SteepleConnect

Sharing PDFs with a SteepleConnect church website

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 15:04:53 EST

A few months ago I wrote a blog about sharing PDFs with sermons, but today I'd like to talk about uploading and sharing PDFs on any page of your church's SteepleConnect website. (If your church is signed up with SteepleConnect Premium, you will be able to do everything mentioned below!)

Churches have a lot of documents: bulletins, forms, financial data, and plenty more, but finding a way to share them on your church's website can be a challenge. Finding a way to make sure ONLY the right people see certain documents can be all but impossible. With SteepleConnect Premium, this process becomes a whole lot easier.

As an admin, you can simply go to the Media menu, and click on Files. (It's right under where you go to upload images) From here, you should see a familiar menu where you'll be able to click "Add New", select any PDF file from your computer, and upload it to your site.

Once posted, you'll be able to view a preview of the PDF (eye), edit the filename, category, and permissions (pencil), or delete the PDF in question.

By clicking edit, you'll see Name, Category, Owner, and most importantly, Permission. By setting the Permissions from "Public" to "Members Only", you'll be making sure that only approved members of your church will be able to view the PDF. This is great for sensitive data like financial information.

So now it's been uploaded, but how do you post the file on a page? Simply go into the page editor, and drag the "File" widget onto your page the same way you would drag in any other page element. (Hint, the File widget is under the "SteepleConnect" menu on the sidebar) You'll then be able to select a previously uploaded file, assign it an optional name, and that's it. You're done!

Users will then be able to see the files with mouse-over previews when they view the page. Check out Maranatha Bible Chapel's page for an example!

Note: Need to convert your documents into PDFs? We recommend BullZip which will allow you to virtually print any document to a PDF file. It's a free download here.

Features Coming Soon (where SteepleConnect is headed)

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 21:53:56 EST

We're often asked what we're working on and what SteepleConnect features are in the pipeline for the future. Here's a quick little breakdown of where we're headed:

1. Sharing PDF files. You can already upload PDFs of weekly sermons to your church's SteepleConnect site, but coming soon is the ability to upload and embed any PDF on any page on your church's website. This could be anything from a newsletter to a financial statement, and with optional members-only file permissions, you can rest assured that only the right people will see them. Look for this feature in the coming week!

2. Password Protected Content. Right now you can make pages viewable by members only, but we've been asked to extend that one step further by allowing pages and files to be password protected. With this capability, you'll be able to make a page or a file visible only to people who have the right password or pin. Look for this feature in the coming month.

3. Searchable Menus. Sorting through all the people, files, images in Admin can be a headache. With searchable and sortable menus, you'll be able to get right to the person or picture you're looking for faster than ever. Look for this feature in the coming month.

... and that's just the tip of the iceberg! Check back often to see what new features we've added and what else we've got in the SteepleConnect pipeline!

Update: Driving Directions

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 21:38:18 EST

Visitors to your church's SteepleConnect site could always click on your address on the sidebar to see a Google map of your church's location. With this latest update, they'll now be able to enter their own address and get driving directions from their house to your church. We're hoping that this simple change will make it a lot easier for visitors to find your church and show up on Sunday morning!

Restructured Church URLs

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 15:49:29 EST

The SteepleConnect development team is proud to announce the restructuring of church website URLs.

Previously, all SteepleConnect church websites hung off the www.steepleconnect.com domain as virtual "folders". (www.steepleconnect.com/your_church_here). This worked, but came with a number of disadvantages. As of today, all churches get their own subdomain off of steepleconnect.com. For example, if your church's website used to be www.steepleconnect.com/valleyview, it is now valleyview.steepleconnect.com. This has a number of advantages including shorter urls, better SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and generally better structuring of individual sites. Don't worry, however, we've set it up so all your old bookmarks will continue to work!

Significant Changes Behind The Scenes

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 20:06:55 EST

Over the past several months, the SteepleConnect development team has been hard at work rewriting, optimizing, and updating the several thousand lines of code which make up the SteepleConnect application. Since SteepleConnect's inception, we added feature after feature, each time refining our methodologies and learning the fastest, simplest, and best way to do things. Unfortunately that left our code in a difficult state where there were in some cases a half dozen different ways to do effectively the same thing. Over the past few months, we've standardized and simplified SteepleConnect into a far faster, leaner, and generally better application. These changes are now live, and we're positive you're going to like the result. Stay tuned for more updates, and how the changes above will impact you for the better!

