View and Create Announcements in Trail Life Connect

This guide offers essential insights into effectively managing announcements within Trail Life Connect, deatiling how to view, filter, and create announcements with ease.

Dave Abernathy
16 steps
3 minutes

Viewing Announcements

Navigate to [https://www.TrailLifeConnect.com](https://www.tlusabeta.com/dashboard).\ \ New announcements will appear in 3 places: - The **Announcements** **Tile Icon** will display a red number with the number of new announcements. - The **Announcements Link** on the left navigation menu will also display the same red number of new announcements - A **Banner** will appear along the top of the tiles with a notification, with a number and type. *(This is especially helpful for mobile users who will see the alert here first).* Clicking any of these links will take you to the Announcements page and remove the red numbers and the banner.

Announcements are displayed in a timeline format, with the most recent announcements appearing at the top of the list and older announcements found by scrolling down the page. Those announcements that are new on your current visit will be flagged with a "New" tag. *(This tag is cleared as soon as you navigate away\ from the Announcements page.)*

Along the top of the Announcements page are key icons that indicate the announcement type (Home Office, Troop, Area, and Region.) Each of these icons appear to the left of each announcement in the list to indicate\ the source of the announcement being displayed. The key at the top will also show the total number of each type of announcement appearing in your current list.

Filtering and Hiding

To filter your list, use the four icons at the top (Home Office, Troop, Area, Region).\ \ Click any icon to hide announcements of that type; if that type is hidden, the icon will appear transparent. For example, to view only Area announcements, click the other three icons to hide them—leaving only Area announcements visible.

Announcements will stay in the list for as long as the creator sets. If you don’t want to see a specific announcement, click the '**X**' in its upper right corner. This will mark it as read and hide it from your view.

If you want to see hidden announcements again, click the **Show Hidden** icon at the top of the list. This will temporarily display any announcements you’ve hidden.

Click the icon again to re-hide them. \ \ *Note: If you leave the Announcements page, hidden items will stay hidden when you return.*

Creating Announcements

Click **Update Announcements** (found under ***Communication*** on the navigation menu.

You'll be taken to the Announcements menu for your Troop (or Area, or Region), where you see all announcements that have been created, what their status is, and the ability to manage or create announcements.\ \ You can click the **Pencil** icon to update or change an announcement.

Click **+Add New Announcement** to create a new announcement

On the **Add New Announcement** page, you can update your announcement based on the following fields under the Announcement Details: - **Active** toggle determines if the Announcement will be shown - **Title** is the title of the announcement, and how it will appear on the Announcement list page - **Start Publishing** is the date you want the Announcement to start appearing - **End Publishing** is the date you want the Announcement to stop appearing *(leaving this blank means the announcement will never disappear).*

Under **Who can view the announcement?** you can select options for where the announcement will appear.\ \ At the Troop level, your options are for Roles and Levels/Patrols

At the Area Level, you will see **Troops** and **Roles**; there is no option to send directly to levels or patrols.

Note that Regional Team Members will have the option to limit which Areas can view this announcement. Remember that these are limiting selections and will only show for the limited Areas, Troops, and Roles that you select here.

Under Announcement content, create your announcement and click **+Create**.

You will now see your newly created Announcement in the list, as well as notification that it has been created.

Based on the parameters set, your Announcement should now appear in the appropriate category.