_Manual_QuickStart_Upgrade_20130906.pdf

Quickstart Guide_Upgrade

Manual_Quickstart_Upgrade-Rev2 September 6, 2013 1

Quickstart Guide_Upgrade Rev. 2 Note: You must be logged in before you can perform any of the tasks described in this guide. Log in with your username or email address + password. If you don't remember your password you can request a new one here. Once logged in you will remain so until you log out or else the system logs all users out during maintenance.

Contents

1. STARTING OFF 2

2. MEMBERSHIP 3

2.1 Finding the list of your members 3

2.2 Pending tasks page - promoting new members 3

2.3 The Search tab: What you can find 7

2.4 Viewing and Editing a member 8

2.5 Other Actions 9

2.6 Exporting contacts list to compile an Excel file 11

3. CIVIMAIL 12

4. WEB POSTING - THE BASICS 15

4.1 General rules to remember for all types of postings 15

4.2 To insert a graphic in your posting 16

4.3 Editing a posting 17

4.4 To subscribe to postings in a group 17

4.5 Deleting a post: WARNING 17

Democrats Abroad Quickstart Guide - Upgrade


1. Starting off

Home page:

There are 2 important links in the black strip at the top. Click Create content if you want to create a new posting, event, resource etc. on your group page.

(See section 4 below for an introduction to this), or to create a new Topic Group for mailings or to act as a local sub-chapter (see the Guide on Topic Groups) Click CiviCRM if you want to handle membership tasks or send emails.

CiviCRM pages:

On the main page after login click the

CiviCRM link in the black strip at the top of

the screen.

Note: CiviCRM is the name of the

database management software. It's

associated with another program called

CiviMail which is for bulk mailings.

This main CiviCRM page gives access to your Pending Members list.

In the Member Manager section you will find useful links to guides and training videos

and may contain news about the site.

Hint: It's helpful to create a DA folder on your Favorites or Bookmarks bar, and then

add the URLs you use most often:

https://

Remember that the site is now on a secure server,(https:// instead of http://), so make sure this is used in any links you send out.

Note: Something you could see or do yesterday but not today? Check to make sure your Visible Member role is still 'on': Go to My Account and edit your profile. In the Membership tab scroll further down to make sure the option "Let others see my name and city" is clicked. If you still don't see the admin buttons and screens expected contact us.



2. Membership

2.1 Finding the list of your members

Note for those used to the old system: On the new system you will no longer see the Subscribers List that showed both the present members and new members awaiting promotion. But you will find below the ways to see pending members and search your whole membership.

You will find any new pending members on the task list:

https://www.democratsabroad.org/civicrm/dashboard?reset=1 (see 2.2 below)

To find all your members go to the Search screen:

If you are admin for one sole group, simply hit the

Search button. Search possibilities will be described

in greater detail below (see 2.3).

https://www.democratsabroad.org/civicrm/contact/search?

reset=1

2.2 Pending tasks page - promoting new members

This is the page that opens after you log in and click

the CiviCRM link in the black navigation strip at the

top of the home page. You can always find your way

back there with this link:

https://democratsabroad.org/civicrm?reset=1

This is the page that opens when you receive the e-mail informing you that you have

a new member.

Note: All people in a country's admin group will receive the email notifying of new members since the software does not know who actually handles this task. Those who

are not involved with new member promotion can simply set a rule in their software to automatically delete messages where the sender is: [email protected] and the subject contains either: "New DA member" or "needs your approval"



On the Pending tasks page you will see a list of the people waiting to be promoted.

You can View and Edit their profiles and then promote them, or perform a series of

bulk tasks directly from the Action box.

You can promote your new members in 2 different spots on the site:

On the above screen, click on the person's name or on the edit link (right column) to

open the contact record.

After verifying the member's details, open the little black action box at the top of the

record, then click Promote this person.

From this record you can also directly send a welcome email to her/him.



Information on membership chapter:

When reviewing the member's information check to see if the new member has

entered anything in the Chapter preference field. This is a relatively new information

field that members can fill in. If you see a chapter preference then you know you

can/need to add the member to this chapter.

Member Status

Membership Country Italy

Membership Status Approved

Chapter Preference Is something marked here??

