Headline

• Use standard title case, just like you'd see see in a newspaper or magazine headline. All uppercase is too difficult to read. Plus, it detracts from headlines above and beneath yours, and you don't want to make enemies with other contributors.
• Keep your headline simple and to the point. The purpose is to allow the reader to decide whether or not to click the link and read more; it is not meant to meant to convey the entire message.
• The minimum length is 15 characters; the maximum is 120.
• Avoid acronymns, jargon, and abbreviations; you don't want to force the reader to open the link unnecessarily just to decipher the headline.

Topic

• Select the most appropriate topic that applies to your news or announcement from the dropdown list.
• If none of the topics apply, select the last item: Other.
• If there is a significant omission in the list of topics, please report it (see the bottom of this page).

Division

• Select the university division that is responsible for the item.
• Generally (but not always), this will be the division in which the person submitting the item works.

For

• Carefully consider the audience, especially when it comes to announcements to the student population. This is population that could get a large number of unwanted announcements if good judgement is not used.
• If it is for faculty and staff only, click the Faculty/Staff option button.
• If it for students only, click the Students option button.
• If it is for faculty/staff and students, click the Both option button.
• When in doubt, think about it some more; don't just choose Both. Sending something to 20,000 or so people unnecessarily is not good etiquette.

From

• Fill in the first date on which you want the item to appear or click the icon and select a date from the popup calendar.
• You may choose a future date; however, you may not "back date."
• Use Month/Day/Year format. Example: 2/3/2003 .
• Do not abbreviate years to two digits.
• Do not use dashes as separators.

Through

• Fill in the last date on which you want the item to appear or click the icon and select a date from the popup calendar.
• You may choose a future date; however, you may not back date or select a date earlier than the From date.
• Use Month/Day/Year format. Example: 2/3/2003 .
• Do not abbreviate years to two digits.
• Do not use dashes as separators.
• Your announcement may run no more than 7 days at a time.

Message (Beginner)

• What you type into the Message box is what will appear on the web page when the reader clicks the headline in their email digest.
• Type your message right into the Message box. That's all there is to it.
• You may add blank lines by pressing Enter.
• Proof your work carefully; there is no spelling or grammar checking available.

Message (Novice)

• Use Microsoft Word document to compose your anouncement. That will help ensure correct grammar and spelling.
• When you're done, copy the text from Word by highlighting it and then use Ctrl + C (or Edit | Copy from the menu bar) and paste it into the Message textbox with Ctrl + V (or Edit | Paste from the menu bar).
• You can include Word's bulleted or numbered lists; they will carry through into the Message box.
• Word's style sheets, outlines, or other advanced features will not work.
• Blank lines may be added by pressing Enter.

Message (Intermediate)

• If you know HTML, you can include formatting tags, such as <CENTER>, <B>, <EM>, <U>, and others. The question is whether you want to. After all, this is a campus news and announcement system, not a complete website authoring package.
• You may include links (URLs) in the message. If you want them to be clickable (in other words, for them to "work"), you must enclose them in curly braces, as in the following example. The curly braces allow our program to convert them into the proper HTML format which is too hard to remember.
  
  {http://www.towson.edu/ots}
  
  
• You may include email links (mailto) in the message. If you want them to be clickable, you must enclose them in curly braces, as in the following example. As with URLs, the curly braces allow our program to convert them into the proper HTML format:
  
  {maddress@towson.edu}
  

Message (Expert)

• You can paste "raw" HTML into the Message text area. This is an advanced skill, and you really must know what you are doing and test your work thoroughly before pasting it into the system. The consequences of a bad appearances will seriously diminish your message's impact. A simpler message that works is far better than a glitzy one that doesn't. Consider yourself warned!
• If you decide to do this, you must  remove the following pairs of tags. if you don't, duplicate pairs will result, leading to browser errors :
  
  <HTML></HTML>
  <HEAD></HEAD>
  
  
• Other things to keep in mind if you decide to use HTML: use absolute URLs only: do not include graphics; use "pure" HTML (HTML generated by Word or FrontPage is not satisfactory); do not use JavaScript, VBScript, or other scripting languages; do not use any includes; in fact, do not use anything other than simple, static HTML.