Shared files and messages

Add a file

1. Open Shared files and click Add. Choose Upload for a PDF or image, or Link for something that lives elsewhere, like a feed-store order form or a Google Doc.
2. Give it a title (an upload defaults to the filename), an optional folder, and a line about what it is.
3. Under Who it's for, pick the groups that should see it, or add individual people from Add one person….
4. Click Upload or Add link.

Uploads are PDFs and images (JPEG, PNG, WebP) up to 25 MB. Links have to start with http:// or https://. The folder is a label that keeps the boarding contracts apart from the show schedules; type a new name or pick one you've used before.

Who sees what

The groups are the barn's own: Everyone, Barn owners, Staff, Instructors, Boarders, and Vendors. Each chip shows how many people are in it right now, and a group outlives any list of names, so a new boarder sees the boarder handbook the day they arrive. Share with a person when a group can't say it: one owner's vet bill, one family's agreement.

Staff see every file. Everyone else sees only what is aimed at them, by a group they're in or at them personally, and the same rule is checked again when they open it. A file aimed at one person is for that person; it doesn't spread to their family. A file shared with nobody stays on the staff shelf and is marked not shared yet so it isn't forgotten.

Open, preview, change, remove

A PDF has a Preview button that reads it in place using the browser's own viewer, with page navigation, zoom, and search. Download opens an upload in a new tab; Open does the same for a link. Staff can click Share on any file to change who it's for, and Remove to take it off the shelf. Removing hides it from every list, but the file itself is kept, so a document somebody signed against can still be produced.

Boards and private messages

Messages has a rail down the side: Everything, then Boards, then Private. A board is somewhere the barn posts: anyone it's aimed at can read it and reply. A private message is a conversation between you and the people you pick, and nobody else sees it.

Writing a message

Write, at the top of Messages, opens one composer with a To line, the way email does. On a phone it's the pencil in the corner. In Everything, the Write to a board or someone… row above the posts opens the same thing.

1. In To, type a few letters of a name or a board. Before you type, Recent lists the last places you posted.
2. Pick a board, or one or more people. A board takes the whole To line: a post goes to one board, never to a board and people at once.
3. Write it, attach files with the paperclip if you like, and choose Send (or Post for a board).

The line above the buttons says where it's going. If you already have a conversation with exactly those people, it goes there (Your conversation with Maya). If not, Send starts one (Starts a conversation with Maya, or New group · only the 3 of you). There's no separate step to start a conversation first.

Inside a board or a conversation, Write fills in To with that place, and the box at the top of it works just as before. Clear the To to send somewhere else without leaving.

Groups don't need a name

A conversation with two or more people is named by its people (Maya, Alex & you) until someone gives it a name. To name it, open the conversation and choose Rename under ⋯; empty the name to go back to the people's names.

Making a board

Staff make boards with + beside Boards in the rail, or with New board… at the foot of Write's To list, which starts the board with whatever you typed as its name. Pick who it's for from the same groups Shared files uses, or pick nobody and it goes to the whole barn, then Create board. The + beside Private opens Write with an empty To.

Posting and replying

Open a board or a conversation in the rail and the composer appears at the top, already pointed there. Give a post a title when it helps ("Farrier Thursday"), write the body, attach files with the paperclip, and click Post. Attachments can be images, PDFs, text and CSV files, Word and Excel documents, or a zip, up to 25 MB each; images show inline. Staff can also have Ask 1barn draft a message with Draft in the editor's toolbar; see Ask 1barn.

Under every post is a Write a comment… box. Comments stay with their post, so a question about the farrier visit doesn't become a post of its own. You can delete your own posts and comments; staff can delete anyone's.

Formatting

Bodies are GitHub-flavored markdown: **bold**, *italic*, lists with -, headings with #, and links paste in as plain URLs. Emoji work as typed. The editor shows the result as you write, and an assistant posting through 1barn's tools uses the same markdown.

What boarders see

A boarder sees the boards aimed at everyone or at a group they're in, and their own private threads. Staff see every board regardless of its audience, and the board's header tells staff who it reaches: Everyone at the barn, or the groups it was aimed at. Everything is one stream of every post you can see, with a tag on each saying which board or thread it came from. The page checks for new posts every twenty seconds; unread counts sit in the rail.

Announcements

An assistant that broadcasts posts to a public board called Announcements, creating it the first time; that is a post like any other, with comments and a history. For a line that should simply be true until it isn't, like "the arena is closed this week," use Post an announcement on the dashboard instead. It sits across the top of everyone's dashboard; ordinary ones can be waved away, urgent ones can't. Notices from 1barn itself appear there too, labeled 1barn, so it's always clear who is talking.

1barn doesn't email copies of posts. Anything time-critical, like a change to tomorrow's turnout, is worth a word in person as well.