We have an overall project team that has several sub-teams.  It would be nice to add folders to workspace to store various notes, lists or files associated with each sub-team.  As it stands now, I could create a workspace for each sub-team.  But this would result in may workspaces.  The ability to set one access to a workspace and have it apply to grouped folders would be a good addition.

Example:

Main Team workspace (access assigned at the workspace level)

    Sub-team 1 - lists, notes, files
    Sub-team 2 - lists, notes, files

 

We don't support folder in the current version, but it is something we consider adding.

Please consider this feature sooner, rather than later.  My workspace is going to have hundreds of documents, which will simply be listed without any organization in your current version.  Thanks!

Folders sound like a good idea to me, too. Here's my second to the suggestion.

As long as you are building a new interface why not model the business process - full parent folder-child folder support. This give the ability to organize dcuments by type/project/etc. - great way to drag and drop a folder tree to/from the desktop <-> remote storage.

agreed, this is a necessary feature.  I would think most organizations that experience the issues which lead to the necessity of Sharepoint or Office Live are going to have a substantial volume of documents.  A means to organize many documents within workspaces is pretty much a must.

Hopefully the Live Office team is monitoring these posts. Without nested folders to help organize project files this Live Office Workspace is nearly useless. While unfair to compare it to Documentum's eRoom functionality, this certainly should be the design target. Again, nested folders are a must for this service to be useful with project teams.

This is an important feature to support larger number of files.  Any team will soon outgrow the single storage space model.

Separate workspaces is a temporary fix but makes permission administration too difficult. 

Nothing new to add, other than I join with the others in saying that this is an essential feature if Office Live is to be a serious contender to other online solutions. 

I agree... This is an important way to organize files...

I'm going to play dumb blonde here.  How many files can one have for a project that needs to be worked on and changed?  Any other files I need the other people in the company to have I will have on their computer already.  The work space right now is just a testing for working on a project and I just can't wrap my brain around having anything or other file from my system any where other then on my system.  The work space is where I'm having them change what needs to be for a proposal/presentation, spread sheets done and put back, keep appointments co-ordinated, having each person add/edit the newsletters which is great doing it off the workspace it worked just great keeping the macros enabled.  If I get that many files that I need more to be out there I'm building myself a mini server not putting it any where else.  Does that help explain some of my confussion with the topic.  Lady J

Hi Lady J...  even in a small project with just 10 collaborators you can have hundreds of documents.  These documents can typically be divided into functional categories... e.g. finance, project management, management presentations, engineering, marketing, support, etc.  Each member of the team may need to have access to these files - not necessarilly for changing but for reference.  For example, as a Marketing person I may need to put together the latest marketing snapshot.  In order to do that I need access to the latest project schedule information, finance information, and support information.  And of course I would want that information to be the latest available.

Having access to this information in a common location and organized logically (so I don't have to sift through hundreds of documents) is a significant help.  Additionally, it helps authors so they don't have to spend time sending out repeat information.  For example, when I'm done with my marketing snapshot I simply post it in the Marketing folder as the latest update.  True, someone could sort through all the files in a flat file space (like what Workspace currently has) but it would be much simpler and straightforward to have a "Marketing" folder available and the person can just look there.

 Yes, as you state everyone could just have their own copy of the document on their own computer.  But that leads to inconsistency and invalid data.  Everytime you have multiple copies of a file there is the risk that the information contained is not the latest information.  Assume you have ten people with a finance file... how do you ensure that each of those ten people are working with the same information (even if they are not changing the information, they are using it to make decisions)?  Does the author email out the updated file every time it is changed?  How can you ensure that they read the email and update their local file?  By using a shared (and organized) repository you provide a common source for updated information - both for reference and edit.

 Did that help?  -Norm

Yes, comparing Workspace to eRoom is unfair... but wouldn't it be great if someone took a look at the eRoom functionality and used that as the goal for functionality in Workspace?  (hint, hint... Workspace team :)

Clearly this thread is generating interest in the concept that a folder tree is a necessity in organizing documents. A consideration is the userbase coming from small business or departmental level activity. Business project complexity is independent of the size of the enterprise. The IT resource to meet project needs is definately dependent. (read unavailable to small business) There is a market for readily available Internet Attached Storage. Even a small business/project I am involved with requires many type of documents, 100's of marketing and web photos to store/view/share, and the abilty to access everthing from several computers/locations. 

As the teams are saying that many of these that are great options and would help those who have to access a hundred things at once  yet basically we've been able to have three different people edit a presentation save their changes then load it back up work space where the next person took it loaded, changed their part and did the same.  there is a button called version that lets you upload and over write and when it's pulled back to my computer it over writes the changes that have been done.  I have everyones changes and then have everyones changes and they all match.  Simple.  Now if I had a hundred different people having to do different things I'd have to keep hitting the +workspace and put a different name on it but with one project at a time.  Again I have to stress that as the first step "simple" workspace this is doing all that it's made to do. 

The suggestions are all being taken down they are saying here and who knows what the next versions will have.  I just am happy with what it has so far and have found no problems using the workspace in the manner that it is set up.  Lady J