Corteza Messaging
Basics
Corteza Messaging is a modern, private, secure messaging system which integrates seamlessly with Corteza One, Corteza CRM and Corteza Low Code. Its design is inspired by Slack, a popular cloud service.
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Public or Private Channels for Team-based chat
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Keep project communications in one place
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Direct Messages to anyone in your team
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File sharing in any channel
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Reduce confusing clutter caused by long email chains
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Left sidebar showing list of available channels
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Main middle screen for list of messages and uploaded files in the channel
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Right sidebar for Messaging threads and channel specific actions
Channels
Channels are used to organise your conversations. A channel is a single place to share messages and upload files. List of available channels is located on the left sidebar of the interface.
Channel Types
There are three different types of channels:
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Public Channels
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Private Channels
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Direct Messages
Public channels are open to everyone who is signed up to Messaging. They are identified with a hashtag icon (“#”). Click on “Browse all Channels” at the bottom of the Public Channels list or press "CTRL/CMD + K" to search the full list of Public Channels available
Private channels are for discussions that are limited to only selected team members. Private Channels are identified by a lock icon.
Direct messages are discussions between two or more people. There is no channel name, only the names of the individuals. The Direct Message discussion is only visible to the people involved.Direct Messages are identified by the presence icon. If the presence icon is block green, then all members of the Direct Message discussion are online. If the presence icon has a green perimeter only, then only one or some of the members of the discussion are online. If the presence icon is grey, then no-one is available in the discussion.
Dealing with Channels
Click on plus icon (+) next to "Public channel", "Private channel" or "Direct messages" section titles. Fullfill the form, add members and click on "Create" button.
Choose a channel you want to join and click on the "Join channel" button on the very bottom (covering the Messaging input).
Any channel can be hidden from interface by hovering the cursor over the channel name and clicking on the “x” next to the channel name. Removing the channel from the user interface does not delete the channel for you or for any other user.
Channel Controls
The Channel controls for any individual channel are in the top right corner of each open channel. Click on the control icon (three vertical dots) to see the following options:
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Member List:
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View existing members
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Remove members
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Add new members
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Edit Channel:
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Change Channel name and topic
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Mark channel as featured (so it’s always visible in the Channel list)
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Remove channel members
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Archive or Delete a channel
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Pin Channel:
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Add this Channel to the top of the Channel list in the left sidebar
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Hide Channel:
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Hide Channel name from the Channel list in the left sidebar
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Ignore Channel
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Stop receiving notifications for this Channel
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Remove Channel Flag
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Applicable only if one of the 3 options above are in use (Pin/Hide/Ignore Channel)
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Bookmarked Messages
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View list of all Bookmarked Messages in the right sidebar
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Pinned Messages
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View list of Pinned Messages in the selected Channel in the right sidebar
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Leave Channel
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Au Revoir!
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Messages
Corteza makes Messaging your colleagues intuitive and user friendly.
Dealing with Messages
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Enter a message into the message bar at the very bottom of the screen
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Hit "Enter"
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Hover over the message with the cursor and click on the plus (“+”) sign that appears at the end of the message.
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Select “edit message”. This method works for all your messages
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Alternatively, while you’re in the message bar, hit the Page Up key and edit a message. This method only works for your most recent inputted message.
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Hover over the message with the cursor and click on the plus (“+”) sign that appears at the end of the message.
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Select “delete message”.
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Hover over the message with the cursor and click on the speech bubble icon that appears at the end of the message.
Replying to a message opens a side bar on the right of the screen called a message “Thread”. The unread message count in a thread appear in red underneath the original message.
Reactions
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Hover over the message with the cursor and click on the emoticon (smiley) icon that appears at the end of the message.
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Click on the sign and choose from the emoticon menu presented.
User Mentions
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Type the “@” sign and a user list will appear.
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Continue typing the first letters of the name of that person beside the “@” sign (with no spaces) and the list will reduce alphabetically to the name of the individual you wish to mention.
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Hit ENTER when you wish to select the user.
The mentioned user gets sent a notification from you when they are mentioned.
Unread Messages
The number of unread messages in a channel appears beside the channel name in the left sidebar.
Bubble icon instead of number indicates you have unread messages in one of the threads inside the channel.
To mark messages as read click on "Mark as read" button on the bottom right corner.
Bookmarks and Pins
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Hover over the message with the cursor and click on the bookmark icon that appears at the end of the message.
Bookmarked messages are visible only to you.
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To view your bookmarked messages in any channel, select the channel controls in the top right hand corner (three vertical dots) and select “Bookmarked Messages”.
Bookmarked messages are highlighted with a green vertical bar on the right of the message in any channel.
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Hover over the message with the cursor and click on the pin icon that appears at the end of the message.
Pinned messages are visible in the right sidebar to every member of the channel.
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To view your pinned messages in any channel, select the channel controls in the top right hand corner (three vertical dots) and select “Pinned Messages”.
Pinned messages are highlighted with a yellow vertical bar on the right of the message in any channel.
File Upload
You can upload files and share them with other members of the channel. To upload the file click on the plus icon (+) in the left corner of the Messaging input and select the file or simply drag and drop the file to the channel.
Maximum file size can be set in the Admin panel.
Markdown Support
For rich message formatting, Corteza supports Markdown inputs. A Markdown cheat sheet can be found here.
Video Conference
Part of Corteza is an open-source video conferencing tool Jitsi.
Starting a video call
To start a call open a new tab (instructions: [tabs]) and select "Jitsi video" among the available applications.
Select one of the existing channels and click on "Join" button or create a new room and click on "Create" button.
To invite other members tell them which room to join or copy a direct link to the meeting from the box in the bottom right corner.
Sharing a screen
While you’re inside Jitsi video conference screen you can select an option to share a screen on the bottom left corner (screen icon). Select if you’d like to share the entire screen, application window or Chrome Tab only.
To stop sharing a screen click on "Stop Sharing" button on the bottom.