notifications-admin/app/templates/views/guidance.html

{% extends "content_template.html" %}
{% from "components/table.html" import mapping_table, row, text_field, edit_field, field with context %}
{% from "components/sub-navigation.html" import sub_navigation %}

{% block per_page_title %}
  Guidance
{% endblock %}

{% block content_column_content %}

  <h1 class="heading-large">Guidance</h1>

  <p>This guidance is for teams using GOV.UK Notify to send emails, text messages and letters.</p>

  <p>It includes information about how to:</p>

  <ul class="list list-bullet">
    <li><a href="#create-and-send-messages">create and send messages</a></li>
    <li><a href="#edit-and-format-messages">edit and format messages</a></li>
    <li><a href="#send-files-by-email">send files by email</a></li>
    <li><a href="#upload-letters">upload your own letters</a></li>
    <li>add <a href="#branding">branding and customisation</a></li>
  </ul>
  
  <h2 class="heading-medium" id="create-and-send-messages">Create and send messages</h2>
  
  <p><a href="{{ url_for('main.register') }}">Create an account</a> to see a short tutorial explaining how to create and send messages.</p>
  
  <h3 class="heading-small" id="bulk-sending">Bulk sending</h3>

  <p>To send a batch of messages at once:</p>
  <ol class="list list-number">
    <li><a href="{{ url_for('.register') }}">Sign in to Notify</a>.</li>
    <li>Go to the Templates page and choose an existing template.</li>
    <li>Select Send.</li>
    <li>If you’re sending emails, select Upload a list of email addresses. If you’re sending text messages, select Upload a list of phone numbers. If you’re sending letters, select Upload a list of addresses.</li>
  
  <h2 class="heading-medium id="edit-and-format-messages"">Edit and format messages</h2>
  
  <p>This section explains how to add:</p>
  <ul class="list list-bullet">
    <li><a href="#formatting">formatting</a></li>
    <li><a href="#links">links</a></li>
    <li><a href="#personalised-content">personalised content</a></li>
    <li><a href="#optional-content">optional content</a></li>
  
  <h3 class="heading-small" id="formatting">Formatting</h3>

  <p>You can see a list of formatting instructions on the edit template page:</p>

  <ol class="list list-number">
    <li><a href="{{ url_for('.register') }}">Sign in to Notify</a>.</li>
    <li>Go to the Templates page.</li>
    <li>Add a new template or choose an existing template and select Edit.</li>
  </ol>

  <p>Email templates can include:</p>
  <ul class="list list-bullet">
    <li>headings</li>
    <li>bullets</li>
    <li>call-outs</li>
    <li>horizontal rules</li>
  </ul>

  <p>Letter templates can include headings and bullets.</p>

  <p>Notify does not allow bold, italics, subheadings, underlined text, HTML formatting or different fonts. This is because they can make it harder for users to read what you've written.</p>

  <h3 class="heading-small" id="links">Links</h3>
  
  <p>When composing an email or text message, write URLs in full and Notify will convert them into links for you.</p>

  <p>You cannot convert text into a link. Research shows that recipients like to read the URL to check a link looks genuine before they click it. This is hard to do if the URL is hidden behind clickable link text.</p>

  <p>If your links are very long, we do not recommend using a third-party link shortening service because:</p>
  
  <ul class="list list-bullet">
    <li>your users cannot see where the link will take them</li>
    <li>your link might stop working if there's a service outage</li>
    <li>you can no longer control where the redirect goes</li>
  </ul>

  <h3 class="heading-small" id="personalised-content">Personalised content</h3>

  <p>To personalise the content of your messages, add a placeholder to the template.</p>

  <p>Placeholders are filled in with details, like a name or reference number, each time you send a message.</p>

  <p>To add a placeholder to the template:</p>

  <ol class="list list-number">
    <li><a href="{{ url_for('.register') }}">Sign in to Notify</a>.</li>
    <li>Go to the Templates page.</li>
    <li>Add a new template or choose an existing template and select Edit.</li>
    <li>Add a placeholder using double brackets. For example: Hello ((first name)), your reference is ((ref number)).</li>
    <li>Select Save.</li>
  </ol>

