Help
Here are some useful how-to items for the site.
- Creating an account
- Interest groups
- Receiving e-mail from the site
- Posting items
- Replying to / Commenting on an item
- Posting events
- RSVP'ing to events
- If you need more help
You need to create an account on svanetwork.org in order to receive e-mail from the site, or to post items on the site for other people to see. Here are the steps required.
1. In the "User Login" box on the right side of the screen, Click the "Create New Account" link. You will be taken to the User Account page.
2. The next step is to start filling in the items membership form. The following four items are required.
- Username: the name you will use to log into the site. Examples: jsmith, pjones.
- E-mail address.
- First name
- Last name.
You can add a number of additional profile items, such as your picture and interests. You can add or change them later, by using the "My Account" link.
If you would like to join any interest groups. check the relevant box. Each interest group has its own page, and checking this box will sign you up receive email when new items are posted to the page. It will also allow you to post items to the page. Current groups include:
- California Government Reform
- Education
- Environment
- Healthcare
As the very last item on the form, you need to answer a question that makes sure you are a person and not an spammer program.
3. When you are finished entering the information, click the "Create New Account" button. Shortly afterward, you will receive an email from Silicon Valley Action Network. This verifies that there were no typos in the email address.
4. To help avoid having spam messages, your registration will then be reviewed by a real person. After it is approved, you will receive a second email that will allow you to log in and set your password. Open the email, click the "Log in" button. This will take you back to your profile page, where you can fill in the "Password" and "Confirm password" fields, then click the "Save" button.
5. You are now a member of the site. In the future, when you need to log in, use the username you entered in step 2 and password you just entered. If you forget the password, click on the "Request new password" link, just beneath the "Create new account" link. Enter the email address you registered with, then click the "E-mail new password" button. A new email will be sent to you, just like the one that let you set your password originally.
If you click on the "Groups" menu item at the top of the page, you will see the different interest groups currently represented on the site, such as Education, Environment, or Healthcare. Clicking on one of the group names will take you to the home page of that group. On that page you will see several kinds of items, including:
- Event Calendar: events of interest to the group (these events are also included in the SVAN event calendar on the site home page).
- Group Notice: items published by group leaders that are of general interest to the group
- Group Discussion Topic: items published by group members that are intended to provide relevant information or solicit discussion
- Group Wiki Page: a page that anyone in the group can update (to support group collaboration)
There are two reasons why you might want to join an interest group:
- Group members can receive email whenever new content is posted to the group.
- Group members can post new Group Discussion topics
To join an interest group, go to the group home page, then click the "Join" link at the upper left column. You must have already created an account and logged in.
Receiving e-mail from the site
When you first join a group, you will be signed up to receive an email whenever anyone posts an item or replies to an item already posted. The email will have the text and web links from the item, but will not have any pictures, graphics, or attached files. To see the full item, click the URL at the beginning of the message.
If you receive an email and would like to reply to it, click on the link at the beginning of the email. The link will have the form http://svanetwork.org/node/XXXX, where the XXXX is replaced by a number. Please do NOT send an email reply, since it will not be seen by the group.
If you do not want to receive an email for every item, you can choose to receive a single email once a day containing the list of all the items posted in the past 24 hours. To do this, first make sure you are logged in, click on the "My Account" link at the top of the right column, then select the "Notifications" tab, then select the "Groups" tab under that. You will see a section for each group you are a member of. For each group, check the box labeled "All posts in this group", then change the value of the "Send interval" item to "Daily". You can also change it to send mail at other intervals -- for example, "Weekly" -- or you can set it to "Never" to turn off email notification entirely. (You can ignore all the other checkboxes for each group -- they allow you to have even finer-grained control, using different email approaches for different content types.)
When you are finished, click the "Save" button to put your new preferences into effect.
If you are a member of a group (and logged into the site), you can create items for the site. To do that, go to the home page of the group, then use one of the links in the upper left column to create the type of item you would like to post.
When you do that, you will be taken to a page where you can create the content. The required data items for this page are the "Title" and "Body".
In editing the Body, you can use an editor that allows you to format the text (using boldface, italics, different size fonts, etc.). Use the buttons above the the text box to do this. If the body of the message contains URL's (like http://svanetwork.org), the system will automatically make the text clickable.
It is also possible to attach files to items. To do that, scroll down to the "File Attachment" section, and click it to make the "Attach new file" field and the "Attach" button visible. Click the "Browse" button to select a file from your hard drive, then click the "Attach" button. You will then see that there is a URL for the attached file that you can use in your message. More than one file can be attached, and if you click the "Delete" checkbox, the attachment will be removed.
When you are finished with your item, scroll to the bottom of the page and click the "Preview" button. This will allow you to view the page as it will appear on the site. If you want to do any further editing on your item, scroll down below and you will see the same Title and Body fields that you used to create it.
Once you are satisfied with your item, scroll to the bottom of the page and click "Save". This will post the item to the site and schedule an e-mail to be sent to those group members requesting it. The emails are not sent right away -- they are currently sent on the hour.
After you posted the item, you can edit it further. Just click on the title, then click on the "Edit" tab on the resulting page. The "Save" and "Preview" buttons work as above. When you are finished editing, the site will be updated, but another email will NOT be sent.
If you decide after working on an item, you'd rather not create it after all, you don't have to do anything if you haven't clicked "Save".
If you've already saved an item, you can delete it by clicking on the title, selecting the "Edit" tab, then scrolling to the bottom and clicking the "Delete" button. Be aware though that emails with your item may have already been sent out.
Replying to / Commenting on an Item
When someone else has created an item you would like to reply to, you need to go to the page that displays the item, then click "Add new comment". You will then be able to type your reply into the "Comment" field. You can add a "Subject" if desired. The "Preview" and "Save" buttons work the same way as described in the Posting Content section..
Creating an event for the event calendar is similar to creating other kinds of content. In the Event creation form, rather than Title and Body, the analogous fields are "Event name" and "Event keywords".
Because events will be displayed on a calendar, you also need to specify the start and ending dates and times for the event. These are captured in the "From date" and "To date" fields in the form you fill in for creating events.
To specify the start date, click the date field underneath the "From date" label. This will bring up a calendar you can click in to select a date. You can also type into the field, selecting a date such as 4/18/2010. Click somewhere away from this field to have the system accept your data.
To specify the start time, click the time field to the right of the date field.
- First specify the hour -- a value between 1 and 12.
- Then hit the Tab key on your keyboard or click on the minutes field. Enter either 00, 15, 30, or 45.
- Then hit the Tab key one more time or click on the AM/PM field. If the value is not correct, type either AM or PM.
- Click somewhere away from the field to have the system accept your data.
When you have finished entering the starting date and time, edit the "To date" field and do the same for the ending date and time.
If your event is for an entire day, have the starting and ending time be 12:00AM.
IMPORTANT -- the email notification for the event contains only the "Event Title" and "Event Description". So make sure the Event Description contains all the information needed for people to know about your event (such as when and where it is).
When an event is posted, you can RSVP to let the host know you are either coming or not coming. To do this, click on the title of the event to navigate to the page displaying the event. Then click on either "I Will Attend This Event" or "I Won't Attend This Event".
If you need more help, you can reach us at support@svanetwork.org.
If you need immediate help, please call 650-302-8760.
