Navigating Action Network
Navigating through the menus of Action Network is intuitive and easy, but if it's your first time logging in you may be unsure as to where to start. There is one menu you'll likely use more than any other and that's the one labelled START ORGANIZING that appears at the top of the page. But there are two other menu areas you'll likely use- the Group Management menu which appears in the blue bar beneath your Group name, and the Speed Dial area which appears on the right-hand side of a lot of pages.
The Organising Menu
The organising menu is the main way you'll move around Action Network and has four sub-menus: ACTIONS, PEOPLE, DETAILS, and SUPPORT. Click on the one you need to open up the sub-menu.
Actions
The Actions menu will bring up a list of actions you're able to create in Action Network: Petitions, Events, Ticketed Events, Forms, Letter Campaigns, Call Campaigns, Fundraisers, Files, and Groups.
When you move your cursor over each of the options you'll see two icons appear to the right. Clicking on the + icon will create a new Action of the selected type, and clicking on the list icon will take you to a list of your existing Actions. You can also click on the name of the Action type to create a new Action. For example, clicking on the work Events will create a new Event. We don't currently use the Call Campaigns option, so you can ignore this.
Clicking the list icon next to an Action type will show all actions of that type, including those in draft. So if you've started creating an Action and need to come back to it later before publishing this is where you''ll find them,
People
The people menu is where you'll do most of your membership management such as searching for activists, sending emails, and setting up Queries. We don't currently use the Mobile Messaging features within Action Network so you can ignore these two options.
Just like the Actions menu, the + and list icons will appear when your cursor moves over the menu option. For example, clicking on the + icon next to email will create a new email, and clicking the list icon would show all existing emails.
Details
This is where you'll find things like Tags, Custom Fields & Form Questions, and your Page & Email Wrappers. This is basically where you'll create and find the things you can reuse throughout Action Network when creating new Actions & Emails. This is also where you'll find the API details if you need to sync Action Network data with another App.
Just like the other menus, hovering over each menu item will display the + and list icons. Unlike most of the other menu options clicking on the menu item name, eg. Tags, will take you to a list of all existing items of that type.
Support
The Support Menu is where you'll find useful training materials, process guides and videos to help you get the most out of Action Network. It's also where you can contact Action Network support directly with any questions or help requests.
The Group Management Menu
The Group Management Menu helps you navigate all of your Group's Actions, Emails, Reports & Settings.
Here's a summary of what you'll find under each menu item:
Menu Item | Explanation | Further Guidance |
Statistics | This is where you'll find some useful statistics about your group such as:
| |
Actions | This is where you'll find a list of all your existing Actions. You can click on the magnifying glass icon to search for actions by name or type, eg. Fundraiser. | |
Emails | This is where you'll find a list of all your existing Emails. Again, using the magnifying glass you can search by name, status or author. | |
Reports | This is where you can find and search all of your existing reports. | |
Activists | This is where you can search for Activists. However it's based on a report and so will only return values for the Activists targeted in the report. For most searches we recommend using the Activists option from the People menu. | |
Syndication | This is where you'll find any messages relating to Syndication Packages that have been sent to your group. | |
Discussion | This is the Discussion Board for your Group. You're unlikely to want to use this, so we recommend switching it off under Settings. | |
Administrators | This is where you'll add, remove and manage the people who have Administrator access for your Action Network Group. | |
Network | This is where you'll find any Child Groups, download a list of Administrators and generate a report of all Emails sent by your Group and any Child Groups. | |
Settings | This is where you'll change some settings which apply across all of your Action Network activity. We recommend updating these settings to save you time later on. |
The Speed Dial Menu
The Speed-Dial menu appears on the right hand side of some pages- and is simply a shortcut to creating new Actions for your Group. Simply click on the Action type you wish to create to create a new Action.
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