Getting Started: Box User Basics

Welcome to Box! Want to get up and running fast? Follow the 5 steps below to learn how to log in to Box, create a workspace, and share content with your colleagues. Step 1: Logging into Box Step 2: Navigating the Files page Step 3: Creating a new workspace Step 4: Sharing content with others Step 5: Staying organized

Step 1: Logging into Box

First things first. Here’s how to log in: 1. Go to app.box.com/login 2. Enter your email/username 3. Enter your password. Forgot your password? No worries: Just click the Reset Password link. 4. Click Log In If your administrator has enabled or required SSO for your organization, you can use your company credentials to log in to Box.

Step 2: Navigating the Files page

After logging in, you’ll land on the Box Files page. The Files page will contain all of the folders and files you have access to.

Understanding folder icons

Folder icons differ based on folder owner and collaboration status. Yellow folders with no icon are personal folders, owned by you. Blue folders with a person icon are collaborated folders, owned by someone within your enterprise. Gray folders with a globe icon are external collaborated folders, owned by someone outside of your enterprise.

Searching for files or folders

If you’re looking for a certain file – or even a certain word or phrase within a file – jump right to it with the Search tool. Just pop your query into the search bar at the top of your page. Box will search the titles of your files and folders as well as the body of your documents. Receive too many results? Simply apply some filters. You can sort by folder, file type, date, content type, and owner. You can search for files and folders using Box AI:

Open the Recent Searches dropdown menu.
Select Search with Box AI.

All previous AI search sessions are listed in the Recent Searches dropdown menu. To reopen a previous session and resume your work, select Session History.

Box AI is available to all customers on Enterprise Plus and Enterprise Advanced plans.

Step 3: Creating a new workspace

Let’s learn how to create a new folder on Box, upload content, and share that content with your colleagues.

Creating a new folder

1. Click the New button in the upper-right corner of the page. 2. Choose what you would like to create. You can create a new Folder, Bookmark (to any URL), Box Note, Microsoft Office file, or Google document. The options shown here may differ based on the settings you or your account admin have enabled. 3. A pop-up window will appear prompting you to enter the name of your new file or folder. If you are creating a new folder, you’ll also be prompted to invite ‘collaborators’ to the folder. If you do not invite any collaborators, the folder will remain private. 4. Click ‘Create’ to complete the process.

Uploading a file

While browsing all files and folders in Box, uploading a new file or folder is straightforward: 1. In the Files section, click New + button in the upper-right corner. 2. Select File Upload or Folder Upload, depending on what you’d like to upload. 3. Select the file(s) or folder you’d like to upload. You can select multiple files for upload by holding the Command or Control key (Mac or Windows, respectively) while selecting files. However, you can only select one folder at a time for upload. 4. Click Open or Upload. With Box, you have two primary ways to share content with colleagues and other associates: by inviting existing Box users to folders, or by sending shared links.

Adding collaborators to a file or folder on Box

A collaborator is someone you invite into a file or folder. When you add someone as a collaborator to a file or folder, the item appears in their Files page. Permission levels on Box follow a “waterfall” design in which individuals have access only to the folder they are invited into and any subfolders beneath it. You can also be invited to individual files. For more information on folder permissions and permission levels, click here. To invite someone to collaborate in a file or folder: 1. Open the Share window. To do this, in your Box files view, hover over the row of the file or folder you wish to share. On the right, click Share. The Share window opens. 2. In the Share window, under Invite People, click Add names or email addresses. Type a collaborator’s name or email address. As you type, Box anticipates your intended recipient and lists corresponding email addresses. You can select the recipient you want, or continue typing the full email address. When typing full email addresses, separate recipients by a horizontal space. 3. Click the Invite as drop-down menu. Box displays a list of roles. Click the role you wish to assign to the collaborator. 4. (Optional) In the Message field, type a message of up to 750 characters for the collaborator. 5. Click Send.

Sending a shared link to content on Box

Shared links enable you to quickly copy and share hyperlinks to content stored in Box with your coworkers and friends – both inside and outside the company. Sending someone a shared link to a file or folder is a way to work together with that person around shared content. Customizable permission levels, expiration dates, and optional password-protection make Box shared links a secure, simple way to share important content. Creating a link to share: 1. In your Box files view, hover your cursor over the row of the file or folder you wish to share. 2. On the right, click (Create and) Copy Shared Link. The Shared Link window opens. 3. When you create a shared link, you have these access permissions from which to choose: People with the link: Anyone with the link can access the item and no Box account is required. For extra security, you can also set a password or expiration for the link, as well as restrict download and/or preview access for link viewers. People in your company: Only people who: 1) are managed on a Box account (Starter and above); (2) have an email address that matches a domain registered with Box for the account that created the link, can access the link. For example, if acme.com is a registered domain on your account, all managed account members with an email address ending in acme.com can access this type of link. People who do not match a domain listed on your account cannot access the link, even if they are managed members on your account. Invited people only: Only people invited to the folder or file can access the content. Collaborators already have access to their content, but can easily direct one another to a specific file or folder using the shared link. 4. When you create a shared link, you can select the actions that the shared link recipients can take. The actions you can choose depend on what your administrator allows, but can include any of: Can edit: The people with access to the link can: Edit, annotate, and comment on the file, or the files in the shared folder, or the Box Note View and download the file, the files in the folder, or the Box Note Copy the file or folder to a destination in their Box account Can view and download: The people with access to the link: Can view and download the file, the files in the folder, or the Box Note Can copy the file or folder to a destination in their Box account Cannot edit within Box Can view only: The people with access to the link can only view the file, the files in the folder, or the Box note, within Box. 5. After choosing your shared link settings, you can copy and paste the link into the app of your choice — email, messaging, and so on — to share your content.

Step 5: Staying organized

Collections and Favorites

Box Collections help you navigate to your most-used files and folders quickly. Box Collections enables you to create and name private collections of content in your Box account, where you can organize files and folders that you own or share. And although the content may be shared, your collections are not shared and are visible only to you. Box lists all your collections, along with your favorites, in the left sidebar, below My Collections. You can also create new collections. In the left sidebar, beside My Collections click +.

Recents

Recents help you go right back to where you left off. On this page, you’ll see what files and folders have been recently updated in your Box account. To view recent updates click Recents in the left side bar.

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