Digital Binders and Marking Files as Private: A Customer’s Support Question Answered

Recently, one of our customers had a support question that we thought would be worth sharing with you.

Are you familiar with our “Mark File Private” feature? It’s a useful option available with a subscription plan that can help you restrict the views of any documents you upload in LiveBinders.

For those of you who are new to LiveBinders, LiveBinders offers a web application that lets you create digital binders. Digital binders are a way to organize and display online content in a Web browser, where each URL is represented by tabs similar to what you would see in a 3-ring binder. When we refer to ‘files’, we refer to desktop documents that are uploaded into a digital binder. Our digital binders can have certain access restrictions assigned to them like “private” and “public” but so can the files that are uploaded into the binders.

The support question we had was from a customer who was viewing her colleague’s LiveBinder, but was not able to see some of the content. In some tabs, the document would display, but in other tabs she saw a message shown below indicating that the file was private. 

When you upload a document to LiveBinders, we assign it it’s own unique URL.  Before you upload it, though, you have the option to click on the “Mark File Private” option. When selected, it will add a “private” tag to the URL in our system. The file’s URL will then have restrictions that prevent it from being viewed outside of the private binder it is added to. In other words, “private” files are only viewable in “private” binders.

So what happened? When our customer was viewing her colleagues binder, the binder was mistakenly set to “public” so any files that were marked as “private” did not display in the binder. Once her colleague made the binder private again, she was able to see all the documents in the binder, including those that were marked as “private.”

The general rule to remember is that if you mark a file as “private” you only have 1 option for making it visible to your audience, and that is to make sure the binder is set to “private” as well.

So why would you want to mark a document as “private”? 

It’s useful if you want to prevent anyone to view a document outside of the binder you are sharing it with. A person could copy the file’s link and paste it in an email, social media post or website page where it could then be viewed by an unwanted audience. The “private” tag keeps your uploaded content restricted to displaying only in the private binders that it was add to. Although every LiveBinder is automatically set to “private,” if a user mistakenly changes a binder to “public,” the “private” files stay protected.

If you want to learn more about this feature, feel free to contact us using our Contact Form and mention “Learn more about private files.”

We hope this information is helpful to you!

Best way to optimize binders for Mobile devices

Recently we received a support question from a college professor who wanted to “meet students where they are” and was asking how to best optimize her binders for viewing on mobile devices. We thought this would be a great post to share with you.

Viewing binders with our mobile app vs mobile browser:

Anyone can view a binder without needing to sign up for a LiveBinders account, however, you need an account if you are having your viewers viewing your binder from our App.

So unless you want your viewers to also create binders, we recommend letting them view your binder through the browser on their mobile device instead of using our App. They can then save that link to their device’s home screen to easily return to it when needed. The binder will always update with the latest content every time they click on it from their device. To access your binder from their device, you can email them the link to your binder or host it on your website.

The other option is to create a QR code for your binder  (available in your LiveBinders editor. See  “Content>QR Code” button options), and they can scan it and have it saved in their QR code app. 

FYI – If you are making the binder private, be sure to create a private access key so they can view the binder. 

Hiding tabs for more viewing space:

When viewing a binder on a phone the tabs will always appear to the left – regardless of how you set it – so that there is more viewing space for the content. However, you can create more space by clicking the arrow icon located to the right of the first tab that will give your viewers the option to hide or display the tabs on the left. Be sure to let them know when you share your binder.

Launching content full screen:

Any content that you link or upload to a binder tab can always be viewed outside of the binder – your audience just needs to click on the URL provided at the top of the tab so they can view it full screen. We recommend launching the file full screen for the best viewing experience.

Tab layout recommendations:

You can choose a text layout option that lets you write content next to the resource that you are adding to your binder.  When viewing on a phone device, the appearance will be vertically displayed rather than side by side.

If you choose text/media, the main body text will appear before the media file that you add or upload.

If you select media/text the media file will appear before the text content.

For a better viewing experience on the phone, we recommend adding any text in its own tab and any supporting material that you upload as subtabs so they can be viewed full screen.

