Important Note: This article discusses classic functionality. For information on the modern applicant experience, refer to the Applicant Experience Knowledgebase article.
Site Wide Announcements
This tool enables you to create new announcements, and view and edit current as well as expired announcements.
This article discusses the following topics:
The Announcements tool is accessible only to staff who have permissions for Website Admin features. To manage announcements, click 'Announcements' in the Site menu located above the Admin home page.
Announcements can be displayed on the Website home page as well as in a pane in all the applicant pages. You can decide where you would like a particular announcement to appear. Announcements are listed from top to bottom in the chronology of the event dates assigned to the events, with the exception of priority announcements that are automatically displayed on the top of the list.
From this page, you can perform the following tasks:
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Create new announcements - enables you to add new announcements.
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Edit current announcements - enables you to make changes to the current announcements being displayed on the Website.
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Edit expired announcements - enables you to make changes to the expired announcements.
Note:
- To ignore an action and return to Announcement home page, click 'Cancel.'
Creating a New Announcement
To create a new announcement, click the 'New Announcement’ tab at the top of the page. The 'Announcements: Add & Edit’ page is displayed:
Headline: Enter a short title for your announcement, that gets the point across but also keeps it simple. Next, use the blurb section to enter a paragraph with more information about your announcement. If you have a great deal of information you wish to include, it is better to write a short blurb and then include a longer article.
Event date: If your announcement is tied to a particular date (of an event, a deadline, etc.), you can choose an event date. The event date is optional. You can enter the event date manually, or you can click on the event date in the small calendar that opens. If no event date is given to an announcement, the posting date is used. Expire date: The expire date is also optional. If you choose to use an event date, an expire date one day later is assumed, unless you specify otherwise.
Next, you can decide whether this announcement should be seen by everyone, or only by people associated with specific programs. If you would like your announcement to be public and visible to all site visitors, click 'Yes’ next to ' Does this apply to all programs?’ If you want public announcements to also be displayed on each applicant’s application, enable the setting under Settings > System Features > Features tab and enable 'Show site-wide announcements in the program announcements scroller' under the 'Announcements’ section.
If you would like only applicants to specific programs to see your announcement, click 'No' next to ' Does this apply to all programs?' and a new box appears. Move the applicable programs to the right-hand box.
Finally, you can add a longer
Article to your announcement in order to provide more information. Use the WYSIWYG to create or upload content for your article.
When you are done creating your announcement, click '
Save.’
Editing Current Announcements
Click the '
Current Announcements’ tab at the top of the Announcements page. This will bring up a list of all the currently active announcements:
To edit an existing announcement in the list, click the pencil located to the right of the announcement name. The ' Announcements: Add & Edit’ page will be displayed. The Announcement Information form displays the selected announcement content in the fields. You can change the announcement headline, event date, expire date, blurb, and article that links to the blurb. To save the changes, click ' Save' at the bottom of the form.
You can delete an announcement by clicking the red 'X’ located to the right of the announcement name displayed in the list. You are prompted to confirm your decision to delete the announcement. Click 'OK' to proceed or 'Cancel' to ignore the action.
To assign a high priority to an announcement, click the ' !’ symbol to the right of the announcement. The gray icon turns red. Choosing this ensures that the announcement appears at the top of the announcement scroll list, regardless of the event date or posted date.
Viewing and Editing Expired Announcements
Click the 'Expired Announcements' tab in the top navigation bar on the 'Announcements: Manage All’ page. A list of all the announcements that have passed the expiry date is displayed:
To edit an expired announcement, click the pencil located to the right side of the announcement name. You are brought to the "Announcements: Add & Edit” page. The Announcement Information form displays the selected announcement content in the fields. You can make changes to the content. Changing the expiration date to a future date will make this announcement current again. To save the changes, click 'Save' at the bottom of the form.
It is possible to click the '!’ symbol to the right of the announcement, in order to make the announcement 'high priority,' but as these announcements are expired, you will also need to edit the announcement (to change its expiration date) in order for the announcement to be displayed.
To
delete an expired announcement, click the red 'X’ located in the 'Actions' column next to the announcement name. A dialog box prompts you to confirm the delete action. Click 'OK.' The announcement is deleted from the list.
Note: If you want those announcements to appear
only on the public pages of your site, you can change the site configuration to function in this manner. Otherwise, site wide announcements will also appear alongside application announcements (details below):
- There is a setting under System > System Features > Features where you can control this. Go to the section on the System Features page where you can enable announcements. The next line is the setting to "Show site-wide announcements in the program announcements scroller." If you do not want your site-wide announcements to show on the application pages, this box should not have a check mark.
- If this box has a check mark, site-wide announcements will appear on application pages along with any program-specific announcements.
Program Specific Announcements
In the program builder, you can add announcements to individual programs instead of to the whole site. To do this, click the 'Announcements' in the program builder:
Click ' Add' and complete the information similar to that of a site wide announcement. By selecting which programs this announcement applies to, you do not have to go and create the announcement for multiple programs. It will appear in the places you select. If you have additional information, you can include it in the 'Article' section. Click ' Save' when you've finished.
Click the edit pencil icon to edit an announcement you've already created.
To see expired or current announcements, click 'Add' on the announcements tab of the program builder and click 'Current Announcements' or 'Expired Announcements' at the top. This routes you back to Site > Announcements.