CAA Product Help

(HELP ?) Circles provide narratives on Training, Explanations, and Hints. These can be related to the overall screen, or to specific items on the screen.

You found the (HELP ?) Circle narrative for "Characters Entered" by clicking the (COMPREHENSIVE HELP ?) Circle on the "EMAIL & TEXTING" Screen in MemberLink or any of the other screens related to "Email & Texting" that have this (COMPREHENSIVE HELP ?) Circle.

Before proceeding, please be sure you have previously clicked the (HELP ?) Circle that leads to the narrative on "Overview and Basics: Using the Email & Texting Function". Being familiar with the general information about the "EMAIL & TEXTING" Screen may be helpful to you.

The following information relates specifically to counting the number of characters contained in your message.

Using the "Characters Entered" Counter:

First, you build your distribution list in the "WHO GETS THIS EMAIL?" Window. Next, you enter a sender email address in the "YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS" Entry Box. Next, you enter your Subject and the Body of your message in the boxes provided. There are (HELP ?) Circle narratives to assist you with all of these steps.

As you type the Body of the message, you will see the "CHARACTERS ENTERED" Counter right under the Message box. The purpose of the counter is so that you will know how many characters are in your message. This is useful if you want to send it as a text message. An email message can be any length, but a text message has limits imposed by the cell phone carriers.

In the MemberLink configuration, there is a control setting that governs how many characters are permitted in text messages sent from MemberLink. If the message will be sent via text, it cannot exceed 280 characters (including the control characters). You can watch the "CHARACTERS ENTERED" Counter and know whether you have exceeded the texting limit or not.

** Note: If you send a message via email that is under 130 characters in length, you can also send it via texting without retyping or shortening it!

"CAA Product Help" from CAA Ministries at Support@CAAsoftware.com or 404-551-4230