TOPS Home: TOPS Home E-Zine

Welcome back to TOPS Home, the web site e-mail magazine (e-zine) for the TOPS Community Web Site Service. Well, it's that time of year - yes Fall, and with the changing of the leaves comes budget season. Be sure to read the Web Site Sales section, where Susan Sanders offers some compelling reasons to include the costs of a community web site in your associations' budgets.

We have a new, customizable board handout for you this month that offers to help bring an old fashioned feeling of community to your associaion with the help of a Community Web Site. Check out the monthly download for instructions. While we are on the topic of marketing materials - we are pleased to announce our new welcome packets are now available, complete with customized marketing materials and an updated user manual, which you can also download from our site. Read the News Worthy section for more on that. Also, under What's New, we have now officially released the new Internet Updater, which replaces the check files program you may have been using.

In our support articles, we share some useful tips on sending HTML enriched text emails, setting up the Internet Scheduler, and using pictures on your web site to improve site participation. To top it all off, we have a great spotlight from Kuester Real Estate Services regarding Olde Towne Community's web site.

As always, enjoy your reading, and if you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact us. We look forward to speaking with you!

TOPS Web Sales: (800) 556-7852 WebSales@topssoft.com.
TOPS Web Support (800) 899-5689 WebSupport@topssoft.com.

Andrea Drennen

Web Site Sales

Welcome the coming of Fall... and Budget season

Ahh, Fall - every region experiences it differently - leaves change colors, weather gets cooler, snowbirds head South. Yet, many of our clients seem to be dealing with the same issue - BUDGETS! If it's that time of year for you, we'd like to help. One of the best ways for an association to save money is to budget for a web site. Save money with a web site - how can this be? Well, it's pretty easy - because a well promoted web site becomes a key communication tool in your neighborhood: email bulletins allow you to do do fewer mailings; announcements and online newsletters means less money on office supplies and less on postage. The list just goes on and on!

Many of the standard features of the association web site can be used to generate income for the association. So not only do associations budget for an expense related to web sites, they budget for web site income as well! Associations across the nation are using their site to promote local vendors in their area. They're calling the vendors that flyer their neighborhood and are making them a deal. For just a few dollars per month, the flyer - coupon - menu - will be displayed on the association web site. The vendors love it as it gets them the exposure that they're looking for longer than just the one day that the flyer was distributed; residents love it because they have access to the information on their time schedule and Boards love it because no one is calling them to complain about papers flying through the neighborhood on a windy afternoon!

The TOPS Web Site service is reasonably priced so every neighborhood can afford it - in fact, we believe they can't afford not to do it! Please give us a call at 800-556-7852 and we'll be happy to put together the web site pricing for your specific association!

Susan Sanders

Download of the Month

New Board Handout

This month, we have created a flier in MS Word that you can customize, print out, and distribute to community officers at board meetings. The flier is called "Build an Old Fashioned Community Feeling With Our Newfangled Technology" and is located in the downloads section of our web site:
www.TOPSHome.com/topshome/Administrators/downloads.htm

The handout offers to help bring an old fashioned feeling of community to your association with the help of a Community Web Site. Simply download and save the MS Word document, find and replace the words 'Your Management Company" with your company's name, and VIOLA! Instant marketing materials to hand out at this month's round of board meetings.

Andrea Drennen

News Worthy

New Welcome Packages and User Manual

Last month we announced the release of our online Flash demo presentation, and the subsequent release of updated custom demo CDs for our Management Company customers. We have now taken another step toward a complete update of all of our documentation with our new welcome packages. In addition to being up to date with all of the new features available, the new packages are better organized and more specific to the web site plan you purchased.

We have also completely updated the user manual to reflect all of the new features and changes that have been made in the past few months. The new user manual is available online for you to save or print out at:
www.topshome.net/topshome/Administrators/help.htm

Any web sites purchased since September 1st, 2003 have already received a new welcome packet. If your web site was created prior to that date, and you would like to be sent an updated welcome packet, please send an email to websupport@topssoft.com with your request.

Andrea Drennen

What's New

New Internet Updater

You may have noticed that the check files program that you use to update your web site files has changed. The new version of the updater is much more robust, and covers a wider range of files than the original check files program. You can now use the Internet Updater to update all of your TOPS files, instead of only the ones that apply to your web site. We have added a new 'Show Me' help topic to our corporate site that walks you through the process of updating your current check files version to the new Internet Updater. Check it out at http://www.topssoft.com/downloads.htm.

