Enable Submission Portal Help Page

Contents

• Overview
• The Purpose of the Submission Portal Help Page
• Where to Find the Setting
• Customize the Submission Portal Help Page
• Submission Portal Experience

Overview

Program administrators can activate and customize the help page that users see in a workspace’s submission portal. Administrators can also route portal users to an external website. This article will go over where to find this setting and how to customize a submission portal help page. 

The Purpose of the Submission Portal Help Page

Once enabled, a help page in a submission portal can be customized with specific information or instructions to outline a program workflow, help portal users complete required steps, or view contact details for program staff that a portal user can contact with questions.

A second option is to route portal users to an external webpage maintained by your organization. When this option is configured, users will be able to select a Help hyperlink that will route them to the designated website. This feature is often used to direct applicants towards an FAQ page or more information (such as rules, terms, and conditions) about the program to which they are applying. 

Where to Find the Setting

In the Submission Portal Settings, the option to enable the Submission Portal Help Page can be found on the Help Page tab of the Portal Settings page. 

To find the Submission Portal Help Page setting:

1. Logged into a program as an administrator, navigate to the Settings & Tools section by selecting the cog wheel icon in the top navigation bar.
2. Select the Submission Portal tile from the Plugin Settings section.
3. Select the Edit button to the appropriate submission portal.

4. In the Portal Settings section on the right side of the screen, navigate to the Help Page tab.

Customize the Submission Portal Help Page

To enable the Help Page after navigating to the Help Page tab:

1. Select the checkbox next to Enable Help page from visitors.

2. Upon doing so, two new options will appear. Complete one of the following:
   1. Help Page Content: Enter and format the Help Page content in the formatting box.  Using the formatting box option will keep applicants in the submission portal, with the Help Page information displaying on another page.

2. External URL: Enter an external web address into the External URL box.  Using an external URL will disable the Help Page formatting box and will take applicants to a separate website when they select it.

--- IMPORTANT ---

The external URL entered here must begin with https://. While this URL prefix is not required in many other situations, Zengine will only route users to external websites if they can be deemed secure; this is verified via the https:// prefix.

3. When the Help page has been configured, select the blue Save all settings button in the lower right corner of the screen to save the changes.

Submission Portal Experience

If the Help page has been enabled for a submission portal, portal users will be able to access this page by selecting it from the dropdown menu in the upper right hand corner of any portal page. This menu can be accessed by selecting the gear icon. 

This will take a portal user to a Help page within the submission portal displaying the text entered into the Help Page Content box above. 

If an external URL has been set instead, selecting Help will direct the portal user to the designated webpage.