Topics

Intro to using Topics

What are Topics?

Topics are a further method to keep your work organized in the platform. Often, single Conversations aren’t enough to cover a given topic from inception to completion. Often many email threads, attachments and stakeholders are involved. Topics enable you to group 2 or more conversations together under a single umbrella. As Conversations added to a Topic or the Conversation itself is updated those changes will be updated automatically to the Topic they are attached to.

For Instance: If an attachment is added to a Conversation the topic itself will then be associated with that attachment. The same can be said for routes, stops and channels, as Conversations get updated with new information and tags all of their parent Topics will be updated.

Removing a Conversation from a topic on the other hand will remove all of the attributes of that Topic if no other Conversations is associated with those tags or locations.

Creating a new Topic

  1. To create a new Topic, Click on the “Take Action” drop down:
  2. Select “Topic”
  3. If you are working in a multi-agency environment, select the appropriate agency in the next dialog; if not skip this step
  4. Add context to your Topic:
  5. The same editing tools available to you in Conversations are available, including formatting, web linking, and image upload
  6. Once your details are added, click “Submit”

Add Conversations to your Topic

The Topic detail screen is very similar to the Conversation detail. Rather than a continuous string of messages, however, you will see a list of related Conversations.

To add Conversations to the Topic:

  1. Click on the “+” button:
  2. The following dialog will display. Search for the title of the Conversation(s) you’d like to add to the Topic:
  3. To view the Conversation click on the Link icon:
  4. To add the Conversation click on the “+” button:

Topic High-level View

Once you’ve added conversations to your Topic, you can view a list of all active topics in the “Topics” tab. This can be accessed via the green buttons in the top-right corner of the navigation bar:

The Topic Overview shows pertinent information about the Topic and what is contained within it:

  1. Topic Names
  2. Topic Owner
  3. Update/Created dates
  4. Conversations counts and lists the attached Conversations to the Topic; clicking on any of the Conversation titles will navigate you directly to that Conversations
  5. # Channels, Routes and Stops counts and lists the attached Channels/Categories, Routes and Stops contained in the Topic; clicking on any of these objects will filter the Topic list by the Channel/Category, Route or Stop

Like Conversations, you can also use the left side panel to filter by Category. Again, these are customizable, which is a process that will be covered in a later article

If you have Topics that have been resolved or archived, these are not displayed by default. Use the toggles on the navigation pane on the upper right portion of the screen to view resolved and/or archived Topics.