Why Your Church Website and Flash Don't Mix

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 22:20:45 EST

We've all been there. Â You go to a website looking for useful information only to get bombarded by error messages informing you that an additional plugin is needed to view the content. Â Downloading plugins to view webpages is annoying, frustrating, and thanks to a trend towards low power mobile devices, it's quickly becomingÂ impossible (read on). Â Who is the biggest culprit in this war against standards you might ask? Why Flash of course!

The internet is built upon a set of standards that all browsers must be able to cope with. Â These standards include buzz words like HTML, Javascript, and CSS. Â These words allow website developers to make pages look the way they do, and act the way they we expect them to act. Â But some developers and church website hosting providers like Clover (http://www.cloversites.com/) take an entirely different approach and go with non standard technologies like Flash and Silverlight to draw their pages. Â These tools can be easier for the hosting providers, but they simply don't work without an endless array of plugins each and every person who views your website will need to install. Â Church website companies like SteepleConnect are 100% standards compliant and do not require a single plugin for the ENTIRE website, including both the parts your visitors see, as well as the administrative back end. Â This is quite a bit harder to accomplish, but is well worth the efforts. Â

... but thats not all. Â Sure installing a plugin is annoying, but pretty much everybody has Flash installed by now, right? Â If this were five years ago, that might be true, but the trend towards mobile devices in recent years has all but put an end to that assertion. Â Adobe themselves (the creators of Flash) have recently announced that they will be completely dropping support for Flash on all mobile devices, and iDevices like iPhones/iPads never had Flash support from the beginning. Â What is Adobe supporting instead? You guessed it, standards like HTML, Javascript, and CSS. Â So why would your church buy a website which is built entirely on a technology that is being scrapped by the company who wrote it?

... and then it gets worse for plugins. Â Microsoft recently announced that in their upcoming browser (Internet Explorer 10), they will actually be blocking the use of all plugins, not just on mobile devices, but on the Desktop too! Â This includes Flash as well as Silverlight, Microsoft's own web browser plugin. Â They too have announced their full support for standards instead. Â

What does this mean for you? Â Avoid church website companies who use Flash or Silverlight or any other plugin based frameworks like the Plague. Â It's only a matter of time before these plugins go the way of the dodo bird and theÂ PolaroidÂ Camera. Â Instead, look for church website providers like SteepleConnect who are 100% standards compliant and are future proof for years to come!

Update: Customize Draggable Banner Items

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 17:19:12 EST

You asked for it and we built it!

It is now possible to rearrange menu items (your church's name, slogan, and image) on your church's SteepleConnect website banner.

All you have to do is go into Admin and click on "Appearance". This will allow you click on banner items and drag them around wherever you would like them to be placed. Check it out!

(Click and drag any item surrounded by a thin black box)

Update: Simpler SEO Optimized URL Schema

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 17:19:07 EST

This one gets a bit technical, but we're pretty sure Google is going to love it (and that means better search listings for your site)

SteepleConnect's old URL schema relied on messy urls like this one:

www.steepleconnect.com/home?page=page&id=191

It worked, but it wasn't terribly simple to read, and Google frequently found it confusing. Â

Our new URL schema looks a bit more like this:

http://www.steepleconnect.com/home/page/191/What_Is_SteepleConnect

As you can see, that's a bit easier to read and should solve all kinds of quirky issues with Search Engine listings. Â

But don't worry - all your old Bookmarks will continue to work, we've made sure not to break those in the process!

How to promote and get the most out of your church website

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 01:13:35 EST

Congratulations, you've spent the money, the time, and your church now has a fantastic new cutting edge church website. So now what? Does anybody even know it exists?

The great thing about the internet is that thanks to the folks at Yahoo, Google, and Bing, the internet is very searchable. Despite what the SEO (search engine optimization) fanatics will tell you, if you're using a proper church website tool like SteepleConnect, you can rest assured that if you've got a website, people will find it with virtually zero additional effort on your part. So what does this mean? Well - for starters, it means that people looking for your church, or churches geographically near your church, or churches that offer the things your church offers, WILL find your church. And hey - that's great news! After all, one of the primary goals of any church website is to bring in new members and serve as passive marketing for your church.

... but that's just where it begins.

