Web Site Quick Start - Tips and tricks

Personalisation

Personalisation allows you to customise the homepage of your church web site to show only the information you need!

Each area of the web site homepage has a small button at the top which allows you to switch personalisation on or off for that area:

 indicates that personalisation is on

 indicates that personalisation is off

(Note these symbols may appear differently on your web site).

You can customise your personalisation settings in the my involvement section of the web site.

Check the boxes in the personalisation column for each group you would like included.  For example, if your children are involved in Youth Group activities you may wish to see their events in your personalised calendar.  Once you have selected the appropriate groups, click the update buttton.

Rota reminders

The rota reminders feature helps you keep track of when you are next on duty!  Whether you're on PA setup, Children's work or Tea & Coffee making, email reminders can make sure you know about an upcoming event well in advance.

By default, 3 days before an event where you are involved you will receive an email telling you the event you are involved in, the duty you are performing and a contact person should you have any questions.  To change these settings hover over the my area option on the menu bar and select my rotas.

Under the rota reminders section your current settings are displayed:

• If you would like to turn reminders off uncheck the box and press update. 
• If you would like to receive your rota reminders on a different day select a new setting by clicking on the arrow next to the number.  (Choosing 0 days will send you a reminder on the morning of the day of the event). Press the update button to save your changes. 

Printable Address Book

You can download the church address book in Adobe PDF format to print out and keep by the telephone.  Click the Printable Version link at the top of the page and select from the range of formats available before clicking the download button.  Note: you will need to install Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to open these files.

Download the Address Book to Outlook or Outlook Express

You can download the entire online address book for your church into Microsoft® Outlook or Outlook Express as follows:

• Click on the address book option from the home menu.
• The church address book will be displayed. Click on the Advanced Options link at the top of the page to display the additional options.
• Click on the arrow next to Choose format and select Export to file:
• Click on the All link.

A link to the address book in a text format will be displayed along with instructions on how to download and install the file.

You can also use advanced options to display an address book for just one group within the church. Use the Show only members of filter to select the group you wish to display.

Send Birthday Greetings to Other Members

You can send a personal message to another member on their birthday as follows:

• Select the calendar option from the home menu.
• Click on the arrow next to show calendar and select show birthdays.
• A list of birthdays for the current month will be displayed – the current date is highlighted.
• Click on the member you wish to send birthday greetings to (bear in mind that the greeting will be sent immediately).
• A window will open with the member name at the top and a space to enter your greeting.Once the greeting is complete click the Send button.

Searching

The search tool (found just below the menu bar on every page) can be used to search articles, events and forums within your organisation's web site. It can also be used to search for articles, events and forums on other church web sites across the church:insight network.

Site Search – search articles, events and forum discussions by entering keywords in the search box below the menu bar and clicking the button.

Further search options are displayed once a site search has been submitted. On the site search results page you can choose from one of the following additional options:

Related sites – searches articles, events and forum discussion from related churches using the church:insight service – these may be other churches in your stream, denomination or geographical location.

Church:insight network – searches articles, events and forum discussions right across the church:insight network.

• Click the Search button to begin the search.

Once the search is complete you can sort the results by relevance, title, author, date or web site.

Parental Lock

A valid date of birth must be entered for all members of the family in order to successfully use the childlock feature.

You can enable the childlock from the family details section of my profile (found under the my area menu) .  By default this facility is switched off.