  <p>When you send a message you can either:</p>

  <ul class="list list-bullet">
    <li>manually fill in the placeholders yourself</li>
    <li>upload a list of personal details and let Notify do it for you</li>
  </ul>

  <p>If you upload a list, the column names need to match the placeholders in your template.</p>
  
  <h3 class="heading-small" id="optional-content">Optional content</h3>
  
  <p>To add optional content to your emails and text messages:</p>
  
  <ol class="list list-number">
    <li><a href="{{ url_for('.register') }}">Sign in to Notify</a>.</li>
    <li>Go to the Templates page.</li>
    <li>Add a new template or choose an existing template and select Edit.</li>
    <li>Use double brackets and ?? to define optional content. For example, if you only want to show something to people who are under 18: ((under18??Please get your application signed by a parent or guardian.))</li>
    <li>Select Save.</li>
  </ol>

  <p>For each person you send this message to, specify ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to show or hide this content. You can either:</p>

  <ul class="list list-bullet">
    <li>do this yourself</li>
    <li>upload a list of personal details and let Notify do it for you</li>
  </ul>

  <p>If you upload a list, the column names need to match the optional content in your template.</p>

  <p>You cannot add optional content to a letter.</p>
  
  <h2 class="heading-medium" id="send-files-by-email">Send files by email</h2>
  
  <p><a href="{{ url_for('.support') }}">Contact us</a> if you want to send files by email.</p>

  <p>Follow the instructions to send a file by email in our <a href="{{ url_for('.documentation') }}">API documentation</a>.</p>
  
  <h2 class="heading-medium" id="upload-letters">Upload your own letters</h2>

  <p>You can upload and send your own letters instead of creating a reusable letter template.</p>
  
  <p>To upload and send your own letter from a PDF file:</p>
  
  <ol class="list list-number">
    <li><a href="{{ url_for('.register') }}">Sign in to Notify</a>.</li>
    <li>Go to the Uploads page.</li>
    <li>Select Upload a letter.</li>
    <li>Select Choose file.</li>
  </ol>

  <p>Your file must meet our letter specification.</p>
  
  <h2 class="heading-medium" id="branding">Branding and customisation</h2>
  
  <h3 class="heading-small" id="email-branding">Change email branding</h3>

  <p>To change your email branding:</p>

  <ol class="list list-number">
    <li><a href="{{ url_for('.register') }}">Sign in to Notify</a>.</li>
    <li>Go to the Settings page.</li>
    <li>In the Email settings section, select Change on the Email branding row.</li>
  </ol>

  <h3 class="heading-small" id="reply-to-address">Add a reply-to email address</h3>
  
  <p>Notify lets you choose the email address that users reply to. You must add at least one reply-to address before your service can go live.</p>

  <p>To add a reply-to email address:</p>

  <ol class="list list-number">
    <li><a href="{{ url_for('.register') }}">Sign in to Notify</a>.</li>
    <li>Go to the Settings page.</li>
    <li>In the Email settings section, select Manage on the Reply-to email addresses row.</li>
    <li>Select Add reply-to address.</li>
    <!--<li>Enter the email address you want to use, and select Add.</li>-->
  </ol>
  
  <h3 class="heading-small" id="text-message-sender">Change the text message sender</h3>
  
  <p>The text message sender name tells your users who the message is from.</p>

  <p>To change the text message sender from the default of ‘GOVUK’:</p>
  
  <ol class="list list-number">
    <li><a href="{{ url_for('.register') }}">Sign in to Notify</a>.</li>
    <li>Go to the Settings page.</li>
    <li>In the Text message settings section, select Manage on the Text message senders row.</li>
  
  <h3 class="heading-small" id="letter-branding">Change letter branding</h3>
  
  <p>To change your letter branding:</p>
  
  <ol class="list list-number">
    <li><a href="{{ url_for('.register') }}">Sign in to Notify</a>.</li>
    <li>Go to the Settings page.</li>
    <li>In the Letter settings section, select Change on the Letter branding row.</li>
  </ol>

{% endblock %}