Audio Tutorials

Tutorial 1 Welcome to the March for Independence

Tutorial 2 Logging In 

Tutorial 3 My Participant Center

Tutorial 4 Personal Page

Tutorial 5 Your Address Book and Using E-mail

Tutorial 6 Follow up and My Progress

Print Tutorials

Registration Directions

Tutorial 1 Welcome to the March for Independence

All pages that you visit are laid out with a row of graphics across the top of the page which includes the NFB logo—which serves as a link to NFB Web site; one of eight alternating photos; and the March for Independence logo.

Moving to the left hand side of the page, you will find username and password edit boxes and a list of navigation links.  The navigation links are as follows: Participate in the March—used to register an individual marcher or virtual marcher; Create a Team—allows you to create a new team; Join a Team—allows you to search for a pre-existing team and join that team; Sponsor a Marcher—allows you to search for an individual marcher or a team’s Web page in order to make a donation; Sponsor a Team—opens to a page with a table listing all registered teams and their team captains with respective links to their Web pages; Donate Now—takes you to a general donations page for the March for Independence (Note: This is not a venue for donations specific to a marcher or a team.); Learn More About the March—has more information about the march; Get Fundraising Tips—links directly to our March for Independence Tool Kit, which includes many exciting tools, ideas, and tips to help you achieve your fundraising goals; Find My Participant Center—takes you to your main navigation area, which is the launch pad for all of your personal and team fundraising activities; Additional Sponsorship—lists information and material for corporate sponsorship; Tell-a-Friend—opens to a ready-to-send e-mail that directs the recipient to the March for Independence homepage. (Note: This is not your personal e-mail link to raise funds towards your March goal).

After reading through the left navigation links, your screen reader will take you to the top of the page, where you will find four additional links.  They are Home—takes you back to the March for Independence Home Page; More About the NFB—links to the NFB Web site; Contact Us—an e-mail link for questions, concerns, or problems; and Help—contains audio and text files describing the Web site and how to use it.

This is the set up for each page that you will visit.  When using a screen reader, to skip to the text of each page and avoid listening to the left Navigation on each page, type H and you will go to the first header at the top of the page.  This is a work around to “skip to main content.”

Tutorial 2 Logging In

To access the tools on the March for Independence (MFI) Web site, you will have to log in.  The user name and password edit boxes are in the left hand navigation bar.  Use your regular screen reader edit commands to enter your user name and password.  After you enter your password tab and then click the log in button.  The screen will refresh and you will be welcomed to the homepage.  If you are prompted to enter your user name again, there is a problem with something you entered.  To remedy this situation, find the Find My Participant Center link in the left hand navigation bar.  Following this link will put you into a User Log In page.  Here you will be able to solve your log in problem. 

If you are a new user, you will have to register for the March first.  Do this by following the Participate in the March left navigation link and following the directions for registration.  When you register you will create your own user name and password.  You will receive an e-mail confirmation of your information.  If you were registered before the March for Independence Web site went live, you were given a user name and password that was e-mailed to.  If you do not have this information, please contact MFI support. 

If you have forgotten your password you can have it e-mailed to you from the User Log In page.  When you initially registered, you may have specified a password reminder.  You can click the button labeled Give Me a Hint to jog your memory.

If you still can't remember your password, we can e-mail it to you.  Just provide us with your user name and the e-mail address that you used to register.  Enter this information in the edit boxes in the third table of the User Log In page.  

If you don't remember the user name that you registered with, then we can also e-mail that information to you.  In the fourth table of the User Log In page, enter the e-mail address that you registered with and click the Send User Name button. 

If you do not have e-mail you can contact us at 410.659.9314, extension 2408, and we can provide you with your information. 

You are now ready to visit your Participant Center.  To learn how to navigate through your Participant Center, continue with Tutorial #3 My Participant Center.   

Tutorial 3 My Participant Center

After logging in and following the Find My Participant Center left navigation link, you will be in your Participant Center.  Your Participant Center is the main navigation hub for using the March for Independence (MFI) Web site e-mail tools to gather sponsorships for the march. 

At the top of the page there are six links Participant Center, Personal Page, Address Book, E-mail, Follow-ups, and My Progress.  An additional link for Team Progress is also at the top of the page if you have, or are part of, a team.