To prepare a member/several members for promotion

Hint: If you have several pending members from the same area (ex: after an event)

it may be interesting to add them to their chapters before promoting them (while you

still have them grouped in your pending members list - see the paragraph just below

for instructions on how to do this)

Select the members you wish to promote then choose Approve

Request or Promote in the Action box, and click Go.

On the next screen click Process Approvals to finalize the process

or else Cancel.



To add a series of new members to their chapters - Before approval:

If you have several pending members from the same city, it may be helpful to add

them all at once to their chapter while you have them all grouped on the same screen.

Select the members who need to be added to a chapter.

Open the action box and select Add Contacts to Group, on the next screen select the

group.

The screen will then return to the Pending Tasks page.

Note: You can add any type of member to a group this way - even if they're already in

the group, no problem - they won't be added twice to the chapter.

To reject a member:

Note for those used to the old system: The upgrade no longer uses 2 pesky

links that were in the old system: Deny member and Unsubscribe. Clicking either of them sent an unwanted member off into a limbo where he continued

to receive international mailings or hung around gathering dust, or else

generated rejection letters to well-meaning but duplicate members.

- If you have a duplicate: decide which member record to keep and update and

which to delete (see above for how to delete). You can then decide whether to

write the member or not (for example if the old, deleted, record was quite out of

date, or if the 2 records were almost identical there's no need to remind a member

of their forgetfulness)

A specific manual is being prepared with more detailed instructions on membership

management

- If you have a pending member who looks like a fake member (ex: if his name is

Bozo the Clown or for that matter George W. Bush, with an address in Neverland -

simply delete.)

- Other cases If you have a pending member who has not marked the Citizen= yes

button, if you're not sure whether this is a duplicate (same last name, different

email address or vice versa), or if they don't look like they're members in your

country, write to the person asking for confirmation. Keep the record in the pending

list and either delete or update when you receive a reply. It's also good in this case

to add a Note to the record to keep track of what you've done.

In case of doubt forward the name to us.

Let's share our templates! Please send us a copy of any message you have already

prepared to welcome new members, ask for further information etc. and we will

make these models available to all the other admins.



2.3 The Search tab: What you can find

Find contacts: (the basics)

There are as yet a few differences in the search format compared to the old system.

This find contacts is broader. You can find contacts with both last name and

email address with just one search.

But sometimes you may wish to narrow your search.

If you only want to search a member by the last name place a comma after the name. Ex:

lastname,

Advanced Search: This option now offers more possibilities.

Examples:

-members updated over the last year. Enter the from/to dates

in the change log.

Note: for the time being it looks like added and modified find the same group of members.

- members still pending (Custom Fields/Member Status - choose Pending):

To find a member by location (voting, abroad/primary, postal/zip code range):

- To find addresses in your country choose the

Abroad location types. To find members in a certain locality, enter the postal code, postal code

with wildcard(%), or else a range (ex: From

00100 To 00199)

- To find voting states, click Voting location type

and select the state in the drop down box on the right.

Full-text search:

We are still testing this and will send you more information on this later.

Search builder:

This option is becoming a truly useful

tool. Most importantly we can now search on the golden NULL

For example if you wish to search for

members missing their postal code:

The same will work for people with no email address (Email / Primary / IS NULL).



For searches on country or chapter groups you need to enter a special id number. To find the id number of groups you administer go to Manage Groups:

https://www.democratsabroad.org/civicrm/group?reset=1

Groups/ In /ID number (shown in column 2 of list opened with the above link)

The Search Builder is useful, but can behave a bit surprisingly sometimes. For example if you enter search criteria that can have multiple occurrences, Search

builder seems to count some members twice. So although the set contains the right

members, the number displayed is higher.

2.4 Viewing and Editing a member

This is one of the biggest improvements.

The View is cleaner and more transparent

- you can tell at a glance if the member is

tagged, how many groups she belongs to, or whether the record has a note.

- Editing is one-stop-shopping. All data is

entered or updated on the same page - no need to try to remember which is the

appropriate view.

