.

Traveling a bit farther afield you will want to head over to Box’s Community and Training sites.   On the community pages you can get information about how various elements within Box’s web UI work, read what issues other users are experiencing and what they did to fix or work around those issues.  One thing that Box is introducing is an Ask the Expert event tomorrow March 31st from 9am to 2pm PST.  You have to sign in to the Training forum to participate.

Speaking of Box training, Box maintains a large collection of training material.  Besides the forum you will also find a video tutorial library with 19 videos that you can watch on-line or download to watch later.  If you want to go deeper you can go to the Box University which has a number of free courses, both self-paced as well as live, that will take you through additional elements of Box.  When accessing Box University you can login with your OSU account.  To do that click on the “Login with Box” button, then select “Use Single Sign-on (SSO)”, enter your ONID email address (username@oregonstate.edu), and then your username and password.  Once you’re logged in browse the various courses available to you.

Box also maintains a YouTube channel that has a number of informative videos on how to use the various features in Box as well as videos showing how others are using Box in their organizations.

If you can’t find what you need or want help doing something in Box feel free to reach out to the IS Service desk for help.

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Box Feature Changes

Box support on Internet Explorer (IE) Browser Versions 9 and 10

Box ended browser support of IE versions 9 and 10 and they do not support compatibility mode for any of the unsupported browsers.  It is Box policy to support only the two latest browser versions and with Microsoft pulling support for IE 9 and 10 as of 1/12/2016 on the Windows operating systems that Box supports – Windows 7, Windows 8 (64-bit only) and Windows 10, Box will no longer support these older versions.

Users who try to access Box, including Box Notes, on either of these unsupported browsers (including on the associated compatibility modes for these browsers and/or if IE11 is manually set to run as IE9 or IE10) will be blocked entirely from Box until they have upgraded to a supported browser. This will happen in early May 2017

Total Previews and Downloads in End User File Access Stats

In summer 2017, Box will launch the ability for end-users to export up to seven years of file-level access stats.  When exporting seven years of file-level access stats launches, Box will simultaneously change the visible total file preview and download calculations to only include the last 100 events in the last year.  Find out more about file access stats.

Folder Invitation Links

Folder Invitation links (see screenshot below) which can be found under folder settings will stop being supported in early May 2017. At that time, the folder invitation link will disappear from the folder settings page and existing folder invitation links will stop working.

Folder Inivtation link setting

Users will be able to achieve similar functionality with shared links. Shared links can be used as invitation links by enabling the setting “Allow anyone who can access this folder from a shared link to join as a collaborator” on the folder settings page (see screenshot below). Users that have shared folder invitation links outside of OSU’s Box, they should replace them with shared links with this setting enabled before early May 2017.

Folder Restrictions

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New Box User Interface (UI)

The Box team released a new and improved, more personalized user experience on the web that includes a completely re-built back end foundation. With this new experience, you can work with ease.  Starting March 30th, all OSU Box accounts will be changed to the new Box UI. After that, you will no longer be able to revert to the old interface.

For a high-level overview of the features of the new Box interface, watch New Box Experience , a short video from Box Training. Some noteworthy features of the new UI include:

  • The new interface has increased speed for uploading, accessing, and editing content.
  • You can set the collection of items you mark as “Favorites” to be your Box home page.
  • You can sort all files by name, date, or size from directly within the file list headings.
  • By clicking the icon of a file or folder once, you can see details about the item, including collaborators, its shared link, metadata, and so on. By clicking the name of a folder, or double-clicking its icon, you will open the folder. Upon clicking the name of a file within the folder, you will preview the file and also see the version, description, and access statistics.
  • Copy (Ctrl-c) and paste (Ctrl-v) are supported within the new interface. You can copy multiple files from one Box folder to another using keyboard functions. You can also copy items from your computer and paste them into a Box folder.
  • The search features of the new interface are more specific. You can search and filter your documents by type, size, time, owner, and metadata directly from the search bar. For instance, if you type the name of any of your documents and filter the search by file type (e.g., a Word document) and the Date Updated (e.g., ‘this past week’), all of your Microsoft Word documents you have edited or opened within the past week will be returned.
  • Find content faster: Our improved, advanced search is faster and more helpful- you don’t even need to type anything to search for your work. With a few clicks, find what you’re looking for by selecting owners, last date edited and file type.
  • View content the way you want: We’ve made it easy to switch between views – either use list view for quick scans or thumbnail view for rich previews, so you can see files in the way that works best for you. Now you can also watch HD and 360 videos right from Box without downloading, making it easy to experience and share immersive media just like any other file.

Enabling and disabling the new Box user interface

Enabling the new UI
To enable the new Box user interface, do one of the following:

These actions set a cookie in your browser. If you want to see the new UI in a different browser or on a different machine, you’ll need to take one of these steps in the new browser.

Disabling the new UI
After you’ve enabled the new user interface, to revert to the old one, do one of the following:

  • Visit https://oregonstate.app.box.com/on/legacy.
  • At the top right of the Box home page, click the ? icon. To disable the new UI, below the text box for feedback and next to “Need to switch back to the old Box Experience?”, click Click here.
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All new Box Notes

Box made several improvements in their Box Note applications.  For those that are not familiar with Box Notes, Box Notes is an easy-to-use document creation tool with basic formatting capabilities that functions natively in Box.  Box notes can be worked on collaboratively in real time which makes them great for things like meeting minutes, brain storming sessions, or working on team or group content.

What has changed?

  • New experience in the browser with a sidebar that enables creating new notes on the fly without having to go back into the file UI and create another Box note.  The sidebar can be collapsed out of the way while you don’t need it.  The sidebar also shows you the most recent notes you worked on.
  • A new menu item allows you to delete a note from within the note without having to go back into the file UI.
  • A new desktop application for PCs and Macs.  The new application enables users to create and work on Box Notes without having to go into the web UI.

For more information on the changes to Box Notes and a link to download the new Box Note Desk application, please visit the Box Note product page.