Announcements & Files (for Admins) Index  

When students and parents login, they see announcements and a calendar for the whole school and from each teacher. Also you can post files for them to download. (Teachers have a similar feature for just their own classes.)

Calendar Notices

On the screen, admins can post notices on the calendar. All students and parents at the school see this. Click any date on the calendar to add a new notice. The title appears on the calendar, then they can click to read the rest.

General Announcement

Also on the screen, admins can post a General Announcement for all students. Parents and students always see this at the top of the "Overview" screen after they login, so this is the place for quick reminders and urgent news. Do not use this for articles or newsletters. (This is shown even if grades are taken offline, so you can explain when grades will be back online.)

To format the text, type double **asterisks** for bold, and //slashes// for italic. Or use HTML tags for <b>bold</b> and <i>italic</i>. Other HTML is not allowed, but email and web addresses are hyperlinked automatically. The same applies to Calendar Notices.

Files

Go to the screen to post files online, such as permission slips or forms for all parents and students. (Teachers have a similar feature for just their own classes.) Parents and students can download these from the "Files" tab. Or for urgent files you may include a direct link in the General Announcement on the Overview screen. See the menu on the screen to insert links.

You may also email files to parents and students — not as attachments, but as links. First upload the file, then use the menu on the screen to insert a link. Do not delete or rename the file until parents and students no longer need to download it.

If you have a district account, each school has its own file list, but they can include the same files for the whole district. Use the "Copy" button to share the same file with multiple schools.

Notes:

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Your school/district is limited to 200 MB of storage, and each file is limited to 10 MB. This is plenty for text documents, but not intended for videos. (This storage is in addition to the files posted by each teacher.)

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For security, you may not upload HTML files or other file types that may be exploited for phishing scams. Aside from that you may upload other file types, including .doc and .pdf.

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Do not upload sensitive documents. These are public files, and are not password protected.

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If you have a district account, and you upload a file with the same filename uploaded by another school in your district, it will replace the other file. Change the menu to "Show all files for district" to see what filenames are in use.


Troubleshooting

If students cannot download your files, make sure their browsers are not blocking downloads. For Internet Explorer, in the "Tools" menu select "Internet Options...". Click the "Security" tab and click the "Custom Level" button. Scroll to find "Downloads" > "Automatic prompting for file downloads" and select "Enable".

If files download as weird text, you're using an incompatible file format. Microsoft Office 2007+ uses .docx, .xlsx, and .pptx file formats, which cannot be read by anyone using Office 2003 or earlier unless they install the Compatibility Pack from Microsoft. But since may students and parents might not have that compatibility pack at home, it would be better if you resave your documents in the 97-2003 format (.doc, .xls, .ppt).


See also: Announcements from Teachers, Student/Parent Login