FAQs

The following questions and answers will help you navigate our online communities’ site, NAIS Connect. If you have any further questions, please contact [email protected].

Getting Started

1. What is my password for NAIS Connect?
You will use the same username and password that you use to login to www.nais.org. If you need help with your login please contact us.

2. How do I update my contact information?
From your NAIS Connect profile page, click the "Edit Contact Info" link.

3. How do I control what information is visible in my NAIS Connect Profile?
Under "My Profile", click "My Privacy Settings" in the left-hand side navigation. This will let you control what information is visible to whom. After you’ve made changes, click the "Save" button at the bottom of the page.

4. How do I join/subscribe to a community?
Go to "Communities" in the top grey navigation bar, then "View Communities." You will be taken to a list of communities to which you currently belong. Change the "Display" box to "All Communities" or "Communities I Can Join" in order to see a list of available communities. Select one and click the "Join Community" button. Then choose a delivery option for posts (Real Time, Daily Digest, Legacy or No Email).

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Contacts

5. How do I find other members?
Click the "Directories" link found in the grey navigation bar, then "Find a Member." The Directory lets you search for other members based on:

First or Last Name
Company/State
Email address

Use the "Advanced Search" option to increase your search to:

Location
Community members
Interests

6. How do I add contacts to my contact list in NAIS Connect?
There are several ways to add contacts to your list. When you perform a search in the Directory, you will see an "Add as contact" link underneath each person in your search results. Click this link to send a contact request. If you click through and view someone’s profile, you can click the contact request link to the right of their profile picture. Clicking any of your "Networks" links ("My Profile" > "My Networks") will yield a similar list.

7. Why should I add contacts to my contact list?
Creating this virtual address book makes it easy to send your contacts messages through the NAIS Connect system to stay in touch or ask questions. Additionally, when you view another member’s profile, you’ll be able to see any contacts you have in common with them. You can also choose to let only your contacts view certain demographics in your profile.

8. What are "Networks"?
These are groups of members that are automatically created based on demographic information in your profile. They help you locate other members who live in your city or state, share your interests, have the same job title, and more. Be sure to visit "My Profile" > "My Networks" to see your existing networks and make contact with others.

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Discussions

9. How do I start a new discussion thread?
From your email digest (HTML version), you can use the "Post Message" link in the right sidebar. You can also use the "Post Message" button at the top of the "Discussions" tab of any community.

10. How do I respond to others’ posts?
Click "Reply to Discussion" to send your message to the entire community or "Reply to Sender" which only sends your message back to the sender. Both links are located to the right of the post in the email and on the site.

11. What are the email delivery options?
Under "My Profile" > "My Subscriptions," there is an option for Text or HTML. By default, this is set to HTML, and we encourage you to leave it set to this if your email client can support it. However, if you are having problems viewing the HTML version or if it takes too long to open, please switch to the text version.

For each community, you have the following delivery options for discussions.

Real time sends an email every time a new message is posted.
Daily digest sends one email to you each day, consolidating all of the posts from the previous day.
Legacy sends real-time text versions of the posts, which are compatible with Blackberries and most other handheld devices. This option also allows you to reply without logging in to a web browser, but it does NOT allow you to include attachments with your post.
No email allows you to be part of the group without having emails sent to you. You can still post and read others’ messages by logging in to NAIS Connect.

12. I’m having trouble viewing the HTML email messages. How do I fix this?
If images are not appearing, it is likely that your email client is set to suppress images. This should be something you can change in your security or viewing options in your email client. If you would rather receive text-based email, in NAIS Connect, go to "My Profile" > "My Subscriptions" and select the "Text" format option near the top of the page. Be sure to hit "Save" at the bottom of the page once you’ve made this change.

13. I’d prefer to have certain discussion posts go to a different email address. Is this possible?
Yes, you can use different email addresses for different discussions. For example, you could have one discussion post go to your personal email and others go to your work email.

Go to "My Profile" > "My Subscriptions" and under each discussion to which you’ve subscribed, you’ll see "subscribed as [email address]" with an option to "Change." Click the "Change" link, enter a different email address, click "OK," and click "Save" at the bottom to confirm the change. If you change your main email address in your profile or with NAIS, it will update all of the discussions that used your former email address. Those that use a different email address will remain the same.

14. Why do I have to post messages and reply to them through the NAIS Connect site?
There are many upgraded features made possible because of the Web interface, including:

Attachments are automatically placed it in the community’s library and a link to the attachment is sent to members. This avoids blocked attachments due to of file size or type.
All posts are automatically archived and easily searchable.

From your daily or real time digest you can simply click one of the orange links (for example "Reply to Discussion" or "Post Message" in the right-hand list). You will to Connect and will already be logged in.

15. How do I see a listing of all of the posts to a discussion?
Go to "Communities" in the top grey navigation bar, then "Discussions" and choose the name of the one you’d like see. This takes you to the threaded view of the posts. If you see a post you’re interested in, click the subject line which will take you to the entire thread. "Show original message" at the bottom of all of the posts in a thread will display the original message that started that discussion. The "Author’s Messages" link will show you all of the posts that particular member has contributed to the discussion. You can also view postings by date by clicking the link in the middle of the page.

16. How do I change the information showing up in my signature block?
We have set a default signature, but if you would like to change the information that appears or the order in which it appears, click "My Profile" > "My Signature." You can add, delete, or reorganize the fields that show up in your signature by clicking the variables on the right-hand side of the screen. Please note that the content of these fields is pulled directly from your profile, so if you want to change the information itself, you will need to make the change to your actual profile.

17. How do I leave a community or unsubscribe from a discussion?
Go to "My Profile" > "My Subscriptions." Here you will see a list of available groups and those to which you’ve subscribed. Select "Unsubscribe" on the discussions you wish to leave and click the "Save" button at the bottom of the page. You will get a message confirming that your subscription options have been successfully updated. This can take several seconds if you change your settings for several groups at the same time.

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Libraries

18. What kind of documents can I upload?
NAIS Connect supports multiple file types including audio, standard files (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint), and videos.

19. How do I upload a document?
In the Libraries area, click the "Upload a Document" link in the left navigation. Please note that uploading a document is done in a couple steps, and each step must be completed before you can move on to the next. Choose a title for your document, include a description (optional), select the library to which you’d like to upload it, select a folder to which you’d like to upload it (optional), and choose an Entry Type (most will be Standard Files). Click "Next."
Browse and upload your file. Click "Next" if you want to add tags to your file or click "Finish" (you may have to scroll down to access these buttons).

20. What are the "tags" for?
Tags are another way of organizing and searching for documents. You can help others find the file you uploaded by including tags when you upload it. There are many pre-loaded tag categories to choose from.

21. How do the libraries get populated?
You can upload documents directly hovering over "Communities" on the main navigation bar, then clicking "Add a New Entry." Alternately, when posting a new discussion or replying to an ongoing, you can click "Attach" to load your file. The system automatically places it in the library.

22. How do I access a particular library?
Go to "Communities" in the top grey navigation bar, then "Libraries" to find the one you’d like to access.

23. Can I search for specific file types?
Yes. In the Libraries area, select "Advanced Search." This gives you the option to specify file type you are looking for: document, image, spreadsheet, etc.

24. What other library searches can I perform?
Go to "Directories" in the top grey navigation bar, then "Find a Document." The advanced search option allows you to find documents based on keywords within a document title, description, or content. You can also specify which libraries you’d like to search, by which author, date posted, tags and more.

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