Tendenci Blog

The Newsletter Generator gets a makeover!

Sending E-newsletters has always been a popular feature of Tendenci, but with all that functionality also comes a bit of confusion. There are a lot of options to choose from when you create a newsletter and it can be a bit daunting, even for an experienced Tendenci Pro. Our goal with the new look is to streamline your ability to generate a newsletter quickly and efficiently while maintaining all of the power you now enjoy.

The fields on the Newsletter Generator have now been grouped into 3 areas:

1. The "Send To" controls for who will receive your newsletter
2. The "Subject" area with options to personalize it for the recipient
3. and the "Module Content" area, for when you want your Newsletter to include content automatically from your Calendar, Articles, Jobs Board, or other Tendenci modules

We have also added a link for those times when you don't want to include content from other Modules. Before, un-selecting the default options was bit tedious, but now you can click the Do not include Module Content link to set all content to "Skip" and close the section. Don't worry; you can re-open it if you change your mind!

No fields have been Added or Removed so everything you're used to using should be roughly where it was before.

Let us know what you think of the new look!

Funding for Photo Albums Export

Hey all you totally awesome Tendenci users... If you use the photo albums module in Tendenci and are interesting in funding functionality for a bulk export of your albums, please contact Kim Lange at Schipul - The Web Marketing Company at 281.497.6567 ext. 514.

The basic export would include exporting your album to a zip file (no photo information will be included in the export). You would not have to download your images individually.  It cost about 2k to add this functionality to the photo albums module.

New Tendenci Dashboard to be released

We're excited to announce that a brand new and more user friendly Tendenci Console is about to be released next week on November 12, 2007.  This Tendenci update will change the look of your Tendenci Console or Homepage. This simplified interface will streamline access to your most used Tendenci modules (like User search and Calendar) and move the Admin Only Links to the upper right hand corner.

Admins also see live RSS feeds from Tendenci Blog and the new Help Files Module.

Admin View


As always, Admins will see many more links than a regular user or member.

User View


As an Admin, you still have to opportunity to choose what Tendenci home page appears on your site.
We want to be sure you understand what the options are for custom user home pages and how, as site Admin, you are able to change the user home page that appears on your site. We hope you enjoy the movement towards greater usability within the Tendenci software.

If you have any questions please contact our Support Team at support@schipul.com or call us at (281) 497-6567 ext. 411 or (877) 724-4785 ext. 411.

 

User identities to show Online Social Connections

Did you know that from your Tendenci user profile you can add user identities to identify areas of social networks you are connected to?  Encourage your Tendenci users/members to add their identities to display social networks.  This is a great way to see who is socially connected to sites like Flickr, Youtube, Facebook, Digg etc.

After have you added your user identities, there will be a visual display of icons on your user profile of identities you have added and are connected to.

I am pushing to integrate blog identities here also. Check back soon.

Editing your site's user homepage

In light of the upcoming en update that will simplify your Tendenci dashboard.  We want to be sure you understand what the options are for custom user home pages and how, as site Admin, you are able to change the user home page that appears on your site.

We hope you enjoy the movement towards greater usability within the Tendenci software.

Cool new content monitoring in Tendenci

Updates to the User View pages allow you to see the latest content each user has added to your Web site.

This enables amazing transparency within your organization and also gives you an easy way to follow all of the new content from your site contacts.

The Tendenci software is designed to help your organization connect and communicate.  Use this new content monitoring tool to keep in touch with the latest and greatest of your members' contributions.

Let us know how else we can help you reach out to and stay in touch with your members!  (281) 497.6567.

Simplify! Updated dashboard makes your life easier

Next week we'll be pushing out a Tendenci update that will change the look of your Tendenci dashboard.  This simplified interface is streamlining access to your Tendenci modules (like User search and Calendar) and giving you one central link for all new content addition.

Click on the module links like you usually would to access them or simply click on the shiny new 'Add Content' button to add new content to your site.

Here's the real beauty of the update:  You don't have to keep it!

If you prefer the look, feel and functionality of a different dashboard design, you can revert to the old dashboard version by following these Tendenci Help File directions.

Color your calendar!

The Tendenci calendar makes it easy for your attendees to pick and choose from your organization's events.   Yesterday we released new Color Fields to make it even easier to differentiate from one event type to another.

The Color Fields let you change the color of your event type in the monthly and daily view of your event calendar.  Visualization is good!  Learn how to edit your Calendar Event Types in this help file here. 

Connecting interactively to other Web site users

Connect with Web site members you find interesting by adding them as a contact.  Your contact list lets you keep track of new content that your contacts add to the Web site and gives you easy link access to their User Profiles.

When you are viewing a member's User profile page, you will notice a new Connection icon link next to their User name (see accompanying graphic).  Simply click on this icon and they are automatically added to your Connection list.

The newly added contact will receive an email notification so they can reciprocate the connection. To view your Connections list, click on the 'Connections' link at the top of your User Profile page.

Updated WYSIWYG Editor on Tendenci site

We have revised the WYSIWYG editor that appears on all the edit pages of your Tendenci site.  This is our way of increasing the usability of the software and it also decreases the load time for edit pages. 

There is an easy to use, formatting tool available that you can use to create tables and any additional formating.  You can download this free tool Nvu at http://www.nvu.com/download.php. Once you have added formating to your content using Nvu, you can simply copy the code onto the specific page on your site. 

We are taking any feedback you may have about the revised editor.  So if there is a specific icon you find yourself missing, please do email us at Schipul Support.

A new look for Tendenci tabs

You may have noticed that your Tendenci dashboard pages have a little different look these days.  We updated our navigation tabs to be a little sleeker and a little prettier.

Not a gigantic change - but a nice little tweak to keep things looking good for you. 

IE7 and Firefox 2 Tendenci compatability

Change is good!  Everyone here at the Schipul office LOVES the new IE7 and Firefox 2 browser updates.  They incorporate great security and usability features that make our Internet lives simpler and happier.

Tendenci is compatible with both updated browsers, so be sure to download the newest versions of your favorite browser today!

Download Firefox here:  http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

Download IE7 here:  http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx

Keeping it simple with 'News Rivers'

Your Tendenci site is now much more friendly to site visitors using cell phones and other mobile devices, thanks to our newly implemented 'news rivers'.

So what are news rivers?  They are simplified versions of your site pages that make it easy to scan and read all of the latest updates on your Web site using a portable device.

To access the news river page on your site visit http://www.yoursite.com/en/rivers (ie: www.onlyinhouston.org/en/rivers/).  It is a very simple concept, but makes all the difference for a mobile device user - check it out on your Blackberry today! 

Title tag in calendar monthly view

Small usability tweak in calendar events using the title element in the Anchor tag to make it easier to scan the monthly view. This example is from The Web Analytics Association Calendar.