# OrbitOverflow User Manual

Updated: 2026-05-06

This manual combines the full OrbitOverflow feature guide into one document for onboarding, reference, and printing.

## Role Guide

- Personal user: a single-user workspace for personal tasks, reminders, notes, messages, and reporting.
- Organisation member: a user working inside an organisation where access depends on role and feature permissions.
- Organisation admin: an owner or admin who can manage members, permissions, invitations, and teams.
- System administrator: the highest-level administrator with system-wide control over users, licenses, and broadcasts.

## Contents

1. Getting Started
2. My Work Dashboard
3. Personal Task Management
4. Shared Tasks
5. Team Tasks
6. Friends And Referrals
7. Messages
8. Notes
9. Reminders
10. Reports
11. Notifications
12. Organisation Management
13. Teams
14. Admin Guide

## 1. Getting Started

### Purpose
Create an account, sign in, understand license access, and reach the workspace successfully.

### Who Can Use It
- New users
- Invited users
- Existing users reviewing account access

### Key Actions
- Create a personal or organisation account
- Start a free trial when available
- Sign in and recover access
- Review payment and license status
- Update profile details and password

### Typical Workflow
1. Open Sign Up and choose Personal or Organisation.
2. Complete registration with the required account details.
3. Sign in with your username and password.
4. If access is blocked, review Pricing and the license message.
5. Open Account Info after login to maintain your profile.

### Rules
- Usernames must be at least 3 characters.
- Passwords must be at least 6 characters.
- Some accounts need payment or administrator approval before full access begins.

## 2. My Work Dashboard

### Purpose
Use the dashboard as the main working screen for focused work, overdue items, saved views, and daily planning.

### Who Can Use It
- Personal users
- Organisation members
- Organisation admins

### Key Actions
- Switch between Focus, Today, Overdue, In Progress, and High Priority views
- Filter by date, status, and priority
- Save and reorder custom views
- Open personal, shared, and team tasks

### Typical Workflow
1. Open Dashboard after sign-in.
2. Start with Focus to review what needs attention first.
3. Apply filters to narrow the task list.
4. Save filter combinations you use repeatedly.
5. Open tasks from the dashboard to act on them.

### Rules
- Saved views are private to the current user.
- Completed tasks sort below active work.
- Invalid filter values fall back to safe defaults.

## 3. Personal Task Management

### Purpose
Create, organize, update, complete, and share personal tasks with clear priorities and checklist support.

### Who Can Use It
- Users managing personal work items

### Key Actions
- Create tasks with title, date, status, category, priority, and estimate
- Attach images
- Add and reorder checklist items
- Share tasks with friends
- Record actual time when completing work

### Typical Workflow
1. Create the task from the dashboard.
2. Add the description, due date, category, priority, and estimate.
3. Break the work into checklist items if needed.
4. Attach supporting images when useful.
5. Complete the task and add actual time once finished.

### Rules
- Task title is required.
- Only personal tasks can be shared with friends.
- Completed tasks are locked and cannot be edited, deleted, or shared.

## 4. Shared Tasks

### Purpose
Collaborate around a personal task that has been shared with a friend through a dedicated shared workspace.

### Who Can Use It
- Task owners
- Friends who received a shared task

### Key Actions
- Review task details and attachments
- Post update comments
- Upload files to updates
- Track checklist progress
- Complete the task if you are the owner

### Typical Workflow
1. Share a personal task with a friend before the task is completed.
2. Open the shared task workspace from the dashboard or a notification.
3. Use updates for progress notes and handoffs.
4. Keep the checklist current if you are the owner.
5. Complete the task when the work is done.

### Rules
- Only personal tasks use the shared task workspace.
- Only the owner can change main task details.
- Completed shared tasks are locked.

## 5. Team Tasks

### Purpose
Work inside a team task workspace where team members can follow progress and the owner controls the main task record.

### Who Can Use It
- Members of the assigned team
- Team task owners

### Key Actions
- Review task status, timing, description, and attachments
- Post update comments
- Upload files to updates
- Manage checklist items if you own the task
- Complete the task if you own it

### Typical Workflow
1. Open the team task from the dashboard or notification.
2. Review status and checklist progress.
3. Add update comments for progress or blockers.
4. If you own the task, keep the task record current.
5. Complete the task once all work is finished.

### Rules
- Only members of the related team can open the task.
- Only the owner can edit the main task record.
- Completed team tasks are locked.

## 6. Friends And Referrals

### Purpose
Connect with other users, manage friend requests, and invite non-users into the platform by email.

### Who Can Use It
- Users with the Friends permission

### Key Actions
- Send friend requests by exact username or email
- Accept or reject incoming requests
- Review sent requests
- Remove existing friends
- Send referral invites by email

### Typical Workflow
1. Open Friends from the top navigation.
2. Send a request using the exact username or email address.
3. Accept or reject incoming requests as needed.
4. Use Invite by Email for people who do not yet have an account.
5. Track referral status in the referral list.

### Rules
- You cannot add yourself.
- Add-friend search requires an exact username or exact email.
- If the email already belongs to a user, use Add Friend instead of Invite.

## 7. Messages

### Purpose
Send direct messages and images through a focused conversation view tied to your contacts and friends.

### Who Can Use It
- Users with the Messages permission

### Key Actions
- Open conversations
- Send text messages
- Attach images
- Review unread counts
- Start messaging from an existing friend connection

### Typical Workflow
1. Open Messages from the top navigation.
2. Select a conversation from the sidebar.
3. Type your message and attach images when needed.
4. Send the message.
5. Use unread badges to prioritize replies.