This isn't the 90s anymore, and church websites need to be more than just a static billboard in the air saying "look at me, look at me!" Church websites, like the ones offered by SteepleConnect, are fully interactive portals for members of your church to share comments, post prayers, and lookup full directory information. But while the technology exists, and the capability is there, convincing your church's congregation to hop online and start participating can be a bit more of a struggle. Here are a few ideas on how to get the most our of your shiny new socially enabled church website:

1. Talk It Up!

You simply cannot expect people to start using things they've never heard of, and even then it takes more than a few reminders before they're willing to hop on board. Mention in verbally in church on sunday, every sunday if you can. Post it prominently in the weekly bulletin.

2. Host a "Signup Sunday"

Modern church websites have the ability for members to sign up for accounts and connect with your church so they can view members-only content like the online directory and view/post to the prayer wall. These are all great features (and are completely free from SteepleConnect), but they only work if the members of your church actually have accounts and know how to log in. Try hosting a "signup sunday" where members are encouraged to sign up during coffee hour using several laptops made available by the church. Have somebody there to help people through the process. This will greatly increase awareness about the website, and will completely remove the hurdle of misunderstanding.

3. Integrate it into the things you already do.

Does your church pass around index cards for members to write down their directory information every year? This year, consider handing out index cards with a link to your church's online directory (free from SteepleConnect), and simple instructions detailing how to update it. For those technophobes in your church, allow them to update their contact info the old fashioned way while encouraging those who are willing to do it online.

Does your church send out prayer requests in a series of mass emails? Consider posting the prayers on your church's online prayer wall (free from SteepleConnect) instead, and encourage your members to subscribe to that. They'll continue to receive email notifications, but in a way that is far easier to manage. Additionally, your members will find that they too can submit prayers through the church website, as well as updates, and pray for people while they're there!

4. Get Feedback and Start an Online Discussion

On Sunday morning, put forth a question or comment and encourage members of your congregation to respond to it in a private forum you've set up on your church's website. Virtually extend "coffee hour" discussions into the rest of the week, and get valuable feedback regarding what people in your church are thinking.

These are just a few ideas, and we're sure there are plenty more. Give one or two a try, and let us know what works and what doesn't!

Sincerely,

The SteepleConnect Team

New: Recurring Events and All Day Events

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 11:23:06 EST

You guessed it! The SteepleConnect calendar now supports recurring events and all day events - a much requested feature which is now fully functional. How does it work? Well lets take a look...

First start by creating an event on the day you want it and click "Add". The event should show up on the calendar on the right day (this should all be familiar territory). Now for the fun part, when you click on the event to edit it, you'll notice an all new button at the bottom left corner of the screen entitled "Duplicate".

Clicking on this button will duplicate the exact event on the same exact day. Want it on a different day? Simply change the date before clicking "Duplicate" or drag it to a different day afterwards. No longer will you have to re-type the same data over and over. It's just that easy.

... But that's not all! You can now create "All-Day" events by simply not entering or clearing the "Time" field on any event.

Well that's pretty much it for now, stay tuned for more updates!

Exciting New Updates!

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 14:18:35 EST

SteepleConnect is excited to bring lots of new exciting updates to the SteepleConnect church website product this week! Here's a quick overview:

1. PDF file uploads and links for sermons
2. "Publish" functionality for blogs
3. Admin email notification of Church Connection requests
4. Image Previews in Admin
5. Realtime feedback during file uploads
6. Links and Youtube videos fully supported in comments
7. Look and Feel updates for the Administrative panel
8. Total revamp of email notification (back-end) code.

Lets break down each one of these and see how they'll help you and your church going forward.

1. PDF File Uploads and Links for Sermons

Everybody loves the ability to upload sermon audio and have it be auto-converted, but we've had many requests for the ability to associate a file or a link with sermons as well. This capability has now arrived! Simply click the "Paperclip" icon to upload an associated PDF file to a sermon the same way you would upload an audio file. (Don't know how to create a PDF? SteepleConnect recommends BullZip which will allow you to virtually "print" any file as a PDF.) Additionally, you can now provide a link with a sermon - to a Google Docs file, a SteepleConnect page, or whatever else you decide!

2. "Publish" functionality for blogs

With the new "Publish" functionality, you can work on a blog for as long as you need until you've decided that it is polished and done. It won't actually show up on your church's website until you click the "publish" button. Additionally, once blog subscriptions are enabled, the Publish button will kick off an email to everyone who is subscribed with the full contents of that blog entry. Communicating with your church couldn't be easier!

3. Admin email notification of Church Connection requests

Admins - Stop worrying that somebody submitted a new church connection request without you knowing! With this new feature, whenever somebody attempts to connect with a church, all the admins at that church will get an email notification. It's just that easy!

