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Announcements Gadget

Use the Announcements Gadget to let your Community members know about breaking news or changes to community plans. Announcements published to the community page can be emailed to all community members immediately.

Creating An Announcement

Click “Add” in the lower left corner of the gadget. A new window will pop up, allowing you to enter the title of your announcement, the details, and the date you’d like the announcement to expire. Be sure to make your title and details as descriptive as possible so that your members can find information easily. Deciding when the announcement will expire is important so that you don’t have outdated information on your Community page. Once you’re satisfied with your announcement, click on “Save” to return to your Community page.

Viewing Details of an Announcement

To view the details of any announcement by click on the arrow icon next to the announcement headline. Click the icon again to show only headlines..

Sharing an Announcement

Sharing announcements is a great way to let your members know what’s happening in your community, and you can also share announcements with others who are not community members. While an announcement’s summary is open, click the Share link at the bottom of the summary. A new window will open, allowing you to share in three different ways: 1) with categories of members by user role (e.g., Editors, Members, etc.); 2) with individual community members by clicking the boxes next to their names; or 3) with non-community members by entering their email address and clicking the Add button. After you’ve made your selections, click “Share” to send the information and close the window. To share all of your announcements, click the Share link at the bottom of the Announcements Gadget.

Editing and Deleting an Announcement

From your community page, click on the title of the Announcements Gadget and a new window will open, displaying all of your announcements. Click on an announcement headline and then choose Edit or Delete from the dropdown box. You can also choose to Share an announcement here, or make the announcement private.

Subscribe to Announcements

When you subscribe to Announcements, you can choose to receive email notification when a new Announcement is added to your Community page. Click on “Subscribe” in the lower left side of your Announcements Gadget to open a new window where you can select the types of emails you wish to receive and how frequently you’d like to receive them. When you’re finished, click Save to return to your community page.

Blog Gadget

The Blogs Gadget is useful for keeping a diary of your day-to-day activities or opinions. Others can then post comments and start discussions.

Creating A Blog Post

Click the Add link at the bottom of your Blog Gadget to open your editing screen. Enter the title of your post and in the box below, write your entry. Make it as long as you like. When you’re finished editing, click the Save button to return to your page. The title of your post will now be displayed in your Blog Gadget.

Viewing a Blog Post

Click the arrow icon next to a blog post’s title to open its details, and then click the More link to read the full article.

Editing and Deleting a Blog Post

While viewing a full blog post, click the Edit link below your article to open the editing box. Make your changes and then click the Save button. To delete your entry, click the Delete link below your article. In this view, you can also share the article, subscribe to the blog, and choose to make your blog public or private.

Commenting on a Blog Post

While viewing a full blog post, click the Add Comment link at the bottom to open a comment box. Enter your response, and then enter the special characters in the box below it. Then click Save. Your comments will appear with your name below the blog post.

Sharing Blog Entries

You can share your blog posts with anyone, whether they’re a member of your community or not. While viewing the post’s details, click the Share link. A new window will open, allowing you to share in three different ways: 1) with categories of members by user role (e.g., Editors, Members, etc.); 2) with individual community members by clicking the boxes next to their names; or 3) with non-community members by entering their email address and clicking the Add button. After you’ve made your selections, click “Share” to send the information and close the window. To share ALL Blog entries, click the Share link at the bottom of the Blog Gadget.

Subscribe to a Blog

When you subscribe to a blog, you can choose to receive email notification whenever a new Blog entry is added to your Community page. Click on “Subscribe” in at the bottom of your Blog Gadget to open a new window where you can select the types of emails you wish to receive and how often you’d like to receive them.. When you’re finished, click Save to return to your page.

Bookmarks Gadget

Bookmarks allow you to save and display links to Internet content that’s relevant to your community. Be sure to use descriptive titles for your links so that your members will know where they’re going when they click one of your Bookmarks.

Adding a Bookmark

To add a link to Bookmarks, click on “Add” in the lower left corner of the Bookmarks gadget. A new window will open up, with a field where you can enter a title and the URL for the page you wish to bookmark. Be sure to use a very descriptive title so your community members will know exactly what they will find when they click on the link. After you have completed both fields, click on the Save button to return to your community page.

Viewing a Bookmark

To view a bookmark, click on the desired link in the Bookmark Gadget and a window will open to the bookmarked web page.

Sharing All Bookmarks

You can share your bookmarks with anyone, whether they’re a member of your community or not. To share all of your bookmarks, click the Share link at the bottom of the gadget. A new window will open, allowing you to share in three different ways: 1) with categories of members by user role (e.g., Editors, Members, etc.); 2) with individual community members by clicking the boxes next to their names; or 3) with non-community members by entering their email address and clicking the Add button. After you’ve made your selections, click “Share” to send the information and close the window.

