Announcements

Overview

The Announcements section is where you can post news and pictures for your group. It appears on your web office home page where members can see it. Announcements can be organized in folders or created individually. Use folders to categorize announcements that you wish to see grouped together.

Folders are sorted in alphabetical order; announcements without a folder are displayed at the top, newest and urgent announcements first. Folders containing either new or urgent announcements (appearing in red) will display an indicator, so that members see them right away. To read an announcement’s full story, click the linked headline.

The duration announcements are marked "new" for can be configured. To learn more, click here.

The Announcements application contains a rich text editor, enabling you to create customized announcements and newsletters for your group. You can cut and paste documents and web graphics into the editor or you can design your announcements directly in the rich text editor. Font sizes and colors, margin settings, even tables and pictures will all appear right in your website.

Adding new announcements

The first time you create an announcement, you will be prompted to first download the EditLive! rich text editor. It's this editor that enables you to include rich text elements—such as customized font colors and sizes, pictures, links, and tables—in your announcements.

Note: You must be using one of the supported browsers in order to use the rich text editor.

To add an announcement:

  1. Click New in the Announcements window to display the New Announcement page.

    Note:     You will only see the "New" option if you have permission to create announcements.

    If you have not already downloaded the rich text editor, you are prompted to do so now. Depending on your connection speed, this download could take several minutes.

  2. Enter the announcement Headline. The Headline is what appears in the announcements list on your home page.

  3. Indicate whether you would like the announcement to display on the home page or not by checking or unchecking the "Visible" checkbox. New announcements will display by default.

    If you uncheck this box, the announcement will not show on the home page. Once an announcement is hidden, it will continue to be stored on the Announcement List page with a status indicator of .
    Visible announcements appear in the list with a checkmark .

  4. Select whether the announcement should appear in an existing folder or in a new folder.

    To create a new folder, click Add Folder. Enter the Folder Name in the new window and click Save. The folder you create is added to the dropdown list on the New Announcement page.

  5. Enter the remaining announcement details:

Image

If you'd like to include a picture or graphic in your announcement, you can put it in this field or in the Text field. When you upload an image  here, it automatically appears at the top of your announcement. When you put an image in the Text field, you can customize its placement within the announcement.

The image must be either a GIF or JPEG file (these files end in .gif or .jpg).

To enter the location of the image file you want to upload, click the Browse button, navigate to the file you want, and then click Open.

The images you upload can be any height and width. You can change the dimensions of the image before you upload it by using a graphics editor like Adobe PhotoShop®, Macromedia Fireworks®, Corel Painter™ or Jasc Paint Shop™ Pro®.

 

Post For

Indicate how long you want to keep the announcement posted. After the announcement is posted for the amount of time you specify, it will no longer display on the home page. If you want to remove an expired announcement from your Edit Announcements list, you must delete it.

 

Urgency

When it's very important that other members notice your announcement, select the Urgency check box. Messages marked as urgent appear in red at the top of the announcements list, appearing above non-urgent announcements and folders. Marking an announcement urgent that is contained within a folder will ensure that the folder is initially opened, with the urgent announcement at the top of the stack, so that it is more visible to other members.

 

Notification

If you'd like to automatically email this announcement to all the members of the web office, select the Notification check box. Members will receive an email with the title of the announcement and a hot link to the actual announcement on the site.

 

Text

If you'd like to automatically email this announcement to all the members of the site, select the Notification check box. Members will receive an email with the title of the announcement and a hot link to the actual announcement on the site.

Text in the font style, color, and size of your choice
Upload pictures, images, and clip art from your computer
Hot links to a web page or to a page in your web office
Formatted tables and lists

For more information about how to format text and pictures in your announcement, visit the online help available inside the rich text editor. Click the Help file menu item in the upper-right corner of the editor.

 

  1. When you have finished, click Save.

  2. If posting an image using the rich text editor, you will see a message and be prompted to upload the image attachment.

Adding an announcement folder

You can create folders to better organize all the announcements displayed on your homepage.
To create a new folder:

  1. Click the announcement window header on your web office home page. The Edit Announcements screen appears.

  2. Click New Folder.

  3. Enter the Folder Name.

  4. Click Save.

Notifying members of new announcements

When you create or edit an announcement, you may wish to notify members of the announcement using email. Your web office provides two ways to do this automatically. One, you can use the Notification check box to send the announcement to all members at the same time you save it. Two, you can send a link to the announcement after it has been saved to any or all of the members of the site. In either case, the email message will contain a hot link that goes directly to the announcement on the site.

To send a link to an announcement:

  1. Find the announcement, and then click the headline to display the full announcement.

  2. Click Send Link in the Command Bar, and then fill in the information on the Send Link page.

To
Cc
Bcc

To indicate who you'd like to send the link to, select one or more names from the list at the right, and then click the To, Cc, or Bcc buttons.

Subject

The subject is automatically filled in with the announcement headline; you can change the subject if you'd like.

Message

A hot link to the announcement is automatically inserted in the message area so that when members receive the email, they can go directly to the event. Type your personal message above or below the link.

  1. Click Send.

  2. Click OK.

Editing, moving, and deleting announcements

Editing options will only be available if you have edit rights. For instance, guests will not see edit options, nor will members if the administrator has specified that only administrators can create announcements.

If you are an administrator, or have access to the Edit Announcements page, you can click the "Edit" link in the Announcement bar on the home page to access the Edit Announcements page. This is the administrative list area where you have the ability to edit or delete both folders and announcements, as well as moving announcements. If you have edit rights, these operations are also available by clicking down into each individual announcement from the home page.

Editing an announcement
You can only edit the announcements that you create. To edit an announcement:

  1. Click the announcement window header on your web office home page. The Edit Announcements screen appears.

  2. Click the "Edit" icon next to the announcement you wish to edit.
    The Edit Announcement screen appears.

  3. Change any of the content in the Headline or main Text field.

  4. If you want to remove the image file for this announcement, click the Remove check box.

  5. To add a new image, click the Browse button, highlight the file you want, and then click Open.

  6. Click Save.

Moving an announcement
Announcements can be moved from folder to folder. They can also be moved into and out of folders.
To move an announcement:

  1. Click the announcement window header on your home page. The Edit Announcements screen appears.

  2. Click the "Move" icon next to the announcement you wish to move. The Move Announcement screen appears.

  3. Select the name of the folder you wish to move the announcement to.
    To move an announcement outside of a folder, choose the "None" option.

  4. Click OK.

Deleting an announcement or folder
You can only delete the folders and announcements that you create. To delete:

  1. Click the announcement window header on your home page. The Edit Announcements screen appears.

  2. Click the "Delete" icon next to the announcement you wish to delete.

  3. If you're sure you want to delete the announcement or folder from your site, click OK to confirm.

    Note:     In order to delete a folder you must have access to remove all the folder's contents, since deleting a folder will also remove the announcements contained within that folder.