### Rules
- Image uploads must use supported image formats.
- Large files may be rejected.
- Messaging is built around valid contacts and friend relationships.

## 8. Notes

### Purpose
Keep notes, reference files, and shared note content in one place with color-coding and attachments.

### Who Can Use It
- Users with the Notes permission

### Key Actions
- Create and edit notes
- Choose note colors
- Attach files
- Share notes with friends
- Delete notes and note files

### Typical Workflow
1. Open Notes from the top navigation.
2. Create a new note with a clear title.
3. Add body text, choose a color, and upload files if needed.
4. Share the note with a friend when collaboration is needed.
5. Remove outdated files or delete the note when it is no longer useful.

### Rules
- Note title is required.
- Attachment size limits apply.
- Sharing works with friends only.

## 9. Reminders

### Purpose
Create one-time and recurring reminders so deadlines, follow-ups, and routine work stay visible.

### Who Can Use It
- Users with the Reminders permission

### Key Actions
- Create reminders with date and optional time
- Set recurring schedules
- Filter by date range
- Mark reminders complete or active
- Track what is due today

### Typical Workflow
1. Open Reminders from the top navigation.
2. Create the reminder with title, date, and optional time.
3. Choose a repeat schedule if it should recur.
4. Use filters for weekly or monthly reviews.
5. Mark reminders complete once the action has been handled.

### Rules
- Title and date are required.
- Repeat-until cannot be earlier than the main reminder date.
- Due-today reminder counts appear in the header when applicable.

## 10. Reports

### Purpose
Review daily activity, filter task history, and send full or focused task reports by email.

### Who Can Use It
- Users with the Reports permission

### Key Actions
- Review the tasks-per-day chart
- Open daily breakdowns
- Filter by date and status
- Send full email reports
- Send single-task or team-task reports

### Typical Workflow
1. Open Reports from the top navigation.
2. Use the chart and daily table to review recent activity.
3. Apply date and status filters to narrow the detailed task list.
4. Enter a recipient email address.
5. Send the required report.

### Rules
- A valid email address is required for sending.
- Reports cannot be sent when the selected date range has no matching tasks.
- Detailed results depend on the current filters.

## 11. Notifications

### Purpose
Monitor messages, task activity, reminders, license warnings, announcements, and other system events in one stream.

### Who Can Use It
- All signed-in users

### Key Actions
- Review recent notifications
- Open linked items from notifications
- Mark one item read
- Mark all items read

### Typical Workflow
1. Open Notifications from the top navigation.
2. Review unread items first.
3. Use View to open the related screen when a link is available.
4. Mark individual items or all items as read after handling them.

### Rules
- Not every notification includes a direct link.
- Read status is stored per user.
- Unread items are highlighted visually.

## 12. Organisation Management

### Purpose
Manage organisation members, permissions, invitations, announcements, and ownership changes.

### Who Can Use It
- Organisation owners
- Organisation admins

### Key Actions
- Invite members
- Update roles and feature permissions
- Remove members
- Cancel invites
- Rename the organisation
- Transfer ownership
- Send organisation announcements

### Typical Workflow
1. Open Organisation > Manage from the top navigation.
2. Review member count and user limit.
3. Invite users by email when capacity is available.
4. Adjust roles and permissions as responsibilities change.
5. Transfer ownership before an owner leaves the organisation.

### Rules
- Only owners can rename the organisation or transfer ownership.
- Invites cannot exceed the organisation user limit.
- Users already in another organisation cannot be invited directly.

## 13. Teams

### Purpose
Create and manage teams inside an organisation so team-task access follows real membership.

### Who Can Use It
- Organisation owners
- Organisation admins
- Organisation members viewing team membership

### Key Actions
- Create teams
- Open team details
- Add members
- Remove members
- Delete teams

### Typical Workflow
1. Open Organisation > Teams from the top navigation.
2. Create a team with a clear functional name.
3. Open the team to review current membership.
4. Add or remove members as responsibilities change.
5. Delete teams only when they are no longer needed.

### Rules
- You must belong to an organisation to use Teams.
- Only owners and admins can change team membership.
- Team names must be at least 2 characters.

## 14. Admin Guide

### Purpose
Manage users, licenses, broadcasts, and account lifecycle controls from the admin panel.

### Who Can Use It
- Admin users
- Primary system administrator for full system actions

### Key Actions
- Enable or disable accounts
- Grant or remove admin access
- Grant trial or personal licenses
- Approve renewal requests
- Send system broadcasts
- Delete users and related data

### Typical Workflow
1. Open the Admin panel from the top navigation.
2. Review the summary counters and pending requests.
3. Apply the required user or license action.
4. Use restricted controls for broadcasts and renewal approvals.
5. Transfer organisation ownership before deleting an organisation owner.

### Rules
- Only the primary system administrator can send system-wide broadcasts.
- Only the primary system administrator can approve renewal requests.
- At least one active admin must remain enabled.
- Organisation members do not use the personal-license flow.

## Related User-Facing Pages

- Help Center: `help.php`
- Printable Manual: `user_manual.php`
- Guide Index: `docs/user-guide/README.md`

## Recommended Onboarding Order

1. Getting Started
2. My Work Dashboard
3. Personal Task Management
4. Notifications
5. Notes, Reminders, and Reports
6. Friends, Shared Tasks, and Messages
7. Organisation, Teams, and Admin features if applicable