Home Page Settings¶
Home Page Setup for VicNet
When volunteers and Coordinators visit VicNet, the first page they see is the Home page as long as you didn't send them the link to a specific page. The Home page serves as a general information page. You can use the Home page to communicate with volunteers and Coordinators; post volunteer news; promote your organization's activities; provide links to newsletters, policies, forms, handbooks, or other documents; and even advertise if you want to.
Because the Home page is accessible only to registered volunteers and Coordinators through VicNet, you can use it to publish information or links that you might not want to make generally available to anyone on the internet.
This help topic explains what features are available on the VicNet Home page and how to customize them. You can access the Home page setup options using these steps:
- Choose Setup from the menu.
- Expand VicNet.
- Select Home Page.
Page name¶
The Page name field can be used to update the name of the navigation button shown on the portal's menu. For example, if you want volunteers to see News and Information as the navigation button instead of Home, enter News and Information in this field. The names of the navigation buttons can also be changed on the Buttons page under Setup as shown in Customize Buttons for VicNet.
Click the Restore default link if you want to return the field to the default value of Home.
News¶
Use the News section to post general news or other information you'd like to share. All volunteers and Coordinators see the News section on the Home page.
Omit News¶
Check Omit News if you do not want the News section to appear on the Home page.
Heading¶
Enter the heading you want to appear above the News section. The default heading is News.
Text¶
Use this space to enter the information you'd like to include in the News section. You can customize this content with basic rich text formatting. This is useful for adding emphasis and clarity.
Column¶
Choose which column you want the News section to appear in on the Home page. Your Home page may have up to three columns: left, center, and right.
Assignments¶
Your VicNet Home page may optionally include a box that shows volunteers a list of their assignments. This section is purely informational. Volunteers cannot change their assignments here. It is simply a reminder of what the volunteer's assignments are in your organization.
Please note: This list is populated based on the assignments the volunteer has a Role in. This is different than assignments the volunteer is scheduled in. In many cases volunteers are scheduled in assignments they have a Role in, but not always. A volunteer may have a Role in an assignment but not be scheduled in that assignment, or vice versa.
If you utilize Coordinators in your account, these individuals will also see a list of the Sites, Places, and/or Assignments they are assigned to in this box. The information in this box will reflect the information on the Assignments tab of the Coordinator's record.
Omit Assignments¶
Check Omit Assignments if you do not want the Assignments section to appear on the Home page.
Heading¶
Enter the heading you want to appear above the Assignments section. The default heading is Your Assignments.
List assignments for these Roles¶
The Assignments section will list the assignments a volunteer has if their Role in an assignment is one of the Roles you check here. For example, if you want the Assignments section to list only the assignments for which a volunteer is assigned, check only the Assigned Role here. You set a volunteer's Role in an assignment on the Service tab in their volunteer record.
Because Coordinators are simply assigned to Sites, Places, and Assignments and do not have specific Roles, they will see their full list of Sites, Places, and Assignments regardless of which Role checkboxes are checked (and even if no Role checkboxes are checked) so long as the Assignments box is not omitted.
Show the volunteer's Roles after the Assignment name¶
When this checkbox is checked, volunteers will see the corresponding Role they have in each of the Assignments listed. If you do not want volunteers to see their Roles, you can leave this checkbox unchecked.
Display assignment names as links to assignment profiles¶
Check this checkbox if you want your volunteers to have the option to view the profile information for their Assignments. With this option enabled, each Assignment listed for your volunteers appears as a clickable button. Clicking the button opens the Assignment's profile in a new tab or window. Please note that the information included in an Assignment's profile is configured in your account's Opportunity Directory settings. So volunteers will only see information you've chosen to include in your Opportunity Directory.
Show assignment names...¶
With these options, you can choose the name format of Assignments listed in the Assignments box. By selecting the Without Site and Place names option, volunteers will only see the name of their Assignments and will not see the associated Site or Place for their Assignments. If you choose the With Site and Place names option, each Assignment listed will also show its associated Site and Place. Assignments will be listed with the Assignment [Site\Place] format.