Subscribing to Bookmarks

When you subscribe to Bookmarks, you can choose to receive email notification instantly or on a scheduled basis, whenever a new Bookmark is added to your Community page. Click the Subscribe link in the lower left side of your Bookmarks Gadget to open a new window where you can select the types of emails you wish to receive and how frequently you’d like to receive them.. When you’re finished, click Save to return to your community page.

Editing, Sharing or Deleting a Bookmark

Click on the Bookmarks Gadget title and a new window will open, displaying all of your bookmarks. Roll your mouse over a bookmark’s title to show its dropdown box. Then choose Add, Delete, Share.or Make Private. You can also add a new bookmark or subscribe to all bookmarks here.

Calendar Gadget

The calendar gadget is a great way to organize your community’s upcoming events, meetings and deadlines. For each event, you can establish starting and ending times, as well as the location and description of the event. Be sure to clearly describe your events so that it is easy for your members to discover them, and include helpful information (attendees, fees associated with your event, etc.) so that your members will have a clear understanding.

Add An Event

1. Click on “Add” (in the lower left corner of the Calendar gadget.
2. Enter the title of your event in the Title field.
3. Enter the start date, or click the calendar icon next to the Start field to select a Start date.
4. Select the Start time from the dropdown boxes, or choose “All day event”.
5. Repeat the steps above to set the End date and time.
6. Enter additional descriptions and images desired in the Description box.
7. Click the Save button to save your event and return to the community page.

View an Event

Click on a date in your Calendar Gadget to display the title of that day’s event above the calendar. Click on the triangle icon to show a description of the event.

Subscribe to Calendar

When you subscribe to Calendar Events, you can choose to receive email notification whenever a new event is added to your Community page. Click Subscribe at the bottom of your Calendar Gadget to open a new screen, where you can select the types of emails you wish to receive, and how often you’d like to receive them. When you’re finished, click Subscribe to return to your community page. You can also open this window by clicking on the Calendar Gadget’s title.

Sharing your Calendar

You can share your calendar with anyone, whether they’re a member of your community or not. Click the Share link at the bottom of the Calendar Gadget. A new window will open, allowing you to share in three different ways: 1) with categories of members by user role (e.g., Editors, Members, etc.); 2) with individual community members by clicking the boxes next to their names; or 3) with non-community members by entering their email address and clicking the Add button. After you’ve made your selections, click “Share” to send the information and close the window.

Contacts Gadget

Contacts are people you know, but who aren’t yet members of your community. The Contacts Gadget gives you an easy way to organize email addresses so that you can inform your friends about your community’s news and activities.

Adding A Contact

Click on “Add” in the lower left side of the gadget. This will open a new window where you can provide the name, phone number, and email address of the contact, along with notes. Click on Save to return to your page.

Searching for Contacts

If you have a large number of contacts, you can find them easily by typing part of a name into the Search box in the Contacts Gadget.

Viewing a Contact

Click on a contact’s name to open a new window displaying all of your contact’s information.

Editing or Deleting a Contact

Click on the Contacts Gadget title to display a list of all of your contacts. Then, click anywhere in a contact’s name to open its dropdown box. Click on Edit to change the contact’s information, or Delete to remove the contact. You can also choose View to see all of that contact’s information.

Community Discovery Gadget

The Community Discovery gadget provides an easy way for you to search iBelong communities so that you can find others who have similar interests or when you want to find a community on a particular topic. When you create your own Community Profile, be sure to provide relevant tags so that those who share your interests will be able to find your community easily.

To find a community, enter a search term in box in your Community Discovery gadget and click on the Search button. A list will appear in your gadget, displaying all communities whose title or keywords include your search term. Click on any community in the list to see its Community page. To see the next page of matches, click on a number or “Next” at the bottom of your Community Discovery Gadget.

Community Profile Gadget

Your Community Profile is used for several purposes but the most important are: 1) to let others know what your community is about so they can decide if they want to join; 2) to choose the keywords that will determine the kinds of news articles that will be delivered to your community’s News gadget. This is also where you’ll choose whether your community is public or private. This allows you to control whether others can discover your community without needing a specific invitation to join.

Editing the Community Profile

To update and edit the information in your community profile, click on the Community Profile gadget title. A new window will open with all of the current settings for this profile.

• Description: Enter a brief sentence or two about your community’s purpose and/or interests. This is what will show up when others search for your community.
• Keywords: Enter specific words that relate to your community. These words will be used to find the news that’s delivered to your page, so make your words specific. Enter one word or phrase per line.
• Choose whether you’d like your community to be Public (discoverable by people using our Search feature) or Private (by invitation only).
• Location: Enter your zipcode, state and country.
• Click Save to close the window and return to your page. You’ll notice that your News Gadget now contains news that’s relevant to your purpose/interests. If you’re not getting the kind of news you want, open your profile again and adjust your keywords.

