Step-by-step guides for publishing updates, banners, polls, events and quick links, arranging the home page, and setting up the directory and branding.

These guides are for portal managers, editors and tenant administrators. All of them start from Workspace settings in the IT workspace. Each guide names the permission and feature flag it needs; see Roles and permissions and How it works. Labels in bold are the texts you see on screen.

Write and publish a company update

Publish a publication for all employees or specific groups, optionally with mandatory acknowledgement.

Prerequisites: publication.author to write; publication.publish to publish. Publications switched on.

Open Workspace settings → Publications.
Under New publication, enter Title and Body (markdown) and choose a Category.
Under Visibility, choose All employees or Specific groups and select the groups.
If employees must confirm it, tick Require acknowledgement.
Click Create draft, then Submit for review.
A publisher (for mandatory items another person than the author) clicks Publish.
Optionally set a cover with Cover…: choose the Image, enter Alt text and click Save cover.

What happens next: the publication appears in the news feed and, if mandatory, in everyone's Needs action. The Ack column shows how many people have acknowledged it. Use Retire to archive it.

Important: if you wrote a publication that requires acknowledgement, TENSOR refuses to let you publish it yourself. Ask another portal manager.

Put an urgent or important notice at the top of the home page.

Prerequisites: portal.banner.author and portal.banner.publish; push banners switched on.

Open Workspace settings → Push banners.
Under New banner, write the Message and choose the Severity (Info, Warning, Critical).
Decide whether it is Dismissible, or Mandatory (non-dismissible; author cannot publish).
For evidence of distribution, enter the Regulated intent (for acknowledgement receipt), for example dora-major-incident.
Optionally choose an Icon and Tone, and check the Preview.
Click Create draft; then a publisher clicks Publish.

What happens next: the banner appears for its audience. The Acks column counts receipts for mandatory banners. Retire removes it.

Important: a critical or mandatory banner cannot be published by its author. A tone never replaces the message text, and TENSOR rejects tones that contradict the severity.

Run an employee poll

Ask employees for their opinion.

Prerequisites: portal.poll.author and portal.poll.publish; polls switched on; works-council acknowledgement recorded.

Open Workspace settings → Polls.
Under New poll, enter the Poll title.
Keep Anonymous (recommended) ticked and check the Results threshold (k-anonymity).
Add each Question and choose the Answer type (Scale, Slider, Choice); for choices enter Options (one per line).
Click Create draft, then Open to start the poll.
When the poll is over, click Close.

What happens next: employees in the audience see the poll on Home. The Votes column shows participation. Closing freezes the results.

Compliance: without a recorded works-council acknowledgement TENSOR refuses to open a poll. A mandatory poll must be opened by someone other than its author.

Create an event

Announce a company event.

Prerequisites: portal.event.author and portal.event.publish; events switched on.

Open Workspace settings → Events.
Under New event, enter Title, Details, Starts and optionally Ends (optional) and Location (optional).
Add an External link (optional) for details or registration.
Click Create draft, then Publish.

What happens next: the event appears under News & events and in the Home events section. Unpublish returns it to draft; Retire archives it.

Curate quick links

Give employees one-click access to the company's tools.

Prerequisites: portal.links.admin; quick links switched on.

Open Workspace settings → Quick links.
Click Add link set and enter a Set name.
In the set, click Add link and fill in Label, URL, Icon key, Audience, Order and Opens in (New tab or Same tab).
Click Save.

What happens next: the links appear in Quick launch on Home for their audience. TENSOR stores only the URL, never credentials.

Arrange the home page layout

Decide which sections appear on the home page and in which order.

Prerequisites: portal.layout.author; in-app layout authoring switched on.

Open Workspace settings → Intranet layout.
To add a section, open Add a section, choose the Section type and optionally an Audience, then click Add section.
Use Move up and Move down to reorder, Edit to change a section's settings.
Use Retire to remove a section; Restore brings it back.

What happens next: employees see the new layout on their next visit. Every change is audited; a reorder counts as one change.

Note: the layout uses fixed section types with typed settings. Free HTML, CSS or scripts are deliberately not possible.

Manage portal content from the dashboard

Keep drafts, schedules and failures under control, and preview what employees will see.

Prerequisites: any portal authoring permission.

Open Workspace settings → Portal management.
Check Drafts and reviews, Scheduled, Expiring within 7 days, Review due and Release failures.
Open an item and click Employee preview; switch between Desktop and Mobile, Light and Dark.
Edit and click Save changes, or use Duplicate as draft to reuse content.
For a failed release, fix the cause and click Publish / retry release.
Open Audit history to see who changed what and when.

What happens next: your changes are saved; the preview cannot vote, acknowledge or publish.

Important: if someone else saved the item in the meantime, TENSOR refuses to overwrite it. Click Reload current version and apply your change again. Published content must return to draft before editing.

Set up the people directory

Publish the company directory in line with the works council and GDPR.

Prerequisites: tenant admin with directory.admin; tenant_directory switched on.

Open Workspace settings → People directory.
After agreement with the works council, click Record acknowledgement under Works-council acknowledgement.
Under Published fields, tick only the fields that may be shown (Job title, Team, Location, Work phone, Email, Photo, Availability, Expertise).
Under Who can see whom, choose Everyone in the tenant, Same department only or Same location only.
Tick Enable the people directory and click Save.
To fill the directory from Active Directory or Entra ID, open Directory sync, connect the source, map the attributes and check the first sync run.

What happens next: employees see the directory under People. Fields you did not publish never leave the server, even if they were imported from the company directory. See Directory Sync — ingest is not publish.

Compliance: Enable the people directory stays blocked until the works-council acknowledgement is recorded ("Record the works-council acknowledgement first.").

Publish your company branding

Show your company name, logo and colour in the portal.

Prerequisites: tenant admin.

Open Workspace settings → Portal branding (page Company branding).
Enter the company display name, click Upload primary logo and optionally Upload compact mark.
Enter the Logo alternative text (required whenever a logo is present).
Set the Brand accent colour and the Default theme.
Check the previews Light portal, Dark portal and Compact header.
Click Save draft, then Publish branding and confirm.

What happens next: employees see the new branding as soon as it is published ("Branding published to employee surfaces."). An earlier revision can be restored with Use as draft. For background, see Publish company branding.

Note: colours that do not meet the platform's minimum contrast are rejected by the server. Logos are virus-scanned and checked for size and format.

Guides for portal editors and administrators