DynaCal User News & Tips

Server Maintenance - Friday November 26 at 10:00 p.m. EST

On Friday, November 26, 2010 at 10:00 p.m. EST DynaCal will be performing maintenance on its system.  DynaCal will be inaccessible for the duration of the procedure - estimated to last one hour.

My DynaCal Gets the Word Out!

You can boost your communication power in an instant simply by using DynaCal’s Communications Categories to post news, announcements, closings & delays and assignments on your calendar. That’s because My DynaCal users are sent instant Email or Text Alerts every time a Communication Category posting is made. All you need is one or more Communication Category (Announcements, Cancellations or Assignments) established for your calendar. (If you're not a calendar Administrator, have your Administrator set up these categories for you!)

Then, use the appropriate Communications Category each time you post newsletters, special announcements, school closings, weather delays, and teacher assignments. DynaCal will instantly notify My DynaCal users through Email and Text Alerts. Take advantage of this time-saving feature and grow your communication power today! 

My DynaCal Passes 3,000 Users!

It's no surprise that My DynaCal is one of our most popular features! Designed to work for you, My DynaCal allows users to create personalized calendar views of the events, activities, news and assignments they're most interested in; subscribe to RSS feeds of their personalized My DynaCal calendar; and subscribe from a personal calendar like Google or Outlook. Last spring, My DynaCal was enhanced to include optional Email and Text alerts when events are cancelled, postponed or rescheduled and when Communications (like News & Announcements and Assignments) are posted. We also added My DynaCal access to our Mobile site, enabling My DynaCal users to view their personalized calendars on the go! 3,000 people are already using My DynaCal to get the information they want, when they want it, how they want it. Why not join them, and put My DynaCal to work for you today?

...More That Meets the Eye

Recently we added a small but significant “4-letter word” to the public view of the calendar. Now, any event that has a Detailed Description is followed by the word “…More.”  Because it’s a link, public calendar users will be prompted to click for details!  This helps ensure that all those important details and information in the Detailed Description field will be noticed and read.

 

It’s good for calendar administrators and it’s good for public calendar users; what “…More” could you want?!

 

Where's My New Event?!?

The Case of the Vanishing Event….

….The new event you’ve just added to the calendar appears in Event Maintenance, but disappears when you open the Public Calendar! We’ve gotten several calls from you about this mysterious phenomenon. But rest assured, it’s not mysterious, nor phenomenal. Nearly always, this problem occurs because the Category of your new event is not selected for the Featured Calendar you are viewing. Check it out by going to the Featured Calendar Edit page (Admin tab > Featured Calendars > Edit). There you will see which categories have been selected, and can make the appropriate changes. If this doesn’t solve the problem, make sure that the Category for this event is Public, and not Private. Remember that Private Categories cannot be made visible on the Public Calendar. And as always, you can contact us by phone (1-866-984-3962) or email support@dynacal.com for further help.

I’m a visual learner, show me how

6/2/08 - More Control Over Your Public Resource View

Based on requests from our users, we've added a small feature that gives you control over what Resource schedules are visible to your public calendar visitors.

Calendar Administrators can now simply check a box on the Resource List, or on the Resource Add / Edit screen, to enable or disable a Resource from being visible to the public.  This lets you show your public calendar visitors only the Resource schedules you want them to see (like buildings or large facilities), and hide the "internal use only" resources like projectors, laptop carts, etc.

Click here for a few screen shots showing the new feature.

A New and Improved "My DynaCal" is coming!

We've been working hard at more communication features to help your organization get connected and stay connected with your parents, staff, community, or whoever it is you need to connect with!

Our newest release, a major upgrade to our existing "My DynaCal" function, is expected to be in place by Monday morning, April 28th. 

The new My DynaCal function adds 3 new features that you've been asking for! 

1. Users will new create an account by providing an email address and a password.  This will allow them to view their personalized calendars from any computer - instead of just the one they created their personalized calendars on.
2. Users will be able to request Email and Text Alerts for their personalized calendars!  Big time saver for you!  When you cancel, postpone or reschedule events in DynaCal, My DynaCal users will be automatically notified by email and / or text message!  Also, any postings you make to a Communication Category (like Cancellations, Assignments, or Announcements) will be automatically sent to My DynaCal users by email and / or text message.  (By the way...Communication Categories are one of the most under-utilized features of DynaCal!  If you're not using them now, your missing out on a great way to improve your communication! Call us today for more information - we'll even set them up for you!)
3. Finally, we've added My DynaCal access to our Mobile site.  So now My DynaCal users can visit your DynaCal calendar on their mobile phones and view their My DynaCal personalized calendars!  (Between this and the Email / Text Alerts, there's no more excuses for missing your events! :-)

Check it out for yourself, or if you would like to see a brief flash overview, Click here. 

Thanks for your feedback and support!  Happy Calendaring!

Communication Spotlight: Cancellations, Announcements, Assignments

Communicating effectively with your parents, students, staff, congregation or community is key to your organization's success.  DynaCal offers some great features that let you post different kinds of communications to your calendar along with your events.  These communications are automatically highlighted on your public calendar with their own menu - making it easy for your calendar visitors to find the information that is important to them!

Calendar Administrators can set up new Categories and flag them as Cancellations, Announcements, or Assignments (for schools).  These categories have permissions just like all other categories on the calendar, and can be included in Featured Calendars if you want them to be.  Any postings made to these Categories will automatically be included in the special "Communications" menu on the public calendar.

You can use these special Communications Categories to post teacher assignments (schools), let everyone know about cancellations or delays, post weekly or monthly newsletters, or simply keep everyone informed about what's going on! 

Helping you improve communication is part of our mission in life.  Check out this great DynaCal feature to make it happen in your organization

Click here to view a flash tutorial about Communication Categories

If you want help setting up Communication Categories for your organization, call us today!  866.984.3962

3/4/2008 - Event Search is Back!

We've brought back the Event Search function on your Public Calendar.  Many of you contacted us wanting it back, and  made suggestions for improvements, so here it is.

Check out these simple screen shots that describe the new search.

Search Box:

Search Results:

The First Release of 2008 is Up and Running!

New Public Calendar features have been put in place. We've added new navigation - by Departments and Schools - to make it easier for your Public Calendar visitors to find the events they are looking for.  We've added 2 new Category types; Cancellations and Assignments.  These new Category types, along with our existing Announcement Category type, are now highlighted on the Public Calendar with a new navigation section called "Communications".  And finally, we've totally revised our search function and made it available in the top / right corner of all calendar pages. 

For a brief slide show that summarizes and shows these new features, click here.

Thanks for all your feedback, we welcome your suggestions for improvement.  Stay tuned for our next round of additions coming soon!