notices

How To Publish A Notice

After you have composed and tested your notice you can publish it to your target audience.  Publishing can be done from either the Notice List page or directly from the Notice Add/Edit page (after you have saved your notice).

When you click the Publish button you’ll see the Define Filter page.  On this page you have the option to filter your user list using any of the following options.

ALL Active Users – This will send each message to all users in your database that have not been flagged as INACTIVE or been deleted.

ReUse Saved Filter – If you have selected several filter options in a previous publish exercise and save this as a filter you can reuse the filter so that you do not have to select each of the filter options again.

Define a new filter, based on:

Knowlegebase Category – Select users who have subscribed to one or more knowledgebase categories to receive emails when new FAQs are added to that category.

Notification Group – Select users who have subscribed to one or more notification group.

Event Type – Select users who have subscribed to one or more Event Type to receive emails when you add a new event to your calendar.

Date User Added – Select users based on when they signed-up or were added to your database.

Alternatively, if you are only sending a phone message you can upload an ASCII delimited file that contains the name and phone number of the users you want to notify. This file should be in the format -

Name, Email, Voice #, SMS #

This option is useful if you want to send phone messages to users that may not be registered in your user list, or for whom you do not have a simple way to select them from the database.  An example would be parents of students who were late to school or absent.  If you have a student information system that can export these names and numbers, you can use your Notices Module with EZDialer-Voice to call them.

notices

How To Add A Notice

To add a new notice with multiple channels go to Notices > Add in the EZCommunicator Admin interface.

Type a Name and description for your notice.  The Name will appear on your notice list so you can track the results when you publish your notice.  You can also specify an email, phone and SMS Text device to use for testing your notice before publishing to your target audience.

Choose which channel or channels you want to publish your notice on.  For each channel you select you will need to create a message that will be sent out on that channel.

You must Save your notice before publishing.

Create EMail message

The Email channel comes standard with the EZCommunicator Notices module.  If you select this channel then you can create an email message that is a simple text-based email, or you can include formatting, images and hyperlinks.

For high priority broadcasts of security or other types of time sensitve notification it is generally better to keep your email messages simple and small.

Record & Upload Audio Files

You will need to pre-record your own audio files and upload them to your site before publishing your notice.  The simplest way to do this is use the Microsoft Windows Sound Recorder application that comes standard with your PC.  This application can usually be found by going to Accessories > Entertainment on your START menu.  If you do not find the application on that menu, then you will need to search your Windows directory for the file sndrec32.exe.

This application will allow you to record your audio message(s) and replay them through your computer until you are satisfied with the sound.  Keep the following in mind -

1. You do not need to record introductory text, such as ‘Hello, this is a message from…’  This will be included with your EZDialer module as part of your site setup and configuration.

2. Keep your message length to less that 30 seconds.  20 – 25 seconds, or less, should be your target length.  30 second message are the standard length for EZDialer, and some voice recorder systems may cut your message off.  Also, the longer your message, the more time it will take to call all your target audience.

Once you are satisfied with your recorded message you will need to save it to your local disk in a format that is compatible with EZDialer.  Click on File > Save as and the following dialog should appear.

Type the name of the file that you want to save.  If you are recording both an English and Spanish audio message, be sure to save them with different file names.  Make sure that the file type selected is WAV.  Then click the Change button to change the format in which your WAV file is stored.

Set the format to PCM and the attributes to 16 Bit, Mono before saving your audio file.  This format is required by EZDialer.  If you do not use this format and attribute your audio file will not playback correctly when users answer their phone.

After recording your audio messages for EZDialer you will need to upload them to your site for your specific notice.  First, you need to select Phone as a channel you want to publish on by clicking the Send Checkbox for that section of your notice.  Then browse your computer’s hard drive to find the file(s) you recorded and upload them to your site.  Once uploaded you can play them back by clicking the file name.  This will open whatever application on your computer is associated with WAV files and attempt to playback.   If you have a Spanish language audio file you can upload that in the same way you uploaded your English language file.

EZDialer will use the appropriate automated options, based on whether you have English only, or English and Spanish files uploaded.

Note:  Playing back your uploaded files does not guarantee they are the correct format to work with EZDialer.  You should run a notice test to be certain the format is compatible.

If you want to type your message and let EZDialer convert this to speech then choose the Text radio button and type your message in the box provided.  Two suggestions when using this option -

1. If you have an abbreviation, such as ISD for (independent school district) you should insert <blanks> between each letter of the abbreviation.  Otherwise, EZDialer will assume you want it to say the word ‘isd’.

2. EZDialer Text to Speech does a pretty good job with phonetic pronunciation.  If you have a word you want converted, especially if it is a proper name, like your school name or mascot, type the phonetic form of the word.  For example, Humble, which is pronounced Umble, should be spelled Umble to get the correct pronunciation from EZDialer.

Add SMS Text Message

SMS Text messages are supported by most wireless carriers and allows you to broadcast a short text message to anyone with a mobile phone or PDA that supports this format of messaging.  To include an SMS Text message choose the channel by clicking the Send box.  Then type a subject and message into the text boxes provided.  The total length cannot exceed 130 characters.  Do you use any <CTRL> or other types of non-viewable characters.

Only users who have provided a mobile number in their profile and chosen to receive text messages will receive this message when you publish your notice.

Test Messages before Publishing

After you have created messages for each of the channels on which you want to publish your notice, you should run a test.  To test your notice type an email, phone and text device number in the text areas shown near top of your notice and click the Test button.

You will receive the messages you have created for each of the channels you selected.

When testing your phone message, if you did not save your audio file in the correct format [PCM, 8Bit Mono], then the phone message will not playback when you answer your phone.  You cannot specify an switchboard extension on the phone message.  EZDialer will playback the audio message on whichever direct dial number you type in.

EZDialer will play the Introductory, Menu options and Closing messages that were created and configured for your site. The Introductory message will sound something like, ‘Hello, this message is from ABC School District’. Menu options only apply if you have an English and Spanish audio file, in which case EZDialer will offer the user the option to Press 1 for English and 2 for Spanish.  The Closing message will simply say, ‘Thank you.  Goodbye.’