Uploading Word Doc or PDFs:

When viewing files in a binder from a laptop we usually recommend clicking on the URL provided at the top of the tab page so that the file opens full screen. iOS and Android will treat each one differently.

iOS – Will give you the option to “view” or “download” a Word or PDF file. We recommend “view” unless they specifically have an App that can run both files.

Android – for either Microsoft or PDFs the file will download and will give the viewer the choice to pick an App to view the file in.

Hopefully these tips are useful for you.  If you have any further questions, feel free to contact us to help you at support @ livebinders.

Data Threat Dashboards at Your Fingertips

Keeping live data where you can easily find it.

In the very early days of COVID, I had initially been following stories through NHK-TV on my television. Once it became clear that COVID was spreading rapidly, I didn’t know where to get trusted information about how the virus was spreading. Then, I discovered a binder created by John Dahlgren, an instructor at Buttle College and an avid user of LiveBinders. John had put COVID resources into a public binder called COVID-19 Dashboard Information that included the John’s Hopkins live data feed dashboard. It was the first binder I opened every day for 6 months watching the numbers grow by the 1000s. It became so useful for me that I added the website dashboard to one of my own go-to binders so that I could have one binder opened with all of my applications in one place.

I also loved being able to manage all of my applications from a central location – kind of like a gateway portal to my web applications, like Google, Slack, Canvas, etc. This way I didn’t have to keep all my browser tabs open all the time, taxing my computer. The online binder acts as an easy and affordable way to quickly create a dashboard for accessing my go-to applications everyday.

Since that time John has created another useful dashboard binder called the Data Threat Dashboard Information that I also became interested in using. It is on cyber security data threats across the globe. When Ukraine was attacked by Russia in February 2022, I was curious to see if any data threat activity had increased and where it was directed. In this binder, I could get a quick summary just by viewing the dynamic visual effects. I found it so fascinating that I invited John to join me in a podcast to explain what each of the dashboards are telling us, and I am excited to share this information with you.

Please listen to our podcast or view the episode on our Youtube channel. Transcripts, podcast and YouTube URLs are available in our Podcast binder. And feel free to open his Data Thread Dashboard binder to follow along.

Best File Format for Viewing Files in a Binder.

A frequent support question we’ve been getting these last couple of weeks has to do with why some uploaded files do not display in a binder.  We thought it might be a useful post to share with other users who might be uploading documents to their binders for the first time.

Usually, the file type that they are asking about are Microsoft office files like Word, Excel or PowerPoint. Although you can upload any file type into your binder, the ones that are browser friendly will be viewable from inside your binder tab.  When they don’t, it is usually because the file type still requires the desktop application to run that file.

So for example, if you are uploading Word documents, those file types require Microsoft Word to open the file. In those cases, your viewers need to download the file, and then open it in the Word application.  

When you upload a desktop dependent file type like Word into your binder, we create a thumbnail with instructions to your viewer to click on the hyperlink under the thumbnail to trigger the file to download. This is similar to what they would do in a typical web page. The thumbnail looks like a Word icon as shown in the example above.

Use PDF files for a better reading experience:

To make your document viewable in the binder, you can export those Microsoft files as PDFs. They display in the binder tab because Adobe made it easier for browsers to open their file for you. Below is an example of a PDF that is viewable from inside a binder tab.

Learn how to export to a PDF:

If you would like to learn how to export your Microsoft documents, Microsoft provides an easy way to export to a PDF. 

While you are in your Microsoft file, go to the File Menu in your document and choose “Export” towards the bottom of the side-menu screen. A new window will open and you can click on “Create PDF.”

We provide screenshots and instructions of how to export to PDF in our Help Guide Binder.

If you love using 3-ring binders in your workspace and would like to use something similar to organize your online, digital content, feel free to try a free binder at livebinders.com.

Student-to-Adult Transitions-A 21st Century Guide for Parents and Teens

Lisa Washington has created a online binder with invaluable resources to help teachers, parents and students prepare for life after high school.

