Workplaces are driven by lists. Lists of members, items in a news feed, and files in a folder. Usually you rely on a platform to build those lists, with things like search indexes, or to make it easy to use lists you've created, like using Groups for notifications and access. Changing those lists can alter the very fabric of your digital workplace. But sometimes what you need can't be generated automatically. Your members need to find specific content and processes across your Igloo. So today we'll walk through several different methods of building custom indexes in your digital workplace. 

Your Igloo has a lot of ways of doing this automatically, through the Folder Contents or Wiki Index widget, but sometimes your reference needs are more complex. An onboarding process might need members to access certain files, policies stored in wikis, and announcements or events stored in other content types. Or you may want to build a cheat sheet for a knowledge base to identify essential SOPs for safety procedures or incident management. Either way, your digital workplace has a solution to offer.

Indexes in wikis

Every Wiki Channel has a main article that can be edited, but that exists separately from the articles inside the Channel. This is a great option for creating custom indexes directly in your knowledge base. If the main article isn't visible, it can be enabled in the Settings area of the Channel, and gives you access to the full text editor to nest links in lists and tables, add any headers you like, and even embed videos or external feeds. 

Indexes in widgets

For indexes on a Page or Space, you can build them in an HTML Content widget. Its features are broader than the Links widget or Call to Action widget, offering you the full text editor like the above, as well as being indexed in search, so searches for items in the index will return the Page. Widgets can also take custom classes, letting you format your index exactly the way you need to using CSS. 

The best of both worlds

The Wiki Article widget lets you add any wiki article directly the a Page or Space, including the main article of a Wiki Channel. Take the index that you built there and place it anywhere in your digital workplace, and updates to that article will display in all connected widgets. More complex Igloos sometimes maintain a wiki of indexes, to be easily loading into any Wiki Article widget across their digital workplace. 

Building and maintaining custom indexes ensures that your members have quick access to the relevant content for any process, and can be especially important in the early stages of your digital transformation, when people are adjusting to new workflows and architecture. 

If you have questions about the Igloo platform, workflows, or best practices, you can leave a comment here, or ask a question in the Community area.