Topic Last Modified: 2011-01-23

The following procedure describes how to create a new category.

To create a new category

  1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Microsoft Lync Server 2010, and then click Microsoft Lync Server 2010, Group Chat Admin Tool.

  2. In the Chat Rooms list, click the category in which you want to create a new subcategory.

  3. On the File menu, click New, and then click Category.

  4. In the New Category dialog box, type a name and description for the category by doing the following:

    • In the Name box, type a name for the new category. The name must begin with a letter. It cannot contain spaces.

    • In the Description box, type a full description for the new category.

  5. Specify options that control the behavior of this category by doing any of the following:

    • To require future subcategories or chat rooms in this category to use this category’s settings, select the Subcategories and chat rooms must inherit settings check box.

    • To allow future subcategories of this category to be able to restrict scope further than the scope for this category, select the Allow subcategory scope changes check box.

    • To start with an empty membership list, select the Create a new membership list check box. In most cases, you will want to leave this check box cleared so that you will start with the membership list of the parent category.

  6. Specify default options for all chat rooms and subcategories in this category by doing any of the following:

    • To make chat rooms visible to all users in the category’s scope when they search for chat rooms to join, in the Visibility box, click Scoped.

    • To make chat rooms visible only to their members, click Private. Clicking Private makes it more difficult for new members to access a chat room, but it can be useful in hiding the chat room name from users who are not on the membership list.

    • To automatically send invitations to users who are added to the members list of chat rooms in this category, in the Invitations box, click Yes.

      Important:
      When active, the computer running Microsoft Lync Server 2010, Group Chat will immediately issue an invitation to join the chat room to all users who are on the membership list. This can have unintended consequences if a user creates a new chat room with the default membership list and then subsequently refines the membership list to a smaller group. Those users who were excluded will receive both an invitation and a notice that they have been restricted from participating.
    • To have the content from chat rooms created in this category persist Microsoft Lync 2010 Group Chat content, in the Chat History box, click Yes.

    • To allow category members to post files and URLs with their chat messages, in the File Uploads box, click Yes. Or, to allow category members to post only messages and URLs, in the File Uploads box, click No.

  7. (Optional) To prevent category members from creating new chat rooms in this category, in Can create chat rooms and subcategories, click No.

    Note:
    This setting applies only to category members; Chat room managers can always create new chat rooms.
  8. In each box under Category Settings, either click Inherit from Parent to keep the same setting as for the parent category (shown under Parent Settings), or select a specific setting.