Sharing a plan

Sharing plans allows you to collaborate with others to create optimal redistricting plans. You can choose to share plans with everyone in the Esri Redistricting Online community, or with members of select groups.

There are two access levels that you can grant to other users/groups when you share a plan. You can grant users Read only access or Read / Write access.

Read only allows other users to view your plan only. Modifications, assignments, or changes to the plan will not be saved with your plan. However, other users can make changes to your Read only plan and use the Save As function to save the plan to their user account for editing. You will see the status display as Read Only when a plan is shared to you and you are the not the plan owner.

Note:

If you are the plan owner, you are allowed to make changes to the plan, even if the plan is shared as Read Only to others. As the plan owner, you will not see the Read Only indicators.

Read/Write access allows other users to read and modify plans that you have shared. Plans that are shared as Read/Write will display as Read/Write for all users, even the plan owner. The Read/Write indicators will show for any user who has access to and opens the plan that is shared as Read/Write because any user can potentially lock the plan and make changes.

When you open a plan that has been shared as Read/Write (even if you are the plan owner), you are prompted to lock the plan. When you lock the plan, you are the sole user who can make edits to the plan. Read/Write is beneficial if you want to collaborate with other users on a redistricting plan.

Steps:

1. Access the Share dialog box using one of the following methods:
   • Click Open Plan . On the Open Plan dialog box, click Share Plan.
   • On the Share ribbon, click Share Plan.

   In order to share plans with others, you must first save the plan. See Saving a plan for more information. You will receive a prompt if your plan is not saved.

   The Share dialog box opens.

2. Select with whom to share the plan:
   • Everyone allows you to share the plan with all Esri Redistricting Online users.
   • Members of these groups lets you specify only certain groups that can access the plan.
     Note:

     When you choose Members of these groups, ensure you check the individual groups with which you want to share the plan.

3. Select the access level from the following choices (Optional):
   • Read only allows other users to read and view the plan only.
   • Read / Write allows collaboration on a plan and lets other users modify and save changes to your plan.
4. Click Update to save your changes.

Once a plan is shared, you can unshare a plan at any time.

Tip:

To unshare a plan, open a plan that you own and have granted sharing permissions. Follow the steps above, however, uncheck the sharing options to limit accessibility to the plan.

You can export your redistricting plan to a variety of formats including an image, KML file, fixed text format, or a shapefile. Exporting a plan can be helpful for sharing or archiving a plan for your records. When you export to a fixed text format, a block equivalency file is created. The block equivalency file is supported by the U.S. Department of Justice. See Exporting a plan to a fixed text format to learn more.