Admin FAQ - CLASSREPORT.ORG

How do I put a PayPal link in my reunion announcement?
PayPal allows you to create a button on your website using HTML which will send people directly to your class PayPal account with the click of a button. To set this up you will need to go to www.paypal.com and setup a PayPal account for your class. Then from the main screen at PayPal select "Merchant Tools", then click on "Website Payments." This will walk you through the process of creating the HTML code which you will need to paste into your Class News item or your Reunion Announcement.

It is important to note that the code you receive from PayPal needs to be converted to a single paragraph instead of several lines with line breaks. Try pasting the code into Windows Notepad or some other text editor and remove the line breaks following each line. Then paste the code into your reunion event. Do not delete any of the actual characters you receive from PayPal, just the line breaks. If you do not remove the line breaks there will be a 2 inch space above your PayPal button.

You can get more information on this by clicking here.

How do I include a hyperlink in my Homepage Photo Caption?
Substitute your information for the sample caption below:

30th Reunion! For a larger photo, go to our <a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com">other web site</a>.

How do I backup the yearbook and current photos on our class site?
From "The Office," select "Memory Book Layout 4." Once it has printed to screen, click on "File" on the menu bar of your browser. Then select "Save As..." You will get a "Save Web Page" window. At the the bottom of the window where it says "Save as type:" choose "Web Page, comlete (*.htm;*.html)." Then click "Save."

How is the "Located," "Missing," and "Deceased" status for a class member changed?
A class member�s status is changed automatically as follows: Located � There is at least ONE of the following items in the profile: Email Address, Street Address, Phone Number. Located means the class member can be contacted by some means to be notified of class events. Missing � There is no Email Address, Street Address OR Phone Number for a class member. Deceased � The Class Administrator has edited the class member�s profile and checked the �Deceased� box.

Why do my photos have a strange pattern in them?
The photos are probably suffering from a moir� pattern which occurs when scanning a printed page. There are photo editing programs which can help with this.

Please review this: Photo Pattern

What software can I use to crop, resize and edit my photos before uploading?
Try the following:

www.irfanview.com

picasa.google.com

www.adobe.com/products/photoshopalbum/starter.html

How do I get into "The Office."
When you Log In to your class site with your email address and password there is a quick link for Class Administrators on the welcome screen which will take you to "The Office." If you have already Logged In and are on the main class page, look for "The Office" link under the "View Other Classes" block at the bottom of the right hand column.

How do I upload Then and Now photos to a profile?
This Admin function is done in "The Office." In the left hand column click the link which says "Edit/Delete Names and Profiles" under "Class Directory". Select the name of the student whose photo you want to upload. Click the link which says "Upload Yearbook Photo".

How do I add an Assistant Administrator?
Assistant Administrators have access to all of the administrative tools that the Class Administrator has. To Appoint an Assistant Administrator:
1. Go to "The Office."
2. Click on "Edit/Delete Names and Profiles"
3. Find the name of the person you would like to make Assistant Administrator.
4. Click the "Edit" link next to their name.
5. Near the bottom of their profile is a checkbox labeled: "Admin Asst on this Website" Check the box.
6. Click the button "Save Data"

How do I mark a class member as deceased?
1. Go to "The Office."
2. Click on "Edit Class Directory"
3. Find the name of the deceased classmate in the directory.
4. Click on "Edit"
5. Scroll through the profile to the "Deceased" check box near the bottom.
6. Click on it.
If you have the date of death or information regarding the death you may enter it in the provided blanks. That information will not be displayed on the website.
Sometimes it is nice to post the obituary in the persons biography as well.

How do we setup online payments for our reunion?
There are two ways that Class Administrators have been doing this.

1. This is the easiest way: Setup an account for your class at PayPal (www.paypal.com). You will have an email address associated with the account. All you have to do is direct people to PayPal and have them send their funds to the email address you give them which is assoicated with your class account. This will allow them to use a credit card to pay.
You can use this same email address for all functions you want to receive money for.

2. This is a bit trickier but it works very well. To set this up you will need to go to www.paypal.com and setup a PayPal account for your class. Then from the main screen at PayPal select "Merchant Tools", then click on "Website Payments." This will walk you through the process of creating the HTML code which you will need to paste into your Class News item or your Reunion Announcement.

It is important to note that the code you receive from PayPal needs to be converted to a single paragraph instead of several lines with line breaks. Try pasting the code into Windows Notepad or some other text editor and remove the line breaks following each line. Then paste the code into your reunion event. Do not delete any of the actual characters you receive from PayPal, just the line breaks. If you do not remove the line breaks there will be a 2 inch space above your PayPal button.

I just made an update to my Class Page but it's not showing up online. What's wrong?
Please review this: Refresh Your Cache

There is a 2 inch white space above the PayPal button in our Reunion Event. How do I remove it?
The code you receive from PayPal needs to be converted to a single paragraph instead of several lines with line breaks. Try pasting the code into Windows Notepad or some other text editor and remove the line breaks following each line. Then paste the code into your reunion event. Do not delete any of the actual characters you receive from PayPal, just the line breaks.