The Participant Center link takes you back to your Participant Center.  Personal Page is where you personalize and update your personal Web page.  Address Book is where you will import or manually add and edit your personal e-mail addresses.  E-mail is where you will choose and personalize e-mails and send them to your e-mail contacts.  Follow-ups is where you will follow up with the e-mails that you sent.  My Progress is where you will follow and track sponsorships that have come in your name.  And Team Progress is where team captains and their teams will monitor and track team progress. 

Below the six links is a table with a link to help you get started. If you follow the Help Me Get Started link, you will be redirected to the Convio Online Help page.  On the help page you will find links that correspond to the navigation links on the Participant Center page.  This table and link are at the top of each page of the six links.  This table also has a message that will tell you if you have any unthanked gifts.  There is a Send Them a Thank You E-mail link, which will open a new page that shows you all of your sponsors and their donation amounts.  You can view, print, or download your donor list.  Options for sending thank you e-mails from this page are also available here.

Beneath the first table are specific instructions for how to proceed following registration, a link to download or print a walker donation form, a link to go directly to fundraising tips in the MFI toolkit, and contact information for questions and concerns.  After the directions (to the right of the page) are links to update your personal URL, your personal or team information, and your fundraising goal. 

Continue with Tutorial #4 Personalizing My Web Page for general instructions on how to add your story and photos to your MFI Web page.

Tutorial 4 Personal Page

Remembering that all of the pages in the Participant Center have the same layout, you will find the same six links across the top of the page.  They are Participant Center, Personal Page, Address Book, E-mail, Follow-ups, and My Progress (if you are part of a team, you will have a seventh link called My Team).  Below the links will be a table entitled “What Should I Do Next”.  These links and this table will appear on each page in the Participant Center.

The first new table on your Personal Page window contains the combo boxes to change the layout and color scheme of your page. 

Your first option is to change the physical layout (referred to as Design the Look of This Page).  You are presented with a combo box consisting of four options: Single Photo/Status Block Inset—contains a single photo, and the photo and your status indicator in a box with a frame around your photo (your status indicator is made up of your March thermometer and honor roll); Single Photo/Status Left Edge—also a single photo layout, but your status indicator appears on the left side of the page and your photo on the right with a frame around it; Two Photos Left—your two photos and your status indicator are left justified; and Two Photos Right—your two photos and status indicator are right justified.

The next combo box allows you to change the color scheme of your page.  For the color scheme on your page, you are given nine options.  They are as follows:

1. Default The default colors are pale blue and gray borders with black headlines and black text.
2. Cold Colors are aqua, light blue, and gray borders with dark blue headlines and blue text.
3. Forest Colors are shades of green and brown borders with headlines in forest green and text in brown.
4. Hot Colors are oranges and yellows for borders with headlines in orange and text in black.
5. Orchid Colors in this scheme are purples and yellows for borders with dark purple for headlines and purple for text.
6. Pastel This scheme features blue, pink, yellow, and purple for borders; headlines are in purple with black text.
7. Patriotic Colors here are red, white, and blue for borders; headlines are in red with blue text.
8. Rust This scheme includes borders of burgundy, orange, gray, and green with headlines in dark burgundy and text in black.
9. Water Colors for this scheme are blue, aqua, and gray for borders with headlines in dark aqua and text in blue.

Your next option (under Edit the Content of This Page) will be to Open This Page for Editing; this will refresh the screen.  Again, the links and table at the top will still be the same as the other pages we have visited in the Participant Center.  Also, the previous table will be open as well.  This is the table where we selected the layout design and the color scheme; it will also be the table you will need to navigate back to, to save your work. 

Your first edit box allows you to change your page title.  Currently it reads “Welcome to my Personal Page.”  You can edit this field to anything you want.  The next edit box is your “Ask.”  It is really made up of two edit boxes, a headline and your text.  You are then given the opportunity to upload a picture.  With regard to photos, the size of your file cannot be any larger then 200 Kb.  In order to meet this requirement, you can reduce the resolution of the image to make it smaller or change the size to about 300 x 400 pixels and resave the image before uploading it.  To select your photo from your computer, you can type the file location or use the browse button.  Once you have uploaded the photo, your next option will be to enter a caption for it.  This will become the alt tag as well as the caption on the screen. 

