Connect Group Banners User Guide

What is a Connect Group Banner?

A banner is a wide image that appears at the top of a Connect group’s (a lodge, chapter, district, or jurisdiction page on the Connect social platform) page. It gives your local (the individual unit within your organization, such as a lodge, chapter, or local committee), district, region, or group a distinctive look and helps members recognize they are in the right place.

You can upload your own image, or choose one from a gallery of premade banners that your webmaster has made available. A webmaster is a member with permission to manage a Connect group’s website settings – content, pages, and now banners.

Getting Started / How to Access

You must have webmaster access on a Connect group to add or change its banner. If you do not see the options described below, ask your group administrator to grant you webmaster access.

There are two ways to open the Banner Gallery for a group:

• From the banner itself. If the group already has a banner, a small pencil icon appears in the top corner of the banner image whenever you are viewing that group’s Connect page as a webmaster. Click the pencil icon.
• From the group’s Admin page. From the group’s Connect page, click Admin in the group navigation menu (this tab only appears to webmasters). On the Admin Dashboard, look for the banner thumbnail under the group’s home page photo. Click the thumbnail to open the Banner Gallery.

Choosing or Changing a Banner

The Banner Gallery opens as a pop-up window showing every banner choice available to your group, laid out as a grid of tiles.

1. Open the Banner Gallery using either method described above.
2. Review the choices shown:
   • None – removes the banner entirely.
   • One tile for each premade banner your tenant administrator has added to the gallery.
   • Upload Your Own – lets you use your own image.
3. Click the tile you want to use.

The tile currently in use is marked Current with a green button. Clicking a different tile applies your choice immediately – the banner at the top of the group’s page updates right away, and you do not need to save anything else.

Uploading a Custom Banner

1. Open the Banner Gallery as described above.
2. Click the Upload Your Own tile, or click the plus icon in the top corner of the Banner Gallery window.
3. In the upload window, either drag an image file onto the box, or click Browse to choose a file from your computer.
4. Click Upload.

For best results, use a wide image about 820 by 312 pixels. If your image is a different shape, the system automatically crops it to fit the banner space, so choose an image where the most important part is centered.

Choosing a Premade Banner

Premade banners are images your tenant administrator has added to a shared gallery for your organization. Any Connect group in your organization can use the same premade banner – choosing one does not remove it from other groups, and other groups can pick it too.

1. Open the Banner Gallery.
2. Click any premade banner tile to select it, or click Use This Banner underneath a tile.

Removing a Banner

1. Open the Banner Gallery.
2. Click the None tile, or click None underneath it.

You will be asked to confirm before the banner is removed. Once removed, the group’s page shows no banner until a new one is chosen.

Managing the Banner Gallery (For Tenant Administrators)

If you have administrator access for your entire organization, you can curate the collection of premade banners that webmasters throughout your organization can choose from. This is separate from choosing a banner for one specific group – it controls what appears as a shared option for everyone.

1. From the main admin menu, click Connect Banners. This option only appears if Connect is enabled for your organization.
2. You will see a grid of every banner currently in the gallery, along with how many groups are currently using each one.
3. To add a banner, click Add Banner, then drag an image onto the upload box or click Browse to choose a file, and click Upload. You can upload more than one image at a time.
4. To remove a banner from the gallery, click the trash can icon on its tile and confirm the deletion.

Removing a banner from the gallery only takes it off the list of choices for groups that have not yet selected it. Any group already displaying that image keeps it – deleting it from the gallery does not remove it from group pages that are currently using it.

Tips / Good to Know

• The recommended banner size is 820 by 312 pixels. Images of a different shape are automatically cropped to fit, centered on the middle of the picture.
• Choosing a premade banner does not create a copy – it simply points your group to the same shared image, so the gallery does not grow larger every time a group makes a selection.
• Changes to a group’s banner take effect immediately. There is no separate save step.
• Only webmasters can see the pencil icon on a banner or the Admin tab in a group’s navigation menu. Regular members and the public simply see the banner as part of the page.

Troubleshooting

I don’t see a pencil icon on the banner or an Admin tab for my group. You need webmaster access for that Connect group. Ask your organization’s administrator to grant you this access.

I don’t see “Connect Banners” in the admin menu. This option only appears when Connect is turned on for your organization. Contact Groupable support if you believe Connect should be enabled for you.

My uploaded image looks cropped or stretched. Banners display in a wide 820 by 312 shape. If your image is a different shape, the system crops the edges to fit rather than stretching it. Choose or re-crop your image so the important part is centered before uploading.

I deleted a banner from the gallery, but it still shows up on some group pages. This is expected. Removing a banner from the gallery only removes it as a future choice. Groups that were already using that image keep it until a webmaster changes it.

Glossary

Connect Group – A page on the Connect social platform representing a local, district, region, or group. Members can view news, events, photos, and officer information for that Connect group.

Webmaster – A member granted permission to manage a Connect group’s website content, including its banner, pages, and officer information.

Banner – The wide image displayed at the top of a Connect group’s page, sized at approximately 820 by 312 pixels.

Banner Gallery – The pop-up window where a webmaster chooses, uploads, or removes a Connect group’s banner.

Premade Banner – A banner image added by a tenant administrator to a shared gallery, available for any Connect group in the organization to select.