The process of sending a notification involves selecting the type of notification you want to send, customizing its text message, voice message, and/or e-mail, selecting the target recipients, and choosing whether to send the notification immediately or at a scheduled time. This topic guides you through the entire process.
Select Notification Types
- In the upper-right corner of the Send Notifications screen, click your school using the School drop-down list.
- In the Notification Type area, select the Text Message, Voice Message, and/or E-Mail check box, depending on the notification(s) you wish to send.
Create a Text Message Notification
In the Text Message tab of the Compose Message area, do one of the following:
- Enter the contents of your notification message in the text box.
If your text message is more than 160 characters, the character count turns red. It's recommended that you keep text messages under 160 characters. Otherwise, when you send the notification, it will be sent in multiple text messages that may appear out of order to the recipients, depending on their device.
Click Retrieve Previous to browse notifications previously sent by the current user, click the previously sent message you want to send, and then click Select.
The Select Previous Text Message dialog box appears. The contents of the message you've selected appear in the text box, so you can make any necessary changes before sending your notification.
Click Spelling [F7] if you want to spell-check the body of the notification.
Create a Voice Message Notification
In the Voice Message tab of the Compose Message area, there are three options you can choose for voice messages: customize an automated text-to-speech voice message, create a new voice recording, or choose an existing voice recording. The instructions below show you how to customize each option from the Voice Message tab.
If you need to send a voice message but don't currently have access to Administrator's Plus, see Send a Voice Notification Remotely from a Phone.
Option 1: Send an Automated Voice Message
- In the Message Type drop-down list, select Text-to-Voice, and then enter your voice message in the Enter Text-to-Voice Message text box.
- Click Retrieve Previous to browse notifications previously sent by the current user, click the previously sent message you want to send, and then click Select.
The Select Previous Voice Message dialog box appears.
Click Spelling [F7] if you want to spell-check the body of the notification.
Option 2: Send a New Recorded Voice Message
- In the Message Type drop-down list, select Record a New Message.
- Dial the Voice Broadcasting System phone number (866-419-1646), and then follow the prompts to record your voice message.
When you've finished recording, you'll be prompted to save your voice message. Make note of the Voice Recording ID number so you can access the voice message in AdminPlus Notify. - For Select or Enter the Voice Recording ID, browse for your newly recorded voice message or type the Voice Recording ID into the text box.
Optionally, compose your message in the text box to read during your recording to ensure precision and clarity. The ideal voice message is between 30 seconds and 90 seconds in length. Any message shorter than 30 seconds or longer than 90 seconds could cause an error in the listener's experience. If your message is less than 30 seconds in length, it's recommended that you repeat it to extend the length of the message. That way if a listener misses the message the first time around when answering the phone, they will still hear the message when it's repeated.
Option 3: Send an Existing Recorded Voice Message
In the Message Type drop-down list, select Use a Previously Recorded Message, and then do one of the following:
- Enter an existing voice recording ID in the text box.
- Click
to browse for an existing voice recording ID.
If you need to send a voice message but don't currently have access to Administrator's Plus, see Send a Voice Notification Remotely from a Phone.
Create an E-Mail Notification
- In the E-Mail tab of the Compose Message area, select the e-mail address you want to send your notification from using the From Address drop-down list.
- If you want a name (for example, your school's name) to display in the e-mail in addition to the From Address, type the name in the Display Name text box.
- Enter the subject of your e-mail in the Subject text box.
- Do one of the following:
- Enter the text of your e-mail in the Enter E-Mail Text text box.
- Click Retrieve Previous to browse notifications previously sent by the current user, click the previously sent message you want to send, and then click Select.
The Select Previous E-Mail dialog box appears. The contents of the message you've selected appear in the text box, so you can make any necessary changes before sending your notification. The signature and disclaimer information that is automatically appended to your e-mail notifications doesn't appear in the text box, but it does appear to recipients of the notification.
Click Spelling [F7] if you want to spell-check the body of the notification.
- Enter the text of your e-mail in the Enter E-Mail Text text box.
If you want to add an attachment to your e-mail notification, click Attachments, click Attach, browse your computer for the attachment(s) you want to add, and then click Done.
After you've added an attachment to the e-mail, a paperclip appears next to Attachments. You can remove an attachment from your e-mail by clicking the attachment in the Attachments dialog box and then clicking Remove.
E-mails with attachments greater than 3MB in size can take longer to process and may be blocked by spam filters. E-mails with a total attachment size exceeding 10MB are unable to send.
Add Recipients to the Notification
- Click Add Recipients at the bottom of the Send Notifications screen, click a recipient group, and then click Next.
A recipient's phone number must be exactly 10 digits, not including special characters, for the recipient to receive the notification. Make sure the recipients' phone numbers are exactly 10 digits in Administrator's Plus Data Base. International schools can disable the 10 digit restriction. For more information on modifying specifications, see Configure AdminPlus Notify for the First Time.