Your next link will be another story area.  There are three story areas on the default page; we have used two of them.  It is important to note that each story box is limited to 5000 characters.  Again, it is recommended that you write your story in MS Word to utilize the spell check feature.  You will then cut and paste the Word document into Notepad.  This will remove any formatting that is not HTML compatible.  You will then cut and paste from Notepad into your Personal Page story box. 

Also, keep in mind that the time-out for an inactive page on the Web site is fifteen minutes.  So, save your work often.  To save your work, you will need to return to table 1.1 and select the Save My Changes button. 

Back on your Personal Page, you will next be directed to your Status Indicator.  There is nothing to edit here—it is your thermometer and your honor roll.  The next edit box is the headline for your final story, followed by the third story box.

Make your stories personal. As you tell your story, think about who will be reading this; not everyone will know you.  Talk about your involvement in the NFB and how it has impacted your life. 

Once you are happy with the stories, you are ready to save and publish.  To accomplish this, you will need to return to table 1.1 and once again select Save My Changes.

You have now created your Personal Page.  So, you are ready to move on to marketing yourself to your family, friends, neighbors, and associates.  

Continue with Tutorial #5 Address Book and E-mail.

Tutorial 5 Your Address Book and E-mail

You can use your personal Address Book in Convio much like you do for general e-mail.  As friends and family make donations on your Web page, their address is being updated/added to your address book.

Again, it is important to remember the layout features of these Web pages.  At the top of the page are six links: Participant Center, Personal Page, Address Book, E-mail, Follow-ups, and My Progress.  An additional link for Team Progress is also at the top of the page if you have, or are part of, a team.  This will be followed by a table entitled  “What Should I Do Next.”

Next will be a table containing your personal address book entries.  It is important to note that this is your address book.  Neither the NFB nor Convio will send out messages to names in your address book.  Entries added to this address book are a result of one of four things: you sent out an e-mail, you imported your personal e-mail address book, an online donation was made, or an offline donor provided their e-mail address with their cash or check donation.  If you wish to import your entire address book, there is a link in this table, called Import Contacts, with easy-to-follow instructions for importing addresses from several different e-mail format address books.*

*Note: AOL users above version 6.0: Your address book cannot be imported by this method.  Please contact the outreach office at (410) 659-9314, ext. 2408, for an alternate solution.

There is also a link to manually add e-mail addresses, called Add Contacts.  This link opens to a new table.  This table is divided into three columns of edit boxes; they are First Name, Last Name, and E-mail Address.  This method allows you to enter multiple addresses at one time.  To save your entries click the save button at the bottom of the table. 

You can also edit the entries that appear in your book.  By selecting edit next to a name on your main address book page, you will be placed in a new window that contains edit boxes for normal address book entries (for example, name, address, and phone number).  Entering all of this information is not necessary for the address book to function; all that is actually required to use the online e-mail tool to request sponsorships is a valid e-mail address for each contact.

Once a contact is created, you can add, edit, or delete from this screen.

E-mail link

We have created three messages for you to use in your fundraising activities.  You can select from the list by following the links provided.  The available messages are entitled Support Me, Thank You for Sponsoring Me, and Team Message (although available to everyone, the Team Message is really for team captains).  The text in these e-mails cannot be edited, but there is an additional edit box where you can add your own text.  There is also a fourth e-mail available, Create Your Own Message, which does not have standard text but only a link to your personal page at the bottom of your own text.  This is the preferred method for those of you who really want to personalize your e-mails. 

When you open any of these messages, you are taken to a new screen to compose your e-mail.  Remember, the standard layout of all pages in the My Participant Center will still appear at the top of this page, as it will on all other pages in your Participant Center.  Below the normal links and tables, a new table is now available.  This table contains the edit boxes much like other e-mail programs.  Your next link will be a list box; this box contains a list of all the names in your address book.  You can select names by highlighting them and selecting the link button, Add Recipients.  These names will now appear in the Send To edit box that follows.  On this page, there is a series of edit boxes.  The first one is for your name and the second is for your e-mail address (these will be filled in for you but can be edited).  Next is the Send To edit box (here you can directly type e-mail addresses followed by a comma or with each entry on a new line; these addresses will then be added to your address book once you hit send.  If you selected names from your address book, they will now appear here).  Next there is an edit box for the subject (this line corresponds to the type of e-mail that you selected to send, and it can be edited to fit your style). 

