Add / edit a predefined Message?

As well as being able to manually enter a message and configure its settings prior to sending out to one or more Sites, Ticker Tape also allows you to predefine up to a hundred messages and their settings, allowing you to easily select them from the drop-down list shown at the top of the main Ticker Tape Administrator interface. Using predefined messages expedites the process of sending messages out as well as ensuring greater consistency in a messages settings.

The predefined messages can be viewed or edited via the Configuration dialogue accessible from the main Administrator interface by choosing the Edit > Configuration menu and then selecting the Configuration dialogues Messages tab.

Create a new message by clicking the New button or select an existing one using the vertical scrollbar on the right-hand side of the form and then click the Edit button, allowing the detail for the Message to be amended - the fields are;

Category: A user-defined category useful for helping group messages together. The category is shown in square brackets just before the actual predefined message on the main Ticker Tape Administrator interface
Severity: The severity can be one of three different types - Informational, Warning or Critical - and is merely used to determine which colours the Ticker Tape Agent message bar should display in. By default, Information messages are shown with a green background, Warning messages with an amber background and critical ones with a red background (however, all of these colours can be changed using the Agent 'Look & Feel' tab of the Configuration dialogue)
Validity: Determines the number of minutes an Agent should display the message for before automatically clearing it from the Agent workstation screens. Normally, this is used with Informational type messages or where a message is known to only be valid for a particular amount of time after the Agent workstations receive it. If set to 0 , the message will remain displayed on the Agent workstations until either a Clear command or another message is send by the Administrator.
Scope: Can be either Global or Regional. If set to Global, then choosing the message in the main Administrator interface, automatically 'ticks' all your valid Ticker Tape Sites and is useful in circumstances where a messages will likely relate to all of you offices (for instance, where your only outgoing Internet link is down, stopping Internet access in all of your offices) If set to Regional, the Administrator software will expect you to manually select the particular Site or Sites that the message relates to at the time.
Append Text: This drop down setting may be either Yes or No. If set to Yes , the custom text defined on the Administrator Settings tab of the Configuration dialogue is automatically added to the end of the message being sent. This is useful if your company policy dictates that each of your messages must contain particular 'boiler plate' text such as your Service Desk contact details for instance.
Message: This is the actual message that will be sent out to the workstations running the Agent software on the Sites you choose and, as well as normal text, can also contain Agent message variables to convey dynamic information such as the current logged in user name or date and time at the Agent workstation.

Messages configuration pane

Once a Message has been appropriately edited, click the Save button to confirm the changes or Cancel to discard them.

The predefined messages you edit within the Configuration dialogue will be available within the 'Predefined Message' section of the main Administrator interface, allowing you to quickly select the required message from those available. As you select one of the pre-defined messages to send out, the settings configured above will also affect various items in the interface, defaulting them to appropriate settings for that message - for instance, selecting the Informational message defined above automatically sets the Valid For setting to 45 minutes and selects All Sites as shown in the dialogue below.

Note that even after selecting a predefined message, you can still alter various aspects, such as whether the Append Text is used with it, prior to sending it out to a Site or Sites. For complete control over the message - including its actual text and type (whether it's Informational, Warning or Critical) use the => Free-text button to send the message to the Free-text message area where it and all of its associated settings can be freely amended.

Main Administrator interface

Note that changes to the configuration of Ticker Tape are generally only active in the Administrator interface once it has been restarted.