- Click a recipient type, and then click Next.
Send Notifications to Students/Contacts
If you clicked Students/contacts, do the following:
- Click one of the grade or roster options, or click Groups, and then click Next.
- Select all applicable students, based on the option you clicked in the previous step, and then click Next.
- In the Who Should Receive This Notification dialog box, select whether to send the notification to students and/or the students' contacts, which contacts to send the notification to, and what criteria is to be used for the types of contacts selected. Then click Done.
- If you have the Contact Database, you could select contacts based on Contact Database local fields. For example, consider that many times, each student has a few contacts, such as father, mother, uncle, aunt, or grandmother. Imagine that a school wants to send a notification not only to the primary contact but also to other contacts who wish to receive notifications. At the same time, the school wants to avoid sending notifications to contacts who don't want to receive them at all (such as a father or mother who is listed as a contact but isn't actively involved in the child's life).
To accomplish these goals, the school might create a local field called "Gets Notification" in Contact Database and apply the field to any contact who wishes to receive notifications. Then, the school staff sending the notification would click Selected Contacts by Local Field in the Who Should Receive This Notification dialog box when adding recipients to the notification and select the local field "Gets Notification." This is one of many scenarios for which you could create a local field in Contact Database to meet your school's needs. For Contact Database to maximize the functionality of AdminPlus Notify, data format must be consistent between Contact Database and AdminPlus Notify. Contact Technical Support by emailing apsupport@rediker.com for help setting up Contact Database fields.
Send Notifications to Staff
If you clicked Staff, do one of the following:
- Click All Staff, and then click Next.
- Click Individual Staff, click Next, select all applicable staff members, and then click Select.
- Click Groups, click all applicable staff groups, and then click Select.
Send Notifications to Other (Manual Entry)
If you clicked Other (manual entry), manually enter the recipient's details, and then click Add.
The indicator {Manually Added} appears in the Student Name column of the Recipients area for any recipients you've added manually.
You can sort the recipient list by any of the displayed column values (for example, name or e-mail) by clicking the column header. Clicking the column header alternates between sorting the recipient list in ascending and descending order. You can also search for a specific recipient by column value in the Recipient Search Box based on the column you've used to sort recipients.
Any contact fields you chose to exclude from a notification when you configured Administrator's Plus appear in strikethrough in the Recipients area.
If you want to select different contact fields to send the notification to, see Configure AdminPlus Notify for the First Time.
Send Notifications to Recipients from Another School
If you want to send your notification to recipients from an additional school in your district, select the additional school from the drop-down list in the upper-left corner of the Send Notifications screen, and then add that school's recipients to the notification. Complete this process for each school you want to add recipients from.
The Retain Recipient List message appears each time you select a different school from the drop-down list. If you want to send the same notification to recipients from both schools, click Yes to keep the previous school's recipients in the Recipients area. If you've already sent your notification to the previous school's recipients and want to send a new notification to only the additional school's recipients, click No to clear the previous school's recipients from the Recipients area.
You can save the recipients you've just added to your notification as a list for later use when sending a voice message notification remotely from a phone. For more information on saving recipients as a list, see Create a Recipient List. You can also send a voice message notification to an existing recipient list in AdminPlus Notify. Simply select the Ignore Recipient Selections check box and either browse for a recipient list, or enter a List ID in the text box. Selecting this option overrides the recipients you've added to your notification and sends the voice message to the recipient list instead.
Send the Notification
- At the bottom of the Send Notifications screen, click Next [F10].
- If you want to edit the Job Title, enter a new title in the text box. Carefully review the notification's details, and then click Yes.
- In the When to Send dialog box, do one of the following:
- Click Send Immediately to send the message right away.
- Click Send Later and then specify the delivery date and time.
- Select the Remove Duplicates BEFORE Submitting Job check box to remove duplicate recipients and invalid phone numbers.
Recipient entries are considered duplicates if they have the same phone number. Let's say you're sending a notification to the primary contact for two students who are siblings. Because both students have the same primary contact, the phone number listed for both students is the same. These entries are considered duplicates, and one is removed, so the parent only receives the notification once instead of twice.
Phone numbers are considered valid if they have exactly 10 digits, not including special characters. When this option is selected, phone numbers that aren't exactly 10 digits in Administrator's Plus Data Base will be removed as invalid, and the recipient won't receive your notification. International schools can disable the 10 digit restriction. For more information on modifying specifications, see Configure AdminPlus Notify for the First Time.
- For voice message only, use the Number of Redials drop-down list to choose a number of redial attempts if the notification call fails.
- Click Done to send the notification.
A message appears to confirm that your notification has been sent, which lists a job ID for each notification type sent.