General Site Settings

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Configure the fundamental settings for your site, including its name, visibility, and display preferences. Access these settings through Site Settings > General for any site you administer.

Site Name

Your site name appears throughout Clear Ideas in:

Site lists and navigation
Email notifications sent to users
Site sharing contexts
Site statistics and analytics

Update Site Name: Enter a descriptive name in the Site Name field. Choose a name that clearly identifies the site's purpose or content.

Best Practices:

Use descriptive, professional names
Include project or client identifiers if applicable
Keep names concise but informative
Avoid special characters that may cause issues in emails or URLs

Site Visibility

Control who can see and access your site with visibility settings.

Public Sites

Public Visibility: When a site is set to public:

Visible to All Users: The site appears in site lists for all users in your organization or account
Invitations Sent: Pending user invitations are automatically sent when a site becomes public
Easier Collaboration: Users can discover and request access to public sites
Requires Account: Public sites require an authenticated account (not available in demo mode)

When to Use Public:

After uploading and organizing all initial content
When ready to share with collaborators
For ongoing collaboration projects
When you want the site discoverable

Private Sites

Private Visibility: When a site is set to private:

Administrators Only: Only site administrators can see the site
No Automatic Invitations: Invitations are not automatically sent
Controlled Access: You manually manage who has access
Preparation Mode: Ideal for sites still being set up

When to Use Private:

During initial content upload and organization
When preparing content before sharing
For sensitive projects requiring careful access control
When testing or staging content

Tip: Start Private, Go Public Later

Keep sites private while uploading and organizing content. Once everything is ready, make the site public to enable collaboration and send pending invitations.

Changing Visibility

To change site visibility:

Navigate to Site Settings > General
Select Public or Private from the visibility options
Click Save Settings

Important Notes:

Changing from private to public automatically sends pending invitations
Public sites require an authenticated account
Demo/unauthenticated accounts cannot create public sites
Visibility changes take effect immediately

Display Options

Control how content is displayed in the file viewer.

Code and Extracted Text Tabs

Show Edit Code and Extracted Text Tabs: When enabled, the file viewer displays additional tabs:

Edit Code Tab: Allows viewing and editing file source code
Extracted Text Tab: Shows text extracted from documents (useful for PDFs and images)

When to Enable:

For technical documentation sites
When users need to view source code
For sites with code samples or scripts
When extracted text review is important

When to Disable:

For non-technical audiences
When focusing on document viewing only
To simplify the interface for end users
For presentation-focused sites

Toggle this option based on your site's audience and content type.

Q&A

Q&A controls whether users can ask private questions and whether reviewers can publish controlled notes or announcements.

When Q&A is enabled:

users can ask private questions about the site, content, files, PDF pages, or selected PDF text
reviewers can answer, assign, resolve, and export question threads
administrators can publish site announcements
administrators or reviewers can add file and content notes when permitted
Q&A notifications can alert reviewers and users about new activity

Organization policy may also govern Q&A. If a capability is disabled by organization policy, the corresponding site setting is guarded.

See Site Q&A.

Content Deletion

Control how file and folder delete actions behave in a Site. This setting is focused on content deletion. Site-level deletion protection and read-only mode remain separate lifecycle controls.

Available modes:

Allow Content Deletion: Delete actions use Recently Deleted when the user has delete permission.

Archive Content: Delete actions move files and folders into Archived Content so they are hidden from normal browsing but can be restored and governance references remain valid.

Block Content Deletion: Delete and archive actions are hidden and blocked at the API level.

When to Archive or Block Deletion:

For production or finalized content sites
When content should remain immutable
For compliance or regulatory requirements
When preventing accidental deletions is critical
For sites serving as a system of record

When to Allow Deletion:

During content organization and cleanup
When regular content management is needed
For staging or test sites
When preparing to archive or remove content

Important Notes:

Organization policy can require content archiving or block ordinary deletion
In non-strict organization policy mode, a Site can choose a less permissive option but cannot make deletion more permissive than the policy allows
When both archive and block behavior are enforced, blocking wins: content cannot be deleted or archived
The setting defaults to allowing deletion for backward compatibility unless organization policy or site configuration says otherwise

Tip: Use Archive Content for Governed Sites

Use Archive Content when source artifacts may need to keep resolving for governed evidence, but site administrators still need a way to remove stale material from normal view.

Read-only Mode

Read-only mode keeps a site visible to its normal audience while preventing new changes.

Enable Read-only Mode: When enabled:

Edits Blocked: Content changes, new uploads, new versions, and structural edits are blocked
Settings Locked: Administrative site settings remain visible but cannot be changed
Access Preserved: Members and viewers keep normal visibility to the site
Immediate Effect: The lock takes effect as soon as the setting is saved

When to Enable:

When a site should remain available for viewing but should not change further
During governance or review periods where content must remain stable
When administrators should be prevented from creating new document versions

When to Disable:

When content updates need to resume
During active drafting or editing phases
When restructuring folders, metadata, or site settings

Important Notes:

Read-only is different from archive: archive removes the site from normal circulation, while read-only keeps it visible
Read-only applies to administrators and editors, not only to standard users
Viewer or downloader roles already have limited write capability, so the read-only indicator is mainly shown to users who would otherwise expect editing access

Site Statistics

For site administrators, the General Settings page also displays site statistics:

Quick Overview: See at a glance:

Total documents and folders
Site storage usage
Number of users
Indexed content metrics

For detailed statistics, see Site Statistics.

Best Practices

Site Naming

Be Descriptive: Use names that clearly indicate the site's purpose or content.

Include Context: For organizations, include project codes, client names, or department identifiers.

Consistency: Follow a naming convention across your sites for easier management.

Visibility Management

Start Private: Begin with private visibility while setting up content.

Review Before Public: Ensure content is organized and ready before making sites public.

Consider Audience: Make sites public when you're ready for broader collaboration.

Monitor Access: Regularly review who has access to public sites.

Display Options

Match Audience: Enable code/extracted text tabs for technical audiences, disable for general users.

Test User Experience: Consider how display options affect your site's usability.

Deletion Protection

Enable for Production: Protect finalized content by enabling deletion protection on production sites.

Disable During Setup: Keep protection disabled while organizing and managing content initially.

Consider Compliance: Use deletion protection when regulatory or compliance requirements mandate content immutability.

Review Regularly: Periodically review whether protection should remain enabled based on site lifecycle and content status.

Impact of Settings Changes

Immediate Effects

Site Name: Updates immediately across all contexts
Visibility: Changes access immediately; public sites send invitations
Display Options: Affect file viewer interface immediately
Deletion Protection: Takes effect immediately; delete options hidden and deletion requests blocked

User Impact

Name Changes: Users see the new name in site lists and emails
Visibility Changes: Public sites become discoverable; private sites become hidden
Display Options: Affect how all users view files in the site
Deletion Protection: When enabled, all users lose access to delete options; when disabled, users with appropriate permissions can delete content

Site Statistics - Detailed site metrics
Managing Users - User access management
Notifications - Site notification preferences