Click image to launch new podcast episode, and access to Lisa’s Student-to-Adult Transitions binder

It’s not often that I get the chance to learn first hand about the types of projects our users are working on every day, so I was fortunate to have an opportunity to engage with Lisa Washington regarding her Arkansas Transition Portfolio Manual LiveBinder.

Lisa is a student-to-adult transition consultant for the Arkansas Transition Services team at Dawson Education Service Cooperative.  Lisa and her team train teachers and consultants to help prepare parents and their high school students with special needs to transition to life as adults.

Lisa’s goal was to organize all the material into an online binder so that parents and students could access the resources outside of the school environment, and long after they graduate.

While working with Lisa, I soon discovered that although her resources target students with IEPs or 504s, they are also relevant for any high school parent and student. For this reason, I invited Lisa to share her project with us. As a mother of young adult daughters, the realization that I no longer have access to my daughters private information was eye-opening, and I believe this information would be beneficial to all parents of high school students. 

In addition to the invaluable resources Lisa provides, I also candidly share the epiphany I had working with Lisa as she tried to organize her resources into an online binder for 3 different stakeholders – teachers, parents and students.  Anyone who curates material for an audience will appreciate the challenges we faced and the realization we had when we saw that working with a simple outline can help address a major issue of going digital.

Our podcast co-host Linda Houle joins me as we have Lisa lead us through the 5 areas of preparation that a student needs to go through to start their #adulting journey.

To access the podcast link, Lisa’s binder, and the podcast transcript, please click this link.  From there, you will be able to download her resources and/or launch her website forms directly from her binder.

New Update: Adding the Option for Multi-Factor Authentication.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

What did we do?

We recently released an update to our site that gives you the option to log into your LiveBinders account using Two-Factor authentication, also known as Multi-Factor Authentication or “MFA.” This is a secure way to prevent any uninvited hackers into your LiveBinders account.

You can enable this MFA option from your My Profile page after you log into your account. NOTE: If you are already using Google Single Sign-on to log in, which has it’s own MFA, you do not need to enable our MFA. But, if you decide to switch, you will need to first create a password in your LiveBinders account, and then you can enable your MFA.

Why Use an Authenticator App.

Did you know that hackers can redirect your text messages or gain access to your phone carrier and then access your text messages? Using text messages as a means to receive your two-factor login code is less secure than an authenticator app because it is easier for hackers to gain access to your text messages online, than it is to physically access your phone.

With an authenticator app, a code is temporarily generated that you get through the App and it expires within a certain time period.

How to Enable your MFA

1. Install the Google Authenticator App on your phone. Go to your App store on your phone and search for “Google Authenticator.” Make sure it is created by Google, LLC.
2. Log into your LiveBinders account and go to your “My Profile” page.
3. Scroll down to Multi-Factor Authentication section and click on “Set Up” button.
4. Scan the QR Code with your Authenticator App and type in the Code that is generated into the empty box.
5. Click “Continue” It will give you a success message letting you know that the next time you log in, you will need to use your Authentic.

To see screenshots and more, please go to our Help Guide binder.

MedZed: LiveBinders and Virtual Training

On our recent podcast we featured LiveBinders’ curators Dana Yousef and Esther Benons from MedZed, a telehealth company that works with high risk patients in their homes. Their nurses and physicians work both virtually and in person with their patients. Their use of LiveBinders within their Microsoft Teams portal has made training easier for everyone. In this highlight clip from the podcast, Esther shares her insight about how they meet the training requirements of different staff members in a post-COVID workplace using LiveBinders.

Online Binders Help S.A.L.T Consultants Deliver Value to Parents

In our recently released Success podcast Patti Shrom and her collaborator Michelle Cadle from S.A.L.T Resource Solutions talk about the process of delivering an overwhelming amount of curated information that parents rely on to help them transition their teen with special needs to life after high school graduation.

What they needed was a tool that could manage and display a variety of online content like web pages, storage drive folder links, video URLs and PDF files all in one easy to navigate format, but without the burden of having to create a custom website to organize it all. They also didn’t want to just display links down a page that would burden their parents to scroll through hundreds of URLs in order to find what they need, and without much context to guide them.

