Understanding navigation is important for finding your way around and getting to the content you want quickly and easily. In Totara Social you will find two main areas for navigation, the top right corner and a menu bar on the left of the screen. Both of these are constant no matter where you go in the system, so you can always easily find your way back.  

The navigation bar on the left contains links to:

  • Home: This is where you'll find your activity stream. Additionally to the right you will notice a Who is online? box that show users who have recently been active on the site. 
  • My content: All of the content you have created on the site, including files, pages, and ideas. 
  • My groups: Where you can browse or search your groups or use the View all groups button to find new groups (you must first click My groups to expand this section).
  • My connections: Browse or search for people you are connected with or use the View all people button to find new people (you must first click Connections to expand this section).
  • Explore: Use the explore button to browse content from the site. 

This menu bar is a fixed feature, which means you can always quickly jump to where you want to be, whether it is the homepage or collaborating in a particular group. 

There is a magnifying glass icon in the top right corner, clicking on this will allow you to search or browse content from the site. This search works to provide instant results, so as soon as you have typed in over three characters it will start trying to present you with relevant results. Once you have been presented with a list of results you can filter these by:

  • Result type: This is the type of content you wish to see e.g questions, pages, statuses, etc.
  • Found in: Determine which areas of the site you wish to look for content, either the whole site, your content, or content from your connections. 
  • Sort by: You can decide whether to sort results by the oldest, most recent, relevance, A-Z, or Z-A. 

If you choose to display the Article result type, then this will show you external feed posts pulled via Anders Pink, RSS, or Atom. It is also useful to note that there may be a delay before newly posted content appears in the search results depending on how busy the site currently is. 

Search bar

Along the top menu bar there are a set of icons in the right-hand corner of the screen that allow you quickly access important features, they are as follows:

  • Admin settings (cog icon): This allows you to access site or tenant administration settings. 
  • Search (magnifying glass icon): This allows you to search for content on the site using keywords. 
  • Inbox (envelope icon): This allows you to access your Inbox where you can receive Messages and Notifications, depending on how you configure your account Settings.
  • Chat (speech bubbles icon): The Chat tool allows you to send instant messages to your individual connections or groups.
  • Profile (your profile picture): Here you will find a range of options including accessing your profile and content or editing your settings. There is also a Logout link. 

Your profile page contains all the the relevant information about you and your interactions with Totara Social. It displays the information that you have entered into your profile, as well as your personal Activity Stream. You can configure your Profile page to be as basic or as detailed as you wish.

You can access your profile by clicking the profile picture in the top right-corner (this will either be a picture of you, or the default silhouette), then from the dropwdown list select My Profile. 

You can edit your profile to add more or less information about yourself and to change the profile picture. To reach the editing page you will need to:

  1. Click the profile picture in the top right-corner (this will either be a picture of you, or the default silhouette).
  2. From the dropdown list select My Profile.
  3. On your profile page click the Edit Profile button.

You use tabs to change the information you wish (remembering that anything marked with an asterisk is mandatory). 

Your account Settings are where you configure different aspects of your Totara Social account, such as:

  • Username and password (in the Settings tab).
  • General account options (in the Settings tab).
  • How people can connect and communicate with you (in the Settings tab).
  • When and how you will receive notifications (in the Notifications tab).
  • Who can see your content (in the Default sharing tab).

Select your profile picture in the top-right corner of your Totara Social screen and then choose Settings from the dropdown list to view and change your preferences. 

Additionally on the right-hand side of the homepage there are a number of blocks, that will show you who is online and make recommendations. These blocks are:

  • Who is online?: Displays a list of the other people currently logged into the system. 
  • People you may know: This block shows you recommended connections. You can either click Connect to connect with the suggested user, or use the cross (X) to dismiss the recommendation. 
  • Group recommendations: This block shows you recommended groups to join. You can either click Join to become part of the suggested group, or use the cross (X) to dismiss the recommendation. 

There are also blocks in other parts of the site, always on the right-hand side, although the content and function of these blocks will be tailored to the section they appear in. 

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Still have questions? Why not post them in the forums of the Totara Community.

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