Getting Started on the ACA Online Community
Step 1. Update Your Info
- Log into the Online Community and click on My Profile from the top navigation bar or the profile box in the upper right.
- Click on the "Update My Contact Info" link below your address block. A new tab or window will open.
- If prompted, log in using your Online Community credentials.
- Complete all the fields that apply to you. (There are a lot of them - if you don't have time to complete them all right now, make sure you complete the first three sections)
- Click "Proceed to Review" at the bottom of the page.
- Review your changes, then scroll to the bottom of the page and click "Save My Profile". Otherwise your changes will be lost.
- Return to your profile on the Online Community.
Step 2. Refresh Your Profile
- Click the "Refresh My Profile Now" link (under the Update My Contact Info link) to pull in your updated info
- Check that everything appears correctly. If not, you can go back and make additional changes or contact a member of the support team for assistance.
Step 3. Complete/Update Your Bio and other information
There are several fields on your profile that are managed right on the Online Community rather than pulled from the database. You update these fields by clicking the "Add" or "Edit" links next to the heading. These fields include Additional Office Locations, Bio, Professional Associations, Honors and Awards, Education, and Job History (all on the Directory Profile tab) and Personal Interests (on the Individual Profile tab).
Additional Office Location
The Additional Office Location field appears between your primary address and “Serving Clients Living In” and requires just a bit of extra formatting. Click Edit to enter your information. If there is no data entered this field will not appear to the public or other members.
Important: To format the address properly you must enter an HTML break tag (<br />) to begin a new line. In order to obtain this:
You will be entering this:
Social Media Links
You can provide links to your profiles on other social media sites, including LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. You can also link to your blog on WordPress or another blog site. When you have a link set a green check mark will appear on your profile.
The default setting for social media links is "Nobody". To change this you access My Privacy Settings.
To add your information click on the "Link to..." or "Connect to..." link and enter the complete URL, then click Save.
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Login to http://community.acaplanners.org using your ACA username and password. Your username is your business email address. Your default password is ACA1234. You will be asked to change your password the first time you log in.
When you login you may select "By checking this box you will stay logged in to the ACA Online Community until you choose to log out." This will keep you logged on your business computer for access throughout the day. You will not want to do this on a public computer.
To update your Online Community notification preferences select My Privacy Settings (1) from the My Profile tab. By default your Online Community notifications and messages are sent to your primary business email address. You may elect to have your notifications and messages sent to a different address or kept in the Online Community (2). You may update the email address here that impacts notifications and messages only, not your profile. You may select which items are sent to the notification address and which items remain in the Online Community (3). Any items you do not have sent to your notification address will be in your My Inbox (4) area of the Online Community
If you wish to change your email address everywhere you update it through the My Profile page, via the "Update My Contact Information" link. This will change your email throughout the ACA Online Community, including your profile.
You must scroll to the bottom of the page and click "Save". Otherwise your changes will be lost.
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Subscriptions
In order to be able to post to a Discussion Forum you must first subscribe to the forum. To do this go to "My Subscriptions" under the Discussions tab. This will provide you with a list of communities you may subscribe to. You will then select the frequency at which you receive email notifications. The options are:
Real time - You receive the email as the items are posted to the forum.
Daily Digest - Each morning you receive a listing of the postings made the day before.
Legacy - Sends you a real time text only version which allows you to use the Reply and Reply All options in email to respond to the posting.
No Emails - Allows you to post to the forum, but you check the postings on your own through the Online Community
Once you have selected your subscription options click Save.
Posting a Message
To post a message to a forum click on Post a Message under the Discussion tab, click Discussions in the Click 'n Go section, then click on Post a Message or click on one of the Quick Post links in the Point & Post section.
Using the pull down menu select the forum to which you wish to post (this is prefilled if you select via Point & Post).
Enter a descriptive subject, then enter your message using the WYSIWYG editor.
If you have no files to attach, click Send.
To attach a file to your posting click Attach on the bottom left of the Post A Message window.
Click Browse, then select the file you wish up attach.
You can pick multiple files by clicking each "Browse" button.
If you want more than 3 files in your document click "Add Another File".
Once you have selected your files
click Upload File(s).
When the upload is complete you will see the file(s) listed under "Existing File(s)".
Then click Next.
You must then add a title and may description and tags as needed. (See below in Sharing/Uploading a File)
Be sure to click Finish to return to your posting. (Finish means "Finished Attaching", not truly finished!)
Then click Send to send your posting with attachment. |
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Sharing/Uploading a File
To upload a file click on Add a New Entry under the Libraries tab.
Enter a descriptive Title and brief description. Avoid names like "Article", but rather "Tax Changes 2012 - an Article by John Doe".
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Select a Library from the pull down menu.
Once you select a library the folders for that library will appear in a pull down menu. Select the appropriate folder.
Select the type of entry you are creating. (see FAQ on What types of files can I upload? for further information)
Then click Next. |
Entry Type Options
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Copyrighted Files
Click Browse, then select the file you wish up upload.
You can pick multiple files by clicking each "Browse" button.
If you want more than 3 files in your document click "Add Another File".
Once you have selected your files click Upload File(s).
When the upload is complete you will see the file(s) listed under "Existing File(s)". Then click Next. |
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Select the type of license you need.
If you realize you don't need a license, just select "No License", you don't need to return to the original upload screen.
If you don't know what license you may need, don't forget the blue help button! A Yellow box with license information will pop up if you click the blue help button.
Keep in mind ALL files uploaded are subject to ACA's Intellectual Property License Agreement. These licensing options allow you to build on that agreement and set additional terms of use.
Click Next.
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Hyperlink
Enter the full URL for the hyperlink.
Enter the link text you wish to have displayed.
Click Next.
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Standard Files
Click Browse, then select the file you wish up upload.
You can pick multiple files by clicking each "Browse" button.
If you want more than 3 files in your document click "Add Another File".
Once you have selected your files click Upload File(s).
When the upload is complete you will see the file(s) listed under "Existing File(s)". Then click Next.
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You may enter a Title and Description for each file.
Title is file name if the original file
name is not descriptive. Otherwise, it is not necessary.
Description displays as a tooltip when a user's mouse hovers over the file name/title.
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Webinar
Enter the full URL for your webinar.
Enter the length of the recording.
You may also enter the presenter's name and a link to their profile.
If you have a survey associated with the webinar include to link to that as well.
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YouTube Video
Within YouTube a link will display.
Copy that link and Paste
in the Online Community.
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And finally...
Don't forget to add tags when prompted to aid in searches. At a minumum be sure to select one ACA Community Tag (Advisor Sharedoc, Committee File etc.), one Document Use tag and one from either Financial Planning or Practice Managment. You may have up to nine tags in multiple categories. That's OK! Tags just make it easier for everyone to find your files.
Then click Finish.