Special Announcements
About Special Announcements
Special Announcements are used for urgent bulletins regarding safety, weather, or other events you want to ensure readers see when they first open the Home Page. Usually located on the top of the page, Special Announcements are created quickly and easily using the easy buttons.
Limit your Special Announcements to two or three at a time, or they become less important to the eye.
Here are some examples of what Special Announcements look like:
Add a New Special Announcement
Special Announcements are used for urgent bulletins, like transportation delays or weather announcements.
To create a new Special Announcement:
- Click the New Special Announcement easy button ro display the Special Announcements wizard.
- Enter a title in the Title field.
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Select the type of content from the Announcement Content drop-down. Your selection determines the icon displayed and colour of the announcement bar. Your choices are:
Content Type Colour Icon Alert Red Hazard icon (exclamation point) Information Blue Information icon (letter i) Warning Pale yellow Hazard icon (exclamation point) Snow Blue-grey Snowflake Animal Light brown Paw print Hot Weather Pale yellow Sun icon Transport Yellow Bus icon - Enter a brief description of the announcement in the Summary field. This description will appear in the announcement bar below the title.
- In the Details field, enter the more-detailed announcement. This will display on a separate page when readers click on it. You can also use the Formatting Ribbon to insert a picture, a link or a table of info if you wish, as well as text. For more information, see Edit Content.
- The current date automatically displays in Expiration Date field. We recommend using today’s date, so that the announcement will automatically disappear tonight. However, you can manually enter a date or select one using the calendar icon.
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The Sync To field only displays if you are on the District site. It allows you to sync your announcement to any school in the District.
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The Sync To Web only displays on School or District sites. Select this checkbox to also publish this Special Announcement to the Public Web site.
For information on how to sync items from District to School sites, see, Sync to School Portals and Web Sites, below.
- Click the Save button to save and publish your announcement.
Add an Alert to a Special Announcement
Adding an alert will advise you when a change is made to the Special Announcement by another authorized editor. Alerts can be used for other things as well. For more information, see Alerts.
To add an alert:
- Once the Special Announcement has been created and published to the Home Page, click on the announcement to view it.
- Click the bell icon below the announcement to add the alert. The New Alert page displays:
- Edit the fields as follows:
| Field | Action |
|---|---|
| Alert Title | This is the title of the alert. By default, this will be the same as the title of the special announcement. |
| Send Alerts To | Choose who will receive the alert. By default, your account will be included. |
| Delivery Method | From the radio buttons, choose whether you'd like to receive the alert by email or text message. If you choose text message, be sure to include your cell number in the field provided. |
| Send URL in Text Message | Select this checkbox if you chose Text Message in the Delivery method field and would like the URL for the special announcement sent to you. |
| Change Type |
Here, you can select the type of changes to the special announcement you'd like to be alerted to. |
| Send Alerts for These Changes | Here, you can specify exactly which changes you'd like to be alerted to, such as any changes, or if someone simply changes an item last edited by you. |
| When to Send Alerts | Here you can choose when the alerts are sent: immediately, a daily summary, or a weekly summary. If you choose weekly summary, choose the day of the week and time that you'd like the summary sent. |
- When you are done, click the OK button to save your changes.
Edit Special Announcement
Once Special Announcements have been created, you can edit them using the Edit Items easy button from within the announcement pop-up.
To edit a special announcement:
- Click the special announcement to open it.
- Click the Edit Item easy button to access the Special Announcements wizard.
- Make any changes you wish.
- Click the Save button when you are done.
Delete a Special Announcement
Special announcements can be deleted from the Special Announcements page.
To delete a special announcement:
- On the Home Page, click the Edit Items easy button above the special announcements.
- The Special Announcements page displays.
- Hover your mouse over the special announcement you wish to edit and click the down arrow that displays beside the announcement.
- Select Delete Item from the drop-down menu.
- Click the OK button to confirm the deletion.
Before deleting the item, consider whether it would provide clearer communication to edit the item and provide updated information (animal is now gone/ traffic jam delaying buses has cleared). This may help readers of the announcement to understand the current situation better.
If not deleted, the announcement can be used in the future, simply by changing the Expiry Date as needed.
Sync to School Portals and Web Sites
Districts with portals can publish their special announcements to school portals and web sites by syncing them. On the District Portal, under the expiration date, two more selection boxes display: Sync To and Sync To Web.
These settings allow the district to send special announcements to some or all school sites.
Sync a Special Announcement to a School Site
To sync a Special Announcement:
- From within the District site, access the Special Announcement that you wish to sync to a school site, either by creating a new event (see Add a New Special Announcement above), or opening the special announcement and clicking the edit item easy button.
- Click on the address book icon to the far right of the Sync To field.
- Click on the site the Special Announcement will sync to. Then click the Select button.
The name of the school that the Special Announcement will sync to displays.
- Click the OK button for your changes to take effect.
Note: You must be on the District Portal and have Administrator access in order to use this feature.