Filing Cabinet Gadget

You can use the Filing Cabinet gadget to store and share documents with your community.

Adding a Document

To add a document, click the "Add" link at the bottom of the gadget, click "Browse" to locate the file on your computer, and click the "Upload" button. You will be prompted to give the document a title, description, and descriptive tags. You can also make the file private (viewable only by members of the community) and you can allow the file to be downloaded in its original format.

Viewing a Document

To view a document in the File Cabinet, click its title to see a summary. From there, click the "More" link to view the document (if the file is downloadable, you will see a "Download" button in the viewer). You can also save the document to your My Page dashboard by clicking the "Save" link, or share the document by clicking the "Share" link at the bottom of the document summary.

Supported Document Formats

The Filing Cabinet supports the following document types: .pdf, .ps, Microsoft Office documents (.doc, .ppt, .pps, .xls), OpenOffice documents, OpenDocument, .txt, and .rtf.

Member Directory Gadget

The Member Directory Gadget displays a list of all members in your community.

Adding a Member

Click on the title of the Member Directory gadget or on the “Open in Full Page” icon. A list of all members will be displayed, along with their permissions. You can add new members and manage permissions in this page.

Email

To email a member of your community, click on the Email button next to his/her name. Your email client will open automatically so that you can compose and send the email.

View

Click the View button to see that member’s Profile page in a new tab. You can always close this tab by clicking on “CLOSE ACTIVE TAB” next to the tab’s title.

Permissions

You can give members of your community the ability to edit or administer your community by clicking on his/her name and choosing Edit Permissions from the dropdown box.

Deleting a Member

Click the Delete Members button to open a new window displaying a list of your members. Click the Delete link next to the name of the member you’d like to delete. The member will receive an email informing them that they’ve been removed from the community.

My Communities Gadget

My Communities lists the names of all communities that you own or belong to.

View Communities

Click on the community title link in your My Communities Gadget to open a new tab showing that community’s page. You can close this tab at any time by clicking “Close this tab”, located next to the tab’s title.

Viewing Community Details

To view the details of My Communities, click on the title of the My Communities gadget. A new window will open, displaying a list of all of your communities. To see a community’s description and keywords, click on the small triangle next to its title. To see the community’s page, click on its title.

In either of these views, you can click Show Subgroups to see a list. Click the + to expand each Community to show its subgroups. Clicking on any of the communities in this list will display the community’s name and description.

My Settings Gadget

The My Settings gadget allows you to choose how you will receive communications from your communities.

Communication Preferences

• You can choose to have your notifications sent to an email address other than the one you provided when registering. Enter a new email address in the box below your current email address and click Add. Then choose it in the dropdown box to set it as your default.
• Choose whether you’d like to receive your emails in text or HTML format. By default, you’ll receive notifications only from your communities.
• If you’d like to reset your password, click the Reset Password button.

Delete Subscriptions

Click Edit Subscription to display a list of all items you’ve subscribed to. To delete a subscription, click the Delete link next to its title.

News Gadget

The News gadget provides you with an an easy way to automatically gather information that’s relevant to your community, based on the keywords you provided in your Community Profile. By editing your Profile, you can easily add or change the keywords as the needs of your community change. Fresh news articles will be regularly delivered from the Internet straight to your community page, and displayed as individual headlines in your News gadget. If you’re not getting news that’s relevant to you or your community, try changing the keywords in your Profile.

You can also use the News gadget to display RSS feeds from blogs and other Web sites -- you can even display RSS feeds from multiple sites. Putting a site's RSS feed in a News gadget means you'll see an automatically-updating list of articles from that site.

View News Articles

Click on a news headline to open a brief summary of an article. To read the entire article, click on the “More” link below the summary. A new window will open, displaying the entire article.

If there are multiple pages of articles, click “Next” or one of the numbers below the headlines in the gadget to navigate.

Share a News Article

To share a news story, click on the Share link below the summary. A new window will open, allowing you to share the article in three different ways: 1) with categories of members by user role (e.g., Editors, Members, etc.); 2) with individual community members, by clicking the boxes next to their names; or 3) with non-community members by entering their email address and clicking the Add button. After you’ve made your selections and added a comment (optional), click the “Share” button to send the information and close the window.

To share ALL current news articles, click the Share link at the bottom of the News Gadget.

Save a News Article

Your news is refreshed continuously, so an article you see today may not be there tomorrow. If you’d like to save an article to your personal My Page dashboard, first install a Saved Content gadget on your page by clicking on “Manage this page” in the upper right corner of your community page. Then, click on the “Save” button below an article’s summary. Your article will be automatically saved in your Saved Content gadget until you decide to delete it.