Andrea Drennen

Feature Teacher

Rich Text Emails with Email Bulletins

Email Bulletins is a popular feature that is used to push out information from the web site to the residents, instead of the residents having to always visit the site and look for updates. We have now added the ability to send HTML formatted eMail Bulletins! This allows you to add fancy formatted text, links, emails and even pictures directly in the body of your email text! It can be a great eye catcher and gives that professional touch. You'll find this new feature easy to use, as it incorporates the Rich Text Editor that you've seen in Modules and Feature Descriptions.

We have compiled some tips to help you when using the new HTML Emails:

One aspect of email bulletins that is different from other features is in how the recipient views the message. In all other features that use the rich-text editor, the item is always viewed using the web browser. While people might use various web browsers, the end result almost always looks the same. With an eMail Bulletin, however, the message is viewed through the email program that the recipient uses. This has some variance when it comes to the formatting of a message.

Most e-mail programs such as Eudora, Pegasus Mail, Netscape Mail, Outlook, etc. will display the message the same way that it is created from the web site. We have found that Hotmail sometimes sees the HTML code (which formats the text) in the message and makes it an attachment. The user can still read the message, but they will have to click on the attachment to do so.
When you compose your email bulletin, you have the option to include user names and passwords in the email. This is an excellent way to bring owners back to the web site, and increase web site participation.
When you are typing text in the rich text editor and press the enter key to return to the next line, it creates a double space. In order to prevent the double spacing, press shift+enter and the cursor will single space to the next line.
To avoid any gaffes, you should always check the spelling of your email before you send it out. To do so, click the spell checker button in the rich text editor. (it looks like a check mark with ABC on it.)

Is there a feature that you would like to learn more about? Send an email to websupport@topssoft.com with your suggestions for our next Feature Teacher.

Customer Spotlight

Old Towne Community Web Site, Kuester Real Estate Services

Kuester Real Estate Services is a full service management and brokerage firm dedicated to providing clients total quality management in all areas of real estate management. When faced with the decision to purchase new management software, our long-term goal was to integrate technology with services. We also wanted a software package to include all aspects of property management on a stable and affordable platform. TOPS 2000™ was clearly able to provide us with all these services and much more.

In addition to the great features of TOPS 2000™ are the Community Web Sites which are an invaluable feature both to the Management Company and communities. An example of this can be seen on one of our Properties in Rock Hill, SC.

Olde Towne Association is a 176-unit community, which has utilized all the benefits of TOPS Community Web sites and as a result is more organized and responsible as a community. It can be sometimes difficult to bring large communities together as we all know. However, it is up to management companies, managers, and board members alike to equip our communities with the tools needed to get the job done right.

Through the use of TOPS Community Web Sites, Olde Towne has been able to reduce homeowner delinquency, schedule events for community involvement, utilize monthly financial reports for board viewing, and generate extra income from selling vendor ads.

This truly is a valuable service for any community and we invite anyone to view the Olde Towne Community Web Site at www.kuesterproperties.com/oldetowne/. Special thanks to everyone at TOPS Software for helping us and making our jobs easier!

Bryan Kuester
http://www.kuesterproperties.com

Would you like your web site to be spotlighted in the TOPS Home E-Zine? Send us a two or three paragraph email. Be sure to include a description of your community, tell us what led you to getting a Community Web Site, and let us know what features you like best. Send your spotlight to websupport@topssoft.com.

Tutorial

Setting up the Internet Scheduler

One of the main benefits of a TOPS community web site is its ability to upload TOPS data to the web site for owners to view. To impress your clients, however, you must make sure that this information is kept up-to-date. Fortunately, TOPS 2000(tm) comes with a utility that helps you to do this automatically so that it does not interrupt the rest of your work. The Internet Scheduler utility will automatically upload community data according to a schedule that you set.

To make sure that data is uploaded properly, however, you should make sure that the Internet Scheduler utility is set up properly. The Internet Scheduler utility is a program that will upload community web site data at a certain time on the days that you select. It normally runs in the Windows system tray (the collection of icons in the lower-right of your screen, next to the clock. It can also perform an automatic backup of your important community data using the Internet Backup Service.

Choosing a Scheduler Host

The first thing you should do is choose where the Internet Scheduler will be run. We will refer to this as the host computer. This is important because it must be run from a computer that is on during the time of the upload. If you choose your own computer and select to upload at 8 p.m., but you turn your computer off at 6 p.m., it will not upload. Choose a host computer in your office that is always on and that you can easily access if you need to, you will also need to make sure that the computer that you choose has TOPS installed, and has access to the community data. Many companies choose to set up their TOPS data server as the scheduler host, since it tends to meet all three requirements. All of the following steps in this tutorial should be performed on the host computer.