The edit box that follows is the body of the e-mail (this cannot be edited unless you are creating your own message, then this box will be empty).  This will be followed by another edit box (labeled body); this is where you can add your own personal message to the e-mail.  Though you can work directly on the page provided, it is easier and recommended to create your text in a Word document and then to cut and paste it into Notepad, and then copy it into the edit box, as we did for your Personal Page.  This removes any formatting that may have become embedded in your Word document.  Your Personal Page link will be automatically added to the bottom of your e-mail, so there is no need to insert that or any links into the e-mail text. 

You will also be able to save your custom content for future use by selecting the save button at the bottom of the table.  This will open a new window, in a table layout, with edit boxes for message name (what you call this e-mail), subject, and body.  Once you review and are satisfied with your new e-mail, follow the link below the table to save this e-mail template. 

Now you can send your e-mails and sit back and wait for the magic to happen!  But don’t rest for too long, we’re moving on to Follow-ups in Tutorial #6. 

Tutorial 6 Follow-ups and My Progress

Remembering that all of the pages in the Participant Center have the same layout, you will find the same six links across the top of the page.  They are Participant Center, Personal Page, Address Book, E-mail, Follow-ups, and My Progress (if you are part of a team, you will have a seventh link called My Team).  Below the links will be a table entitled  “What Should I Do Next.”  These links and this table will appear on each page in the Participant Center.

After navigating through the normal text on a Participant Center page, you will be directed to text referring to your contacts.  In fact, your contacts will be laid out in table fashion.  You will be able to download and/or print the list.  You also have the ability to do some sorting and filtering of this list.  Your options are:

1. Show all contacts (default)
2. Show contacts who have donated on your behalf for this event
3. Show contacts who have not donated on your behalf for this event.
4. Show contacts who you have never e-mailed.
5. Show contacts who should be sent a follow-up email.  (Note: The system counts the days since last e-mail and after one week a follow up flag is raised.)
6. Show contacts who need to be thanked for their gift.

These sorts will pare down your list to make the task of follow-ups more manageable.

The table is laid out as follows; Check Box, Name and E-mail, To Do Icon, Donor or Teammate, E-mails Sent, E-mails Opened, Page Visits, and Donations.  Here is a brief description of each field:

1. Check Box - You will use this to send thank you e-mails and follow-ups.
2. Name and E-mail - Lists person’s name and e-mail address.
3. To Do Icon - A graphical field indicating a follow-up is required and which kind of follow-up it is looking for.
4. Donor or Teammate This is where you will be able to determine if someone is a marcher on your team or if someone has given you a donation.
5. E-mail This column is divided into two columns.  The first column indicates the number of e-mails sent, and the second column indicates the date of the last e-mail.
6. E-mails Opened - This column is divided into two columns.  The first column indicates the number of opened e-mails, and the second indicates the date of the last opened e-mail.
7. Page Visits - This column is divided into two columns.  The first column indicates the number of pages visited, and the second indicates the date of the last visit
8. Donations - This column is also divided into two columns.  The first column indicates the amount donated, and the last column indicates the date of the donation.

From this page you have three options; you can mark the check boxes of the people that you wish to contact, you can send an e-mail to all of your contacts, or you can clear any To Do Icons (or Flags).

By selecting either Send E-mail to Selected or Send E-mail to All, you will be redirected to the E-mail page.  From here you select the e-mail message that you wish to send, personalize with your text, and send.  There is no need to enter any names in the Send To box, as they will already be populated there.  The Clear To Do Flag button will clear all flags.

My Progress

This page will give you statistical information about your fundraising progress.  As you read down this page, you will be taken to table 1.1.  This is a summary of all of your gifts.  It is broken down into Online, Offline, and Total.  You will find the number of gifts received in each category and the total amount raised in each.  DO NOT ENTER YOUR OFFLINE GIFTS on the Web site.  Forward all offline gifts to the National Center for data entry.  This will not only speed up the process of entering gifts that we receive by mail, but it will also cut down on duplication of work.

Your status indicator also appears on this page, as well as a list of all the names, e-mail addresses, amounts contributed, and dates of contributions.  This list can be printed or downloaded.  It can also be sorted by any of the columns.

You have now completed the six tutorials for the March for Independence Web site.  Congratulations and happy fund raising!