Adding a Feed to the News Gadget

It's easy to display an RSS feed (or multiple feeds) from another Web site in a News gadget. First, if you need to, add a News gadget to your page (in the menu bar at the top right, click "Manage", then "Gadgets and Settings." The power strip window will open up -- in the Gadgets tab, click "iBelong Gadgets", check the box next to "News," then click "Add.") Next, click the "Settings" tab in the power strip, then click the "Settings" link in the header of the News gadget you want to change. You'll see the settings screen for that gadget in the power strip. Click the "Add Feeds" tab, and paste the URL of the feed you want to display in the box. If you want to add another feed, click the "Add Another" button. To remove a feed you've added, click the red x next to the feed you want to remove.

You can also filter the feed by keywords, so it will only display feeds that include the words you provide. Click the "Filter by Keywords" tab, then type in the words you want (separated by commas) included in the displayed items.

When you're done adding feeds, click the OK button.

Saved Content Gadget

Since the articles in your News Gadget are continuously updated, a news article you see today may not be there tomorrow. The Saved Content gadget allows you to store articles that you want to keep available for your community indefinitely. You can also store Search results and any other links here.

Adding Saved Content Link

There are two ways to add content to your Saved Content Gadget: from a browser or a link in a gadget.

To add a Saved Content link from another gadget, click on “Add” in the lower left corner of the Saved Content gadget. A new window will open up, with a field where you can enter a title, description, tags and the URL of any content you like. Be sure to use a very descriptive title so your community members will know exactly what they will find when they click on the link. After you have completed the fields, click on the Save button to return to your page. While viewing an item or gadget, click the “Save” link in the footer beneath the item or at the bottom of the gadget. The article will be automatically added to your Saved Content gadget. Click here for more information.

Next time you find a great web page that you want to share or save, just click the SAVE IT feature added to your browser toolbar. If you use Firefox, simply drag this link into your browser toolbar and choose to create the link in your "Bookmarks Toolbar Folder" folder. For Internet Explorer users, "right click" on this link and select "Add to Favorites" and place the SAVE IT bookmark in your "Links" folder.

Viewing Saved Content

To view Saved Content, click on a link and a window will open up the destination page for viewing.

Edit or Delete Saved Content

From your community page, click on the Saved Content Gadget title and a new window will open. In the new window, click anywhere in a link title to open the dropdown box containing your options. You can also Add new content here by clicking the Add link.

Search Gadget

The Search Gadget lets you search for content from iBelong communities, as well as the entire Web. By default, your search will be limited to the community you're currently viewing. To expand your search to include content in all of your communities, or content across the entire iBelong network of communities, click the round button next to the appropriate option.

Then, just type your search words in the box and click “View” to view your search results.

Viewing Search Results

On the search results page, you will see a section with iBelong communities and content that match your search. You'll also see a section for content found on general Web and News sites. Click on any headline to display an item's summary. To visit a matching iBelong community, click "Visit this community." To view the full item of a content, Web, or News item, click on the “More” link below the summary.

Sharing Search Results

To share a search result with someone, click on its headline to display the item summary. Then click the “Share” link below the summary. A new window will open, allowing you to share in three different ways: 1) with categories of members by user role (e.g., Editors, Members, etc.); 2) with individual community members, by clicking the boxes next to their names; or 3) with non-community members by entering their email address and clicking the Add button. After you’ve made your selections and added a comment (optional), click the “Share” button to send the information and close the window.

Saving Search Results

If you’d like to save an article on your "My Page" dashboard, click on the “Save” link below any search result. A new window will appear, where you can customize the title, description, and descriptive tags for the article. Click the "Save" button to save the information to your My Page.

Text Gadget

The Text gadget is the billboard for your community. This is where you can exercise your creative genius to make your community stand out, using completely customizable text, HTML coding, images and links. Because of its versatility, you can add as many of these gadgets to your page as you like and use them for different purposes.

Editing Text

Click on the title of the Text gadget and the design editor page will open. Enter your text in the editing box. To add links, images, or stylized text, use the icons on the editing bar above the box where you’re entering text. Click Save once you are finished to return to the community page

Sharing Text Gadget Content

Click “Share” on the lower left side of the gadget. A new window will open, allowing you to select individual community members (or categories of community members) that you want to send this information to. You can also share this information with non-members by clicking “Additional Recipients” and adding their email addresses . When you’re finished making your selections, click “Share” to send the information and close the window.

Subscribe to Text Gadget Content

When you subscribe to Text Content, you can choose to receive email notification whenever a new text item is added to your Community page. Click on “Subscribe” in the lower left side of your Text Gadget to open a new window where you can select the types of emails you wish to receive and how often you’d like to receive them.. When you’re finished, click Save to return to your community page. /

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