I have sent the request to be Class Administrator but I haven't heard anything back.
This is probably because you or your ISP have determined our response to be junk mail. Make sure you are not blocking email from [email protected]. Look in your deleted items folder or your junk mail folder for our message.

What can I do to get my class members registered on this site?
This does take patience and effort but it is a worthwhile and satisfying pursuit. First distribute the press release generated in The Office specifically for your class. Second, talk to your class officers or reunion committee regarding the site. Get the existing class list from them and enter as much information as you have. Third, search the national alumni directories. You can search google for the words alumni, class reunions, etc. Fourth, enlist the help of others in your class. You may even want to appoint a Class Detective to help you with your search. You are building a valuable database. Be sure to run the backup utility in The Office on a regular basis. The backup file is directly readable in Microsoft Excel.

How do I get access to the Enhanced Admin Tools in The Office?
The Enhanced Admin Tools are a bonus set of tools which were created to reward classes which support their class site financially.

As always there is no cost to you or your class for using the site. There are no setup fees, no hosting fees, no registration fees, no user fees, no ads, no spam and no pop-ups. Every class member has free access to the class page. They are able to maintain their profile, post messages, email other classes members, etc. As Class Administrator you have free access to all of the Standard Admin Tools in The Office.

Since we can't operate these class sites indefinitely without voluntary contributions from each class, we use the Enhanced Admin Tools as an incentive and a "Thank You" to classes who help out.

We define a supporting class as one which contributes $15 per month. If there are 120 people in your class, each person would only need to chip in once every 10 years.

If our class skips a month on contributions can we still use the Enhanced Admin Tools?
If your class does not make voluntary contributions for a month or more, the enhanced Admin Tools will not be available during that time.

Why am I only getting the first 35 names to print in my reports?
The reports on the right side of The Office are bonus features for classes which are self-funded through voluntary contributions.

Classes which are subsidized by Classreport.org have their reports limited to the first 35 names.

Remember, if there are 120 people in your class who can support the site, each person would only have to chip in once every 10 years for your class to be fully self-funded.

We have 3 discount levels available to contributors.

12 month support can be acquired for the price of 11 when clicking on the payment options link.

We also offer Business Sponsorships and Memorial Sponsorships. These options provide 5 years of funding for the cost of just 4 years. Or, 10 years of funding for the cost of 7!

Our goal is for each class to be self-funded to insure the long-term financial stability of this project.

How do I get our Class Site registered on the search engines?
The following links should help with this:

www.search.com

www.bygpub.com

www.wordsinarow.com

What is a Site Coordinator?
The Site Coordinator is another volunteer position similar to Class Administrator. The Site Coordinator is like an all-school Class Administrator. Right now there are no special tools available to the Site Coordinator. Their tasks are to recruit and mentor Class Administrators for classes which do not have a volunteer yet. On approval, the Site Coordinator can receive access to classes without a Class Administrator to help get things going. If you would like to volunteer to serve your school as Site Coordinator, you must already be successfully serving as Class Administrator for your class. Then you can send a request to [email protected] requesting to serving as Site Coordinator for your school.

As Site Coordinator, how do I gain access to other classes?
First, you must sign-in to the class as "Guest." If there is a Class Administrator, ask the Class Administrator to give you Assistant Administrator access. If there is no Class Administrator, you can send a request to [email protected] requesting Administrative access to the class or classes you are wanting to work with.

What if someone has lost their password?
Make sure they have a current email address in their profile. If their email address is not current, you should edit their profile and update it. Then instruct them to click the �Lost Password?� link on the main class page. They should get their password emailed to them immediately.

Our class is fully funded through our 50th reunion year. Is there a way to remove the links to chip in?
Thank you for making our policy of - No Ads, No Spam, No Pop-ups, No Fees - a success for your class and thousands of others! Due to the template we used when programming the class pages, the invitations to chip in will continue to be displayed until January 1 of your 51st year following graduation. We suggest posting a Class News item based on the suggested text below. Feel free to edit it to meet your needs. Congratulations on a successful Class Reunion website!

THE FOLLOWING TEXT IS A SAMPLE TO FOLLOW FOR YOUR OWN CLASS NEWS ITEM:

We Did It!

Thanks to your generous contributions our class is fully funded for life! We have successfully funded our class through our 50th year following graduation. From now on, Classreport.org picks up the tab. You will continue to see the invitations to chip in until we actually reach our 51st anniversary. Additional contributions will go to help Classreport.org accomplish their mission of providing Class Reunion Websites for every class of every high school. Did you know that part of this mission includes providing fully funded access to newly graduating classes at our school for 5 years following graduation? Additionally, Classreport.org uses these funds to provide free access for all classes at our school regardless of their ability to provide funding for their class.

