How to - Newsletter & Memo Section

Transcription

1 How to - Newsletter & Memo Section In the Newsletter section, you can create, edit and send newsletters and Memos to different Groups of members. For example you may have Staff as a group, and Clients as another group. First you will need to log into the Administration area of your website using your Username and Password. Now click on Newsletter on the left menu. (As pictured above) You will now be looking at the Newsletter Functions Menu Page Page 1 of 14

2 How to send a New Newsletter or Memo You already have a Newsletter template, and a Memo template set up for you to use. First you want to select Create New Newsletter from the Newsletter Functions Menu (pictured above) Next, type in the Title of your new newsletter in the Newsletter Subject space. This Title will identify this Newsletter/Memo from the many others that you will add in the future (for example if you are creating your monthly newsletter, identify it with the month and year as seen in the example image above Kindy News December 2010 Edition ) Options: Select your tick box options. Published: This option is only relevant IF your website has been set up with a page dedicated to display newsletters, tick this tickbox to publish this newsletter to your dedicated newsletter page of your website. You will also need to go to the Availability tab and select which Group has access to view this newsletter. Include Weblink Message: tick this tickbox if you want to put a link on the top of your newsletter to allow the recipient the option of viewing the newsletter online. This is helpfull for people have systems that wont allow them to view HTML s on their computer. Include Tracking Image: Tick this tickbox if you would like to be able to see how many people open/view your newsletter/memo that you send. You can view this information by clicking on the View Newsletter Logs on the Newsletter Functions Menu.(This is explained further down the page in the View Newsletter Log section) Page 2 of 14

3 Next step is to click on the HTML Version tab. Then Select your Template from the drop box. You will see your Newsletter Template, your Memo Template, and any other templates that you have created. Now click on Create Newsletter button at the bottom. You will then be taken to the Newsletters page. (see pictured below) (You can also access this page my selecting View Newsletters from the Newsletter Functions Menu) This page displays all of the newsletters & memo s you have created. You see can the date they were created, the name of each newsletter/memo, its details (that you selected in the tick boxes as described earlier -Published, weblink message, tracking image), and also the View, Delete, Edit and Test. Select Edit on the newsletter you have just created. Page 3 of 14

4 You will see this screen again with all of the information you have entered. Now select the HTML Version tab. This will open the editor so you can type in your inofrmation into your newsletter/memo. With the editor open, you can now type the content and images into your newsletter/memo. If you have your newsletter written in a Micrsoft Word document, you can copy your text from the the Word document and click on the Paste from Word icon and paste your content in the window provided. (For more information about how to use the editor, and how to add pictures to your page, please see the detailed instrtuctions below How to Use the Editor ) Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the Save Newsletter button. This will save your newsletter for sending, or for you to return to editing later. You will be taken back to the Newsletter Page where you can View your completed Newsletter/Memo. You will see it as it will be viewed on screen by your recipients. This is an IMPORTANT step because once a Newsletter or Memo has been sent, there s no getting it back again! You can return back to the Newsletter Functions menu by clicking on the Back To Newsletters Admin Button at the bottom (see circled above). Page 4 of 14

5 If you need to Edit your newsletter again later, you can return to the Newsletter page by selecting View Newsletters in the Newsletter Functions Menu. Now that you have completed your Newsletter/Memo, and have viewed it, it is time to send it out! To send your Newsletter or Memo: Back at your Newsletters Functions Menu page, select the Send out Newsletter from the Menu. First, select the Newsletter/Memo that you want to send from the drop box. (See example pictured above) Then Tick the group you wish to send the Newsletter/Memo to. (Please note that the image above is an example only. You may have different Groups to choose from) Then click on the Send Newsletter button at the bottom of the page. Your Newsletters/Memos will now begin to be dispatched. Page 5 of 14

6 View Newsletter Logs Select the View Newsletter Logs in the Newsletter Functions Menu. As you can see from the example provided above, this section lists all of the Newsletters & Memos that you have sent out, how many Recipients recieved them, how many have Viewd them (if the Include Tracking Image tick box was ticked when the newsletter/memo was created), the Date the newsletter/memo was sent out, the Status (completed) of the Newsletter/Memo and further actions you wish to take with those newsletters/memos (ie Archive or Delete) Page 6 of 14

7 General Newsletter Settings Select the Newsletter Settings form the Menu This section is where you can change the general setting of your outgoing newsletters and memos. The Send Per Cycle this means the number of s sent out at a time. (Say you have a newsletter that will be sent out to 250 people, this will send it out in cycles of 25 newsletters every 5 minutes, until they have all been sent.)this stops your website from becoming congested and slowing down for any people accessing your website at that time. From Address & From Name: This is where you can set the address of where your newsletters and memos are sent FROM, and what name is displayed. Bounce Address: this is the address that any bounced s will be sent back to. What is a bounced ? A bounced is one that has an invalid address and cannot be sent. This will bounce back to your specified account. When this occurs, you will need to check that the address has been entered in to the member s details accurately/correctly. If it is entered correctly, it may be an outdated address that is no longer in use in which case, you will need to contact that member by other means (i.e. - phone) and ask them to provide you with their new address. Page 7 of 14

8 Newsletter Templates For the more advanced user, you can create your own Newsletter & Memo templates and edit them in this section. To keep things much simpler, you can Copy any of the existing templates and change them to suit your needs. If you need additional templates created for what ever reason Perhaps for a Christmas or Easter Edition of your newsletter, or perhpas you just want a fresh new look, please contact us at Websites for Childcare on to discuss your requirements. Page 8 of 14