Updating Your Program Files

First, you will want to update the program files on the host computer. To do this, open TOPS 2000™ on the host computer, go to the Internet menu, then click on Check For Updates Online. (You may need to upgrade to the new Web Updater utility to get all of the files you need. See the What's New section of this ezine for a walk through on upgrading to the new Internet Updater.) Once you have the main screen of the Web Updater utility up, select Community Web Sites from the 'Module to Update' drop down list. If there are files to update, a non-zero number will appear under Total files to update. Before you continue, though...

STOP! Did I get your attention? Before you continue, leave the Updater Utility open, but close TOPS 2000™ in the background as well as the Internet Scheduler utility in the system tray. To close the Internet Scheduler utility, right-click on it, then click Quit. Only now should you proceed and click 'Begin Update' on the Web Updater. This will update all the program files associated with the Community Web Sites.

You will want to perform this Check For Updates Online occasionally. To help with this, you can select 'Auto Check Community Web Site Files' from the Internet menu in TOPS 2000™. This will run the Internet Updater any time you use a command in the Internet menu that communicates with the Internet. This does not happen on automatically scheduled uploads, but any time you go into TOPS 2000™ to perform these commands, it will check.

Running the Scheduler

Once the host computer is up-to-date, you will want to make sure the Internet Scheduler is running. To do this:

Go into TOPS 2000™ to the Internet menu.
Move your cursor over 'Run Internet Scheduler at Startup'.
If there is not a checkmark there already, click to put one there. This does not actually start the Scheduler program, but it puts a link to it in the Start->Programs->Startup menu, which will cause it to run each time the computer is restarted.
To run the program now, go to the Start menu in Windows. Then go to Programs (All Programs in Windows XP) -> Startup -> TOPS Community Web.
This is the Internet Scheduler utility; running it will put its icon in the system tray.

Defining an Upload Schedule

Now that it is running, the last thing you need to do is set the actual schedule for your automatic uploads. Make sure that your Internet connection is on for whenever the upload is scheduled to occur. It is recommended that you only use the scheduler if you have a continuous Internet connection (T1, Cable, DSL, ISDN).

There are 3 ways of getting to the schedule:
- Internet->Setup Options->Schedule
- Internet->Internet Backup Service->Schedule
- Right-click on the scheduler icon in the system tray and select Setup->Schedule.
Notice that there are 2 tabs for the schedule: a green and a blue. Make sure you are on the Green Tab (Upload Communities).
- The green tab called Upload Communities is for community data uploads.
- The blue tab called Web Backup is for the Internet Backup Service schedule.
Check the boxes for the days you want uploads to be performed, and set the scheduled upload time.
e.g. If you check Monday through Friday and set the time at 6 p.m., the scheduler will trigger a new upload every weekday at 6 p.m.

One final thing to keep in mind: if you use both the Internet Backup Service and TOPS Community Web Sites, you should schedule different times for each one. While they are not communicating with the same servers, the 2 services both trying to upload at once can be a strain on your network bandwidth. To ensure reliable uploads for both, set them at least a half-hour apart.

The Internet Scheduler utility is a very useful tool for insuring accurate information on your TOPS Community Web Site, and a great way to prevent interruption to your normal work process. Good luck!

Brandon Kelley

Support Tips

Using Pictures to Improve Web Site Participation

Increase your community's web site awareness and participation! With the holiday season around the corner, there are always festive parties and events around the neighborhood! Have your community shutterbug snap those pictures of the kids in the pumpkin patch, the Thanksgiving decorations and everyone dressed in their holiday finest at the club house dance, and load those pictures into your web site's Photo Gallery! As the word gets around, everyone will log on to the web site to check out the pictures of themselves and their neighbors - and while they're at it - they'll view the new Events Calendar to see what's coming up next! You can even announce in your community newsletter when new pictures have been added to the site.

Adding Pictures to Your Photo Gallery

Select Edit Modules
Select Photo Gallery
Select "Click here to Edit Photo Gallery"
Click "Add"
Enter a new category for the community event - "Trick Or Treaters", "Fall Food Drive", "Community Block Party" etc.
Click Save
Now go back to "Edit Modules"
Click on Photo Gallery
Click the event name
Click "Edit [event name]"
Click "Add"
Complete the information and use the "browse" button to locate your image file
Save

If you have a method of drawing visitors to your site that has been successful for you, please take a moment to share it with your fellow community web site administrators. You can send your tips to websupport@topssoft.com.

Did you know that TOPS Software will provide you with a free
community web site CD demo? Follow this link to apply for your free demo today!

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About the Authors

Susan Sanders is your Community Web Site Sales Representative
Brandon Kelley is your TOPS Community Web Site Support Representative
Andrea Master-Drennen is the Internet Services Manager at TOPS Software

TOPS Home E-Zine

Issue #20 - October 2003

Experience TOPS Interactive Web Sites for Yourself!