The formatting option you select here will also be used for the Sites, Places, and Assignments listed for Coordinators. If you chose to show Assignment names With Site and Place names, each Assignment will also show its associated Place and Site, each Place will also show its associated Site, and Sites will not have any additional information. If you've chosen to show Assignment names Without Site and Place names, this box will only list the names of each of the Coordinator's Sites, Places, and Assignments. Assignments will not list associated Sites and Places, and Places will not list associated Sites.
Column¶
Choose which column you want the Assignments section to appear in on the Home page. Your Home page may have up to three columns: left, center, and right.
Message Boxes 1 - 4¶
Your VicNet Home page may include up to four Message boxes. These are flexible graphic and text boxes you can use for a variety of purposes, such as promoting your organization's activities, posting advertisements, creating links to other web sites, and more. Each message box may include an optional heading, text message, graphic image, and link.
Omit Message box¶
Check Omit Message box if you do not want this Message box to appear on the Home page.
Heading¶
If you want this Message box to include a text heading, enter it here. Leave this field blank if you do not want a heading.
Top text¶
The text that appears in your message box will be split into two parts: the Top text and the Bottom text. The Top text will appear just below the heading in your Message box, and if you choose to include an image, this portion of the message will appear above that image. Use the Top text field to enter the message you'd like to appear here, and use the rich text editor options to add formatting to your message if you'd like.
Optional image¶
If you want this Message box to include an image, click the Change image button to load the image file you'd like to use. Message box images must be in a GIF, JPG, or PNG file format, and must be no larger than 1 MB in size.
If you do not want this Message box to include a graphic image, check the Omit the image checkbox.
Bottom text¶
If this Message box includes an image and you want a message to appear below it, enter that message here. Like the Top text field, this field will also provide rich text formatting options you can use to add emphasis and clarity to your message, or provide a hyperlink to an outside website.
"Click Here" Link¶
You can add a Click Here button that users can click to go to another webpage. To include a Click Here button, enter a URL address in the "Click Here" Link field. Leave the "Click Here" Link field blank if you do not want a button to appear. When you include a Click Here button, it will always appear at the bottom of the message box and when a user clicks it they will be directed to the webpage for the URL address you enter.
Column¶
Choose which column you want each Message box to appear in on the Home page. Your Home page may have up to three columns: left, center, and right.
Document Link Boxes 1 - 4¶
Your VicNet Home page may include up to four Document link boxes. Each document link box may contain one or more HTML links to PDF or Microsoft Word (DOC or DOCX) documents you've uploaded to the Documents tab in your Volgistics Mailbox. Use link boxes to post links to current or past issues of volunteer newsletters; forms; policies and procedures; volunteer directories; training materials; handbooks; or any other related documents you want to make available to volunteers and Coordinators from the Home page.
You must upload the document to the Mailbox before you can create a link to it on the Home page.
Omit this box¶
Check Omit this box if you do not want this Document link box to appear on the Home page.
Heading¶
If you want this Document link box to include a text heading, enter it here. Leave this field blank if you do not want a heading.
Text¶
Use this field to enter any instructions or other information you'd like to include in this Document link box. This may be helpful for explaining the types of documents you've linked to the box and for providing any special steps volunteers will need to follow when accessing the linked documents. The text field will include options for adding rich text formatting to your Document link box.
Column¶
Choose which column you want this Document link box to appear in on the Home page. Your Home page may have up to three columns: left, center, and right.
Document links:¶
If you previously added links for this Document link box, they are listed here. If you haven't added links yet, see the Add a new link section below for directions.
For each existing link you'll see the link text and the name of the file that the link is to. Click the Remove button next to an existing link if you want to remove that link from this Document link box. If this Document link box has more than one link, use the Move up and Move down buttons to change the order that the links appear in the box.
Add a new link:¶
To link a new document to this Document link box:
- Enter the text for the link in the Link text field. For example, if you want the link to read Fall 2021, enter "Fall 2021" here.
- Use the Link file dropdown to select the document you want to link. You must have previously uploaded a document in order to choose it from this dropdown.
- Click the Save button.
Allow Volunteers and Coordinators to Upload Documents
If your account's service level includes the VicDocs module, you can give volunteers and Coordinators the ability to upload documents to their own records. This option is added to the Home page using Document Link Box 4 where you can check Allow volunteers to upload documents.
You can learn more about enabling and using this feature in Upload Documents in VicNet.