What Is a Box Collaborator?

As part of my current project to review and improve what I know about managing a Box account I'm posting some information to my genealogy blog.  The following information was selected from Box help information and modified for posting here.

What is a Collaborator? 
A collaborator is an individual who has been invited into a folder. Collaboration invitations are a great way to share content for long term projects. Collaboration allows the Box account owner to invite people to a folder and monitor updates over time. In order to access a folder as a collaborator, a person needs a Box account and the folder will be listed under All Files when they log in to their Box account. If you send a collaboration invitation to a person without a Box account, that person will be prompted to sign up with Box before being able to access the content.
[Note: Until November 2015 my Box account was a starter "free" account.]

Who Should Become a Collaborator?
A Box account holder would invite an individual into a folder as a collaborator if the account holder and the collaborator are actively working together on long-term projects. Collaboration provides a two-way relationship; depending on the access level granted, collaborators can view, edit, upload/download documents, leverage collaboration tools (comments, tasks, etc.), and receive updates on actions taking place in the folder. 

Folder collaborators need a Box account.  If a Box account holder sends a collaboration invitation to an individual without a Box account, that individual will be prompted to sign up with Box before being able to access the content.

Dick Henthorn
5 November 2015

Box Shared Links Defined

I have a Box account where I sometimes share genealogy information.  Recently I signed up for a year of extended storage when they held a half-price sale.  This prompted me to review how the application works. As often happens with me, there seems to be quite a bit about Box that I either forgot or never understood.  I'm working on the problem.  Progress is slow.

As I understand it there are two ways to allow access to my content, either invite others to become Collaborators or via Shared links.

Here's a definition I found for Shared Links.

Shared link: A shared link provides a one-way relationship, allowing the recipient to preview or download a given file or folder. With customizable permission levels, security settings, and a URL that’s easy to copy and paste, shared links can be used to send important content both internally and externally. Unlike collaboration, individuals accessing your content through a shared link get "read-only" access and won’t be able to make changes to your files. They can continue to reference that link for the most up-to-date version of the content. Think of a shared link as a secure email attachment replacement.

Dick Henthorn
4 November 2015

Sharing Genealogy On CDs

I'm working on a project to share some genealogy information on CDs with longtime collaborator, Larry. We worked on the Yoho family of Beaver Co., PA.  Larry doesn't have a computer.

I created two CDs that I'll be sending via snail mail.

I used RootsMagic7 to create a shareable CD of the family of Jacob Yoho and Mary Lawrence. When RootsMagic creates a shareable CD all of the information in the genealogy file is included. Because I only wanted to share the information about the Jacob Yoho family I needed to create a GEDCOM file that included just Jacob Yoho and his descendants.  Next I created a "new" RootsMagic file with the GEDCOM.  The final step was to create the shareable CD.

The Shareable CD Menu

Here's a screen shot of what Larry will see when he clicks on "View Family Tree" on the menu.

The second CD contains three files.

1) McCullAnc.pdf, a 67-page PDF report about Larry's ancestors.

2) McCullDes.pdf, a 345-page report about the descendants of Jacob Yoho.

3) YohoJacob150107.ged, the GEDCOM file.

Dick Henthorn

8 January 2015