- Delete a member:

From the Contact view (safer and preferred method) or from the Action box:



- Tagging and Adding an Individual member to a group:

Note: For the time being these 2 tabs at the TOP of the record - as shown here- are the

ONLY places on an individual's record to add to a Group or Tag. The Tag& Groups section at

the bottom of the record are FOR INFORMATION ONLY.)

- To Tag or add several members to a group (including chapters!)

Use the simple or advanced search, for example, to find a series of members (ex:

people living in the region of a newly created chapter). Then from the action box:

2.5 Other Actions

The Action Box is much more versatile now. Many of the actions

listed that were previously forbidden fruit are now the way to perform tasks more easily.

Add Contacts to Group

Ready to populate your chapter groups? No more need for that tedious add subscribers list - Find the

people to be added to a group. Select all or a few and click Add

Contacts to Group, select the group and Voila it's done. Approve Request or Promote

Discussed above

Batch Update Via Profile

This will be a highly useful tool, and we will give you more info on this as soon as

possible.



Delete Contacts Although you can delete a contact or several contacts here, it's easier and safer to

delete a member individually from the record.

Export Contacts

This works exactly as it did in the old system (see 2.6 below).

Remove Contacts from Group

Be very careful with this option. Only use it if you are moving someone,

within your own country, from one chapter to another (ex: someone who has

moved from one area of your country to another) or from a topic group that you have created yourself.

You've added a member to her new chapter with Add Contacts, and now you can

remove her from her hold chapter her. No need to search through pages and pages of subscribers lists.

Send Email to Contacts This is an option that will simplify your work

enormously.

From the contacts list you can now send a 'real'

email to the people selected on your list. This means that you can select members from a

certain area, or with certain data criteria and send a

decently formatted (rich text) message (and add other recipients).

Only 50 messages can be sent at a time, but you can send the message several

times. Each time select the list of 50 displayed, then paste the message in the box, then go to the next list of 50 and so on.

Tag and Untag contacts

Select the people to tag or untag. Choose the Tag or Untag action in the action box. On the next screen choose the tag and click Tag(Untag) contacts. When the program

has run you will see the number of people tagged.

Unhold emails

This is a way to put a series of members' emails off-hold ("On-hold" records are those

whose email addresses have bounced a certain number of times and are taken off the

mailing lists). This may be useful if you want to refresh a series of members, put them back in the mailing list and see what happens.



2.6 Exporting contacts list to compile an Excel file

- Click Export Contacts in the action box. - Export Primary contact fields gives an extensive list, but may be unmanageable for large groups AND it does not contain voting state. - You can use one of the field lists already prepared or select fields for export to include specific data in your file.

- In general it's always best to Save the file (ex: on your desktop), rather than Opening it directly. Save is quick even for large lists. Then you merely need to click on the file called: CiviCRM_Contact_Search.csv and it will automatically open in Excel, or else open the file from Excel itself



3. CiviMail

Note: Also see the excellent training video showing how to create a mailing with a graphic, based on a posting: http://youtu.be/AGMv_d33aas

You will notice only a few differences compared to the

old CiviMail screens.

The Mailings tab is on the black command strip after

you have clicked the CiviCRM button.

url: https://www.democratsabroad.org/civicrm?reset=1

Here are some important steps to remember:

- On every page you have the additional possibility to save your work and continue

later. Messages you Save & Continue will be stored in the Draft and Unscheduled

Mail list:

Screen 1 - choose your emailing group

- The contents of the "Name your Mailing" field will not actually appear on your

mailing. The message's subject line is entered on Screen 3.

- You can choose 1 or several groups to add to the mailing list. Remember that if you

choose the country, the mailing will also go to members in each chapter.



Screen 2 - 2 details to click

Remember to click the 2 Responding buttons, to make sure the replies reach the

address that mailed the message:

Screen 3 - The gist of the message

- Choose your group from the dropdown list

The From Name and Address is presently chosen

from a dropdown list. We have uploaded this

field with the list of country and chapter officers.

Let us know if you don't see your

country/chapter or if the email address is needs

to be changed and we will update this for you. We hope to be able to make this more

flexible in the future, but this change depends on the CiviCRM organization, not DA.

- Enter the subject line, which will appear as

the subject of your mailing

- Improvement! You can either upload

content (an html file, or a Word file saved as

html, ideally Web page, filtered), or enter it

directly in the HTML box.

