kNowledge Elements (NEs) 
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kNowledge Elements (NEs) |
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Folders and files can be hosted in the desktop portion of the DNE Desktop without being actively managed by the DNE Desktop. However, in order to use cabinet and spill functionality, information must be managed as kNowledge Elements (NEs) and tiles.
The DNE Desktop uses tiles and NEs instead of files and folders because some DNE and DNE Desktop functionality is incompatible with the limitations of folders and files. For instance, subdocuments are not supported as files but can be used as tiles. However, everything you can do with folders and files you can still do, and exactly the same way, with tiles and NEs.
In the DNE Desktop, NEs are very similar to folders, only they are "folders" managed in the DNE Desktop information repository structure rather than in Windows® Explorer. They are therefore represented by a different graphic than folders. Where a folder is represented by the icon familiar from the Microsoft® Windows® folder structure (you can use folders on the desktop and on the bench), NEs are represented as
It is easy to turn a folder to an NE, or create a new NE. If you "turn" a folder into an NE, it is only an NE for the purposes of the DNE Desktop: creating an NE from a folder does not alter the source folder in any way, and the folder is still accessible from your regular tree structure.
In the DNE Desktop, the advantage of NEs and tiles (which are to files what NEs are to folders) lie in your ability to configure your information however you want and save multiple configurations for easy access at any time. That is, you can use the cabinet and save cabinet configurations, and you can use spill and save spill configurations. In the full DNE application, the role of the NE expands to include extensive functionality not available to normal folders, including powerful hyperlinking tools and flexible, user-determined meta-data fields (just as in the full DNE application, the tile has extensive functionality not available to normal files).
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