4. Image Previews in Admin

Clicking on images in the image panel of the admin tool now pops up a simple preview without forcing you to leave the site. Simple.

5. Realtime feedback during file uploads

Stop wondering if your image/sermon/file upload is finished. With new realtime feedback, you'll see visual notification that the upload is still taking place, and additional feedback when it's done. Additionally, with Red/Yellow/Green indications on sermon audio upload processing, you'll know exactly what the status is of your sermon upload.

6. Links and Youtube videos fully supported in comments

We've gotten tons of great feedback on the new comments feature we implemented last week, and we've used it to make it even better! Links and youtube videos can be embedded right inside the comment wall. (You don't have to do anything special, just copy/paste) Facilitating communication on your church's SteepleConnect website has never be easier!

7. Look and Feel updates for the Administrative panel

Look around, they might be subtle, but we think you're going to like what you see! Also, all deletions now have confirmations so accidental deletions should now be a thing of the past.

8. Total revamp of email notification (back-end) code.

This one gets awfully technical, but suffice to say it's a good thing. What it means for you? Look forward to lots of new email subscription options for blogs/pages/comment walls/etc over the coming weeks.

... Well that's pretty much it. There are a lot of new exciting changes getting pushed in this latest update and we hope you enjoy using them as much as we did implementing them! As always feel free to contact us with questions. We look forward to hearing from you!

- The SteepleConnect Team

Adding a Comment Wall to Pages

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 15:53:01 EST

The SteepleConnect team is happy to announce a new feature today which will allow your church to add a Message Board/Comment Wall to any page on your SteepleConnect website. Looking to stir up conversation about a topic with your members? Looking for feedback about a specific question? Starting today, this is now easier than ever!

So how do you take advantage of this new feature? It's easy! When you're in the page editor, simply drag the comments "widget" onto your page. That's it, you're done!

From there forward, whenever people visit that page, they'll be able to leave comments and reply to each-other in a really simple fashion.

Concerned about privacy? No problem, just set the page as "Members-Only" so only the approved members of your church will be able to view the posts, and make comments themselves.

And that's it! Start including comment walls in your pages today and get feedback previously thought impossible.

Simplified Signups

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 17:17:55 EST

SteepleConnect has greatly simplified the signup process and done it in a way that members of your church will never have to leave the comfort of your church's website throughout the entire account signup process.

Right on the menu bar, we've put a "Sign Up" link for people who don't have a Facebook account, but want to connect with the church. Clicking on it brings up a signup/sign-in page that loads right inside your church's website!

Your members will be able to enter their information and create an account without leaving your church's page. Additionally, anybody signing up for a SteepleConnect account directly through your website will have a church connection request created automatically. An admin will still need to approve the connection of course, but the process is now greatly streamlined.

Additionally, with new simpler messages on members-only pages, your members will know exactly where they stand, and what they still need to do when it comes to viewing the website content.

We're very excited about these changes. We hope you are too!

Prayer Email Notifications Come to SteepleConnect

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 16:57:18 EST

SteepleConnect is happy to announce that we now support email notifications on the prayer wall. This means that whenever a new prayer is posted to the prayer wall, all the admins at that church will get an automated email informing them of the prayer so they can approve or reject it. You should no longer have to periodically check the prayer wall to see if anything new has happened. (Note: this does not apply to prayers posted by admins - keep reading to see how to be notified of ALL posts)

This is an example of what an admin email notification email might look like.

In addition to the "Admin approval request notification", there is now a "Subscribe" button on the prayer wall itself so that any member of the church can be notified when a new prayer or prayer update is posted. However, approval is still required by an admin for new prayer posts, so an admin will still need to approve a prayer posting before the email notification goes out.

This is an example of what a subscriber email notification email might look like.

So what does this mean?

If you're the admin of a church, you're going to start getting email notifications of prayer wall posts requiring approval. You may still want to go to the prayer wall and subscribe anyway though because this will allow you to stay up-to-date with prayers by other admins and prayer updates by members of your church. (Prayer updates don't require approval)

If you're not an admin, but you are connected with a church on SteepleConnect, you may wish to subscribe to the prayer wall so you can stay informed about the prayers of people at your church!

Hint: If you're worried about receiving a lot of emails, you may wish to set up rules in your favorite email reader so that prayer requests get filed away nicely instead of cluttering up your inbox!

Well that's pretty much it for prayer wall email notifications. Stay tuned for plenty more SteepleConnect email notifications on the horizon. (Member requests, blog updates, etc!)