Thank you again for a job well done.

Your Class Administrator

How do I get a Memory Book Layout to fit on a standard Microsoft Word page layout?
After you paste everything into your Word document, right click in the middle of one of the pages with your mouse and you will get a menu. In the menu, scroll over the "Autofit" option and then select the one that says "Autofit to Contents". This will shrink everything down to fit onto the page in Portrait mode.

When printing PDF Name Badges, some of the class member photos aren't showing up.
For any class member photo which does not show up on the PDF printouts. Please open the image file in a photo editing package like Paint.net (the link is at the bottom of the left column in The Office) Re-size the image to 160 pixels HIGH. Choose to maintain the aspect ratio so the width will automatically re-size to the correct proportions.

You must also make sure the printing resolution of the image is set to 150 x 150. You should be able to set this resolution when scanning your photos or with your photo editing software once it has been scanned.

Now save the image and re-upload it to the class member profile.

How do I add Slideshows and Videos to my Class Page?
For Windows use their Free App
Windows Live Movie Maker

For Mac, iPad or iPhone use iMovie.

Once you create a slideshow/movie upload it to YouTube

YouTube will give you instructions how to Share your video. select the "Embed" option for sharing. When they give you a width option, choose "Custom" and type in 440 pixels wide.

Once you have your Embed Code, you can paste it into any of the areas on your Classreport page which accept code.
This includes the Homepage Slideshow/Video and FREE HTML Blocks.

There are many ways to create slideshows and videos to share on social networking, blogs and websites. Most of these options work just fine on the Classreport platform.

For slideshows there is:
Kizoa.com
Photobucket.com
Picturetrail.com
Flickr.com

For Video uploads there is
YouTube.com
Vimeo.com

How can I get a shorter URL for our class page?
You can get a free short URL from one of the many websites which offer this service:

tinyurl.com
bitly.com
goo.gl

If you are wanting a CUSTOM URL such as ths72.com, you need to go to a domain registrar like godaddy.com. You will need to purchase your custom URL from them. Once you have secured your own custom URL. You will need to use the tools provided by the domain registrar to forward the new custom URL to your original Classreport URL.

What if a Class Member has a new email address and forgot their password?
As Class Administrator, you can update their email address in their profile. Then, they can click the "Lost Password" link to retrieve their password.

How can I create a Link in a message or bio that goes to another website?
Just type the following into the place you want to create the link:

<a target="_blank" href="http://www.classreport.org">Name of Link</a>

You need to replace the "http://www.classreport.org" with the URL you want to link to. You also need to replace the "Name of Link" with the words you would like the link to say.

How can I format font color, size, and style in areas like the Reunion Event Announcement or the HTML Blocks?
If you don't know HTML here is a simple editor which will generate the HTML code for you. Just type your text, format it and then click the "Source" button. Copy the "Source" code and paste it into your Reunion Announcement or HTML Block on your Class Page. Online HTML Editor
If you already know HTML but would like to experiment, use this link: HTML Test Site

How do I make a backup of all the Yearbook and Current photos from my Class Page?
1. In The Office run the 'Class Directory - Photo Check' report.
2. Once that report has printed to the screen, Choose 'File' from the menu bar and then select 'Save as...' or 'Save Page As...'
3. Now make sure the 'Save As Type' is 'Web Page Complete' and click 'Save'.
That's it. You now have a folder containing all the Yearbook and Current photos from your Class Website.

You should also regularly backup your class database using the 'Export Class Database' tool in The Office.

How can we get our class on the Best Class Sites list?
Best Class Sites are selected by our staff based on the following criteria:
-Active Class Administrator
-Changing Homepage Photo
-Yearbook Photos
-Reunion Announcement
-Financial Support
-Active Message Board
-Mascot Image
-Hit Count
-Located Student Count

Is there a way for me to send a group email to everyone in my class at once?
There is a "Bulk Email" tool in The Office on the left hand side, near the bottom in a section titled "Bulk Email Your Class Members." The bulk email tool generates either a comma separated list (Gmail friendly) or a semi-colon separated list (Outlook friendly). You will then use your own mail program to create and send the emails to your classmates. You will need to follow the email rules for your email provider. For example, you may be limited to 25 or 50 emails at a time. Just copy and paste from the lsit you generated in the first step to add the emails to your send list. Please remember that it is a courtesy to put the email addresses in the BCC: (Blind Carbon Copy) section of your email so that you are not displaying everyone's email address to every one else.

How can I print Name Badges for Guests and Spouses for the reunion?
You can print Name Badges for anyone who is registered as a Guest on your Class Page. Simply go to the "Quick Pick PDF Name Badges" section in The Office. Select the people you would like to print Name Badges for. Now simply click the link for size and photo option. As a last minute option, you can use the "PDF Name Badges - Blank" option and write the names in by hand.

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