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Visitors

Frequently Asked Questions for Cambridgeshire.net users
 

Contributors

Contributors' user guide to Cambridgeshire.net
 

What's new on Cambridgeshire.net?

New features have been added to Cambridgeshire.net. The new version includes some improvements to the search for end users. However, the main changes are in the contributor pages, used by people adding information to the site directly. We hope that the changes, which were developed in consultation with a small group of active contributors, will make the site easier to use. Do let us know your thoughts.

Cambridgeshire.net has one or two new releases each year with new features and fixes, so it's always worth letting us know if you have an idea for how the site could improve. As you can imagine, there are always more ideas than resources, so we have to prioritise changes. Telling us your priorities lets us know what is most important to you, the users.
 

Improved search: finding the listings nearest to you

If you search for listings near a given location, your search results will now be presented in order of distance, with the closest ones first.

If you search for listings using a keyword (e.g. "hockey" or "money advice") as well, your results will come back in order of relevance to your search terms - the most relevant listing might not be the closest to the location you specify.
 

Improvements for people who log in to upload their own information

We now have thousands of "online contributors" who log in to Cambridgeshire.net regularly to add events, activities and courses. We worked with some of them to find out what would make Cambridgeshire.net easier to use, and this has informed the following changes.

• Using icons to make the homepage easier to use. The Contributor Homepage is now more friendly, with icons for the actions you can take (e.g. edit, delete, or view each record).
• Seeing the start date of courses, events and activities.
  Less useful information on the homepage has been replaced by things you feel are more important. For example, the table listing your records now shows the Start Date of courses, events and activities. Contributors, especially those submitting courses, told us that this is a useful way to find the record they are looking for.
• Showing you fewer records at once.
  If you have over 20 records on the system, it can be confusing to work out where you are on the screen. We have updated the homepage so that your intial view will just show you organisation names, not events etc. Don't panic, your records are still there! You will need to click the plus sign to the left of an organisation name to show its associated events, activities and courses.
• Filtering the records you can see.
  If you have more than 10 records, you will see a box with 'filter' options at the top of the screen. You can filter your records by records status, start date and, if you have more than one organisation, by organisation name. Filtering hides all records except for those that you have selected (eg. Submitted records starting in December 2010). To show all records again, click the 'Reset filters' button.
• Showing which records are expired.
  Once their end date has passed, events, activities and courses are no longer visible to the public on Cambridgeshire.net. We now show these records as 'Expired' so that you can quickly see which of your records are visible to the public and which are not. You can decide whether to delete these records or to edit and resubmit them to create new events, etc.
• Getting rid of your expired records.
  If you have expired records, you will also see a button at the top of the page allowing you to delete all of them at once. If you make a mistake, don’t panic – your records can be retrieved from the Recycle Bin (there's a link in the top menu).
• Copying your contact and venue details into events, activities, etc.
  We have added one-click copying of your organisation contact details (name, phone number, email) and your venue address into your events, courses and activities. This change will make it quicker to add new listings where the contact details are the same as those of your organisation.
• Adding addresses – improved instructions.
  Improved instructions for adding postal and venue addresses to Cambridgeshire.net. We have improved the guidance around the tools helping you to input addresses quickly and easily. By using the tools rather than simply typing in your address, you can ensure that your records appear on the map in search results. This helps people see if your item is relevant to them, and encourages them to participate in your group, events or courses.
• Clearer instructions on updating your contact details on the system.
  To respect your privacy, the details that we use to contact you are completely separate in our database from those that you publish as part of your organisation, event, course and activity listings. This means that if you change your phone number, for example, you may need to update both your private account details and your publicly visible records. We have added help text to a range of locations to make it easier to make all the necessary updates.