News, Media, & Print Management

This guide provides community administrators and staff with workflows for publishing community updates, managing YouTube media, and utilizing the Print Studio for physical menus and directories.

Table of Contents

1. Creating & Managing News Articles
2. Priority Messages & Urgent Updates
3. YouTube Integration & Troubleshooting
4. Print Studio: Menus & Directories

1. Creating & Managing News Articles

Staff can publish community-wide updates from both the Back Office web panel and the iOS Staff App.

• Drafting Content: Navigate to PUBLISH > News and click [Add article]. For optimal legibility on digital signage, it is recommended to limit articles to 500 characters.

• Formatting: The web editor supports bold, italics, underlining, and both numbered and unordered lists.
• Attachments & Images: You can upload multiple images and attach documents in PDF, XLSX, or DOCX formats.
• Duplication: Use the Copy feature to duplicate an existing article to use as a template for new content, saving time on recurring updates.

• Moderation: Cubigo Customer Experience Team can enable email notifications for new comments on articles to ensure timely moderation and community safety.

Broadcasting your news article to digital signage

If digital signage is part of your Cubigo solution, you can choose to broadcast your news article to your digital signage system. Once selected, you'll see a list of all channels that are currently configured and available to broadcast to. By default, all channels are selected. If you want to narrow your reach, click the X button to remove the channels you don't want to broadcast to. Before publishing, double check that the selected channels are appropriate for your content, especially if your community has separate channels for different areas or care levels.

You'll also see an option called "Restrict broadcast" which lets you customize how long this item is broadcast to your digital signs. The default selection is "Show for 7 days including the publishing date." The publishing date refers to the date your news article is published. Clicking the dropdown shows other choices like 15 days, 30 days, or Specify, which lets you set an exact date range for how long the item appears on your signs.

Keep in mind that the broadcast duration is separate from how long your news article stays published in Cubigo. Your article can remain visible in the news widget after it stops showing on your digital signs. For example, if your article is published from July 17 through July 28 and you keep the 7 day broadcast setting, the item stops appearing on your signs on July 23 but stays in the news widget until July 28. If you want your broadcast to run as long as your article, choose Specify and match the dates to your publishing window.

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2. Priority Messages & Urgent Updates

Priority messages are permanent updates displayed at the top of the Homepage and community Digital Signage.

• Creation: Navigate to PUBLISH > Priority Messages. Unlike standard news, these are limited to 30 words.

• Alerts: You can configure these messages to trigger immediate push notifications or emails to residents.
• Read Reports: Admins can monitor exactly which residents have viewed the message through the Read tab, which provides a percentage and a detailed user grid.

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3. YouTube Integration & Troubleshooting

YouTube videos can be embedded directly into news items or community signage rotations.

• Embedding: Click the video icon in the content toolbar and paste the URL. Residents can watch these without leaving the Cubigo app.
• Compatibility: Only free, public, or unlisted videos are supported. Licensed, paid (Premium), or private videos will show as "unavailable".
• Technical Troubleshooting:
  • Embedding Errors: If a video won't play, ensure "Allow embedding" is enabled in the YouTube Studio under "More options".
  • Kids Content: Do NOT select "content for kids" in YouTube settings, as these videos are restricted from embedding on external platforms.
• YouTube Live: To broadcast live streams, you must verify your account through YouTube Studio. Note that activation typically takes 24 hours.

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4. Print Studio: Menus & Directories

The Print Studio allows staff to generate professionally formatted physical documents from platform data.

• Dining Menus: Generate daily or weekly menus for handouts. You can select specific views (Dayview or Weekview) and filter by specific resident roles.
• Directories: Generate staff or resident directories in Table (text only) or Picture Book (with profile images) layouts.
• Editable Formats: Documents are exported as Word (.docx) files, allowing for one-directional customization of fonts and colors without affecting the original profiles in Cubigo.

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