- Important tips:

- If you copy text from a Word file, do not

paste it in directly but use the little "Word paste" icon.

- If you "re-use" your mailing, carefully check the text in the HTML box to make sure

that no static codes appear at the top of the message.

- The mailing header is optional but you

MUST select a footer (which

contains tokens that identify the

message as not being spam).



- Something NEW!! You can now add

up to 2 attachments, as long as the

attachments + mailing total less than

1Mb.

But be judicious here: Do the 1000+ members of your country group really want to

receive a 1Mb Google map?

Screen 4 - TEST mailing screen

- Test mailing: Enter the address to which you want to send a test mailing. Click the

Send a Test Mailing button, then Next>>

Do NOT enter anything in the "Send to this Group" field. (If not you'll end up sending

your test message to everyone.

You can also click Preview Mailing for a quick check.

Keep this page open, then go to your email program to check the test mailing. It's

especially important to make sure all the hyperlinks open to the right page. Once you

have reviewed your test mailing, click next.

Screen 5 - Sending the actual mailing

Send the message immediately or schedule it.

Note: all the times in CiviMail are interpreted as being in EST/EDT

(Washington DC time). So if you're send something immediately at 7pm your time,

the program will wait until it's 7pm in Washington to actually send the message. To

make sure "immediately" really does mean immediately you can edit your profile and

set your time zone to Americas-New York City.

Or you can try to schedule the mailing and set the time for what it is now in

Washington DC time +, say, 10 minutes. (Ex: if you're in Paris and it's 7pm, schedule

your message for 12:10 am.

Don't even THINK of entering anything here!!



4. Web posting - the basics

Note: Also see the excellent training video showing how to create a posting with an embedded graphic: http://youtu.be/Cw3FUjvxU2w

4.1 General rules to remember for all types of postings

- Nothing in your post is saved until you click SAVE at the bottom of the page.

- You can also click Preview first to have an idea what it will look like.

- Various options are available in the Edit Summary box:

- To paste in content copied from a Word file, use the

little Word paste icon (W + clipboard). Do NOT paste

the content in directly

- To create a hyperlink:

Type and select the text to be

hyperlinked. This will turn on 2 little

chain icons.

Click the closed chain link (Insert/Edit link)

Enter the url to be linked. Choose whether to

open it in the same window or a different one,

then give the link a title. Click insert.

Use this same chain icon to edit the hyperlink.

Use the broken chain link to remove the link.



To upload a file, browse for your file, click Open then Upload.

To copy the hyperlink of the file you've

uploaded, hover your mouse over the link

and right click. Select Copy shortcut then

paste it where needed.

4.2 To insert a graphic in your posting:

The graphic needs to be somewhere(anywhere) on the internet. It cannot be a simple copy/paste from your Pictures

folder

Click the little tree icon to open the dialogue box.

Paste in the Image URL.

Open the Appearance and Advanced boxes to set where it should appear in

the posting, etc.

The best thing is to play around with the settings until you like the result.

Group Audience and Content Visibility: Choose the group(s) for the posting, country & chapters, and set the visibility level.



4.3 Editing a posting: Be VERY careful!

To edit a post, find it on the page and click on the title to open. But you have to be

very careful that you're editing the post and NOT the group page.

Here's what it looks like on the page before and after opening:

After opening the page click the Edit link on the upper left:

After editing you can preview before saving or save immediately.

4.4 To subscribe to postings in a group:

It is a good idea to subscribe to notifications for postings in the

group you are responsible for and to encourage your members to subscribe as well.

Go to your group and if you haven't signed up to receive notifications yet you will see a message to GET NOTIFIED ABOUT x

group

Click the link Notify me of postings to this group

4.5 Deleting a post: WARNING - be VERY careful because the Edit posting and Edit Group buttons are similar.

If you want to delete a posting and click the Delete button at the foot of the post, check two things.

- Before clicking the Delete button, quickly scroll up to make sure you are editing the

post and not your group.

- After clicking edit make sure the confirmation question refers to your posting and NOT the group:

The question should look like this: NOT like this:

Documents

_Manual_QuickStart_Upgrade_20130906.pdf