ideapi is a tool that allows you, your team and your clients to create and collaborate on documents and ideas online.

Author: Authors start the ball rolling by creating a document – they can edit, update or delete a document as well as respond to questions and submit ideas. Authors also manage all permissions on the document, assign idea approvers and add/remove collaborators to the document.

Collaborator: This is the default role given to users when they are added to a document. Collaborators can ask questions and leave comments for others to read. Collaborators can also respond to the document by submitting ideas.

Approver: The approver is responsible for reviewing ideas submitted to a document. They can also ask questions and leave comments on the document but cannot edit it.

The account holder decides who has permission to create documents. Document creators are automatically authors on the documents they create.

Yes your information is completely safe. Keep your login details secret and use strong passwords. Others will not be able to access your data without your login details.

You must first invite them to create a login on ideapi. If you are the account holder you can do this from the Contacts page. Users added to your account will receive an email inviting them to login to ideapi.

Using the Document Collaborators widget on the right hand side of the document page, click the “+” button and add users to the document.

As many as you like; just add them to your account and add them to the document.

As many as you like. Currently ideapi is free and there are no restrictions on the number of documents that you can work on.

Until you decide to delete them.

Yes, if you have permission to create documents, you can also set up as many of your own document templates as you like.

Go to the Templates section, click “Create Template” and add the various sections that you would like to see in documents based on this template. Use headings to group together related sections in the document. Add default content if you would like your template sections to have default content.

Alterations to templates do not affect existing documents.

On the document page, use the Ideas widget on the right hand side and click “draft new idea”. Give your idea a title and description. You can also upload supporting documents or media. Save your idea as a draft or submit for approval. When you submit your idea the approver will be notified by email.

Only you will be able to see your idea until you submit it. Once submitted the Author(s) and Approver will be able to see your idea.

• If a collaborator asks a question, authors are notified.
• If an author answers a question, the person that asked the question will be notified.
• If a document section is updated, all document collaborators are notified.
• If an idea is submitted, the idea approver is notified.
• If an idea’s approval status is changed, the idea owner is notified.
• If a user is added to a document, or their permissions are changed, they will be notified.

Yes, you can choose whether or not your collaborators receive section updates or comments by unchecking the checkbox next to the corresponding submit button.

There is currently a limit of 3MB per file, but there is no limit to the number of files that can be uploaded.

In short ideapi will not share any of your information with anyone, ever. Please see the full privacy policy for reassurance.