LiveBinders’ platform uses a pre-formated, tabular hierarchy that can display a variety of content within a contained environment we call a binder. With just one URL, Patti and Michelle can provide their parents with a single point of access to all of their curated content. They use the first level of tabs to label main category headings that guide parents to the resources they are looking for. It also gives them the ability to quickly add content to each tab, making it immediately accessible and ready to be shared. To the parents, the binder becomes an intuitively simple way to find their resources in one location. Its navigation stays consistently the same no matter how much content is added; something their parents rely on when they return to the binder over and over again.

In this 3 minute video clip below, Patti and Michelle share their S.A.L.T binder and how they deliver all of their workshop, speaker, and government resources using LiveBinders.

The podcast resources, transcript and full podcast recording and video are available in our podcast binder at this link.

If your organization is looking for a solution to your document sharing challenges, contact us for a demo on our contact page.

How to Add Your Google Calendar to an Online Binder

If you would like to have your audience view your Google calendar inside of your LiveBinder tab, use the embed code instead of the link. Using the embed code will add your live calendar to your online binders. It’s an easy way for your stakeholders to find your calendar and see all the up-to-date schedule and event changes in real time. We recently created a Youtube video on how to do that and added it to our Help Guide binder.

In the 3 minute video below, you’ll learn where you can find the embed code of your Google calendar, and how to add it to a tab in your binder.

If you use another calendar tool where the link to the calendar is not embedding in your binder, check to see if it comes with an embed code, and you can use the same procedure to add it. Let us know if you use something other than Google calendar and we will create a demo for our Help Guide binder.

Step-by-step instructions along with the YouTube video tutorial is available by clicking on this link.

Rounded Tabs are Back!

We have had several requests to bring back rounded tabs, so we have added that feature for our subscribers. You can have all rounded tabs in your binder or just one or two rows. This is a good way to differentiate tabs from sub tabs or base tabs when you are using multiple tab colors.

A New iPhone App and an Upgrade to Our iPad App

iPhone App version 1.0

Last summer one of our Top 10 LiveBinders nominees, David Prindle, shared an interesting story with us. Students from his science class did not have LiveBinders accounts to keep track of his class binders, so instead they used a QR reader downloaded on their iPhones. His students could then get access to his binders directly from their phones, even without the QR code in front of them, using the “History” feature from the QR reader.

We incorporated David’s suggestion to create a simple iPhone App that lets you or your students view and organize public LiveBinders without the need to register for a LiveBinders account. Additionally, you can now search for public binders using our search tool and view presorted “Featured” binders and binders sorted under our “Education” category. Any binder that you view will then be tracked and listed under the “History” tab of the iPhone app for easy access.

Learn more about the iPhone app from this binder:

LiveBinders for iPhone App

To download the app, search for “LiveBinders for iPhone” in your iPhone’s App Store. Thanks to David for sharing that great suggestion with us!

iPad app version 1.5

We recently added a feature that lets you link Evernote notes and any files that are uploaded into your binder. Simply go to your LiveBinders iPad App and select “My Uploads.” Click on the “+” icon at the top. Select “Evernote.” It will prompt you to log into your account. Note: You will need to install the Evernote iPad App for this to work with your account. Once you are logged into Evernote, it will list all of your notes and their attached files as separate links. You can select one item at a time to be added to your binder. Evernote note files and other Microsoft documents will appear as thumbnails in your tab page.  Thanks goes out to our LiveBinder member Justin Stallings for answering all of our initial questions about how useful an Evernote connector would be in our editor.

Fun Article – How to Organize Schoolwork with LiveBinders

This great article came out today on Best Colleges Online: How to Organize Schoolwork with LiveBinders. Michael Keathley does a very nice job explaining how students can help themselves stay organized using LiveBinders.

Thank you Michael @MichaelKeathley and Best Colleges Online @BCOtweets!

LiveBinders Instructional Materials

Thank you to all those educators that are teaching other educators about LiveBinders! We have put together a simple presentation (in this binder of course) that you can modify for your own use as you spread the word about LiveBinders.

LiveBinders Instructional Materials

Please let us know if you need anything else at info@livebinders.com.