The Action Alerts Service displays action alerts and enables users to either respond to them online or to print out their response for faxing or mailing, depending on how the particular action alert is configured.
The fields in the Web Editor for the Action Alerts Service include:
Headline (which functions just like the headline field for any of the other Services)
Date
Action alerts are listed on the web site in descending order by date with the most recently added alerts on top (also see the description for the Priority field below).
Expiration Date
Once the expiration date for an action alert has passed it will automatically be moved off of the main action alerts page and into the archived section.
Priority
Action alerts are ordered first by priority and then by date. This means that normally, assuming that the default priority of 10 is used for all the alerts, the alert with the most recent date will be listed at the top. However, if you have an action alert that you want to be listed at the top because it is more important, you can change the priority of the alert from 10, the default, to a lower number, like 1. This will ensure that until this alert's expiration date has passed it will remain at the top of the list.
Description
Any text entered in this field will show up on the main page listing the action alerts under the Headline.
Text
This is the main body of text for the action alert that will be displayed when a user clicks on an action alert. The text is followed by the form for the user to fill out to respond to the action alert, so it is often a food idea to end the copy entered in the Text field with something like "Take action now by following steps 1 and 2 below."
What is the name of the person this action alert is targeting?
This field should simply contain the name of the individual or organization that the users response should be addressed to. (Dear [INSERT NAME HERE]).
How should this person be contacted?
This is a very important field. This option tells the Action Alerts Service how you want it to send or prepare the alert for each person that responds online to the alert. The options are Email, Regular Mail, Fax, or Phone.
If you select Email, then the Action Alerts Service will enable your users to enter in their email address along with their letter and the Action Alerts Service will send the email for them.
If you select Regular Mail or Fax, then the Alerts Service will prepare a printable page for your users containing their response that they can then print out and mail or fax to recipient of the action alert.
If you select phone, the Alerts Service will not display any fields below the action alert Text, assuming that instructions for making the call are included in the Text field.
Enter the appropriate contact information
This field contains the contact information for the person or organization being targeted. If the method selected for sending the action alert is Email this field should contain nothing except one valid email address. It is VERY important that nothing else is included in this field, or the Alert Service will be unable to send the action alert. For Regular Mail this field should contain a valid mailing address, and for Fax a valid fax number. If the method selected is Phone, the contents of this field will not be used and can be left blank.
Template Subject
This is the default subject that will be given to the user if the contact method selected is Email.
Template Letter
This is the default letter that will show up if the contact method selected is Email, Regular Mail, or Fax.