9 How to use the Editor As you can see the Editor is very similar to Microsoft Word and has many of the same features and icons. There are 2 ways to add text. The first is to simply type into the text box. (No more explanation needed really.) Second is to copy and paste text from a Word Document. This MUST be done using the Paste from Word Button (pictured below) Open up your Microsoft Word document and highlight the text you want to copy. Right click on the highlighted text and select the Copy Option from the popup menu. Go back to your content editor text box and click on the Paste from Word Button (as seen circled in the picture above) < This window will then open and you can paste the text into this window by right clicking in the window and selecting Paste from the popup menu. Click on the Insert button and your text will now be in the content editor text box. Please Note: It is important to ALWAYS use the Paste from Word Button when you are copying and pasting text into your editor. This is because software such as Microsoft Word attaches hidden code to your text this hidden code, when put into your editor can drastically change the appearance of the content that people see when viewing your Newsletter/Memo. This can make your Newsletter/Memo look very messy and not nice to look at. You may not notice any difference when looking at it on the editor page, but it could have HUGE negative effects on what can be seen on the final product. The Paste from Word Button removes all of this nasty hidden code! Page 9 of 14

10 Changing the look of your text (Bold, Underline, Headings, margins etc...) Above is an image of the many buttons you will find in the editor. Some of them you may be familiar with as they are the same as you would find in any word processor such as Microsoft Word, or even your software. When in the editor, an information bubble will pop up when you hover your mouse over each button to tell you what it is used for. But for now, I have added a brief description of what the most common icons are used for: Paste from Word Button. Used to paste text that you have copied form a word document. B is to make text Bold I is to make text italic U is to underline text ABC is to Strikethrough or to draw a line through the text These buttons align your body of text for example: align to left margin, Centre the text, align to right margin, or justify the text. This creates a bulleted list or a numbered list This is the Create a Table button. (please see the How to create Tables info sheet) This is the Image button - to insert and edit the properties of your images. This is where you can change the format or your text create Headings of various sizes, or just create text in paragraphs. Changes the size of your font Changes the colour of your text & Highlights your text with colour (just like a highlighter pen) How to make headings In the Editor page, highlight the text you want to make into a heading. Go up to the button. Select one of the Heading options from the drop down box. These Headings vary in size Heading 1 being the largest, Heading 6 being the smallest (as seen in the drop down menu) Page 10 of 14

11 How to add an image to your page On the Page Sections page, click at the beginning of the line of text where you would like the top of the picture to be located. Now click on the Image button. (As seen pictured above) < This window will open. Click on the File button found at the end of the Image URL line < This window will then open. Click on the Upload Tab Now click on the Browse Button. This will open up a browse window so you can browse through the files on your computer. Select the image file you want to put on to your page and click on the Open button. You will see the file name now in the list. Now click on the Upload button. A blue progress bar will appear to show you to progress of the file upload. Depending on the size of the file, this may take 2 seconds or a few minutes. < You will see this Message in green appear to let you know that your file upload has been successfully uploaded. Page 11 of 14

12 < Now click on the Browse tab. You will see the image you just uploaded. Select it (just by clicking on it) This window will now automatically close. < You will find yourself back at this window again. You will see a preview of the image you uploaded. To change the size, to add or remove a border, or to position the picture on your page you need to now click on the Appearance Tab. Alignment: this is where you change the position of the image on your page. There is an example image there to help you with choosing the option that is right for your situation. Dimensions: this is where you can change the size that the image appears on your page. It is recommended that you do not make the image larger as it decreases the quality of the image. It is always better to upload the image at the size you need it to be. Vertical & Horizontal Space: this puts an invisible buffer on either the vertical or horizontal edge of the image. This is helpful if you want to push the image away from a margin or text. Border: this puts a border around your image. A simple thin border would be 1 or 2 pixels. When you have finished with your image settings, Click on the Insert button. (You can always come back to this window to edit these settings again by clicking on the image and then the Image button. (See Step by step instructions below) Page 12 of 14

13 How to change the position, size, or border of your image First select the image you want to change simply by clicking on it. When the image is selected, a black frame will appear around the image (as seen in the image above.) Now click on the Image Button (as seen circled above) < You will see this window again. You will see a preview of the image you have selected to change. To change the size, to add or remove a border, or to position the picture on your page you need to now click on the Appearance Tab. Alignment: this is where you change the position of the image on your page. There is an example image there to help you with choosing the option that is right for your situation. Dimensions: this is where you can change the size that the image appears on your page. It is recommended that you do not make the image larger as it decreases the quality of the image. It is always better to upload the image at the size you need it to be. Vertical & Horizontal Space: this puts an invisible buffer on either the vertical or horizontal edge of the image. This is helpful if you want to push the image away from a margin or text. Border: this puts a border around your image. A simple thin border would be 1 or 2 pixels. When you have finished with your image settings, Click on the Insert button. (You can always come back to this window to edit these settings again by clicking on the image and then the Image button. Page 13 of 14

14 How to move your image up and down your page You can also drag your picture to position it lower down or higher up your page, simply by clicking and dragging it. (As pictured above) You will see a curser as you move the image around the page. (This looks like a little line.) As a guide, wherever you drag the curser that is where the top of the image will sit. Please note - To move the image to the left or right, you need to change the alignment setting by clicking on the image button as described earlier. Don t forget to Save your Progress! Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the Save Newsletter button. This will save your newsletter for sending, or for you to return to editing later. Page 14 of 14