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The Bulletins window is a directory of more than 400 Dartmouth-specific Bulletin topics. These topics contain timely notices from various groups around campus. The Bulletins are now being augmented by the Dartmouth Daily Updates. Dartmouth Daily Updates is a system for non-subscription announcements to broader audiences within the Dartmouth community, and allows posters to reach the Dartmouth community without special privileges. You can submit your posting request at Dartmouth Daily Updates under the Manage Updates link.
Reading Bulletins
To view the Bulletin topics, click the Bulletins icon from the column on the left side of the BlitzMail window. Select a topic from the list that appears and press the About button to learn about the kinds of messages posted there.
To read the Bulletins provided in one of the topics, double-click the topic name in the list. You will see a window similar to your inbox showing a summary line for each Bulletin (see illustration below); the summary shows the poster (the person who placed the message on the bulletin board), the subject, the date and time the Bulletin was posted, and the date the Bulletin will expire. Double-click the Bulletin summary line to read the full text of the Bulletin.
The File menu for Bulletin topics is very similar to the File menu for mail messages; however, only the original poster is allowed to remove Bulletins. The Bulletins expire according to the date the original poster has chosen.
For Bulletin topics, the only option available from the Edit menu is Select All or Select Unread Bulletins.
The Edit menu for Bulletin topics allows you to Select All the Bulletins available in the topic only or to Select Unread Bulletins. The BlitzMail Bulletins system keeps track of which Bulletins you have already opened (read) and which you have not. Unread Bulletins are indicated with a bullet [•] on the left side of the poster's name.
The View menu for Bulletin topics allows you to sort Bulletins similar to the way you sort messages in your In Box.
The Composing menu for Bulletin topics allows you to send a reply to the poster of a selected Bulletin or to forward a copy of the selected Bulletin to another individual. It does not allow you to post a reply publicly to the Bulletin topic itself.
Note: The general public can read any topic, however, the ability to compose or post new Bulletins is restricted to authorized users. See the "Posting Bulletins" section below.
 Monitoring Topics of Interest
If you want to keep up to date on certain topics, BlitzMail can notify you of Bulletins as they arrive in those topics. To be notified regularly, select the topic(s) from the entire list in the Bulletins window and click the Monitor button. This action will place a check mark next to those topics; you will thereafter receive notifications when a new posting arrives, and BlitzMail will open the monitored topic windows the next time you sign on. The Notify utility described earlier in this document allows users to set preferences for Bulletin notifications.
You may choose to monitor multiple Bulletin topics. If you later decide you want to stop receiving notifications about a topic, select the topic from the listing and click the Don't Monitor button. After you have done so, the Bulletin system will discontinue sending you notifications of postings to that topic.
 Posting Bulletins
Departments and officially recognized student organizations who have completed the application process and have fulfilled the Bulletins policy guidelines are granted privileges as "authorized posters" for their Bulletin topic.
Authorized posters may compose Bulletins and post them to their topic. The Compose button becomes active for an authorized poster, and clicking it opens a Bulletin Composing window (see illustration below). The Bulletin Composing window is similar to the mail Composing window. However, the Bulletin Topic field is already completed and is not editable. (Authorized posters may post only to their own Bulletin topic, not to anyone else's.)
Authorized posters must complete the Subject field and may edit the Expires on field, if necessary, to reflect the length of time the Bulletin should remain available to readers. Five days is the default setting for Bulletin expiration; the number of days may range from 1 to 99. The window displays the actual date on which the Bulletin will expire. Clicking the date or typing while it is selected brings up a dialog box for changing the date.
You can use the lower pane of the Bulletin Composing window to enter the text of the message. Bulletins cannot include enclosures and cannot be formatted with non-ASCII (text) characters. Posters can use the File and Edit menus in a way similar to the File and Edit menus in BlitzMail Composing windows.
Note: You cannot stop anyone from opening your Bulletin once it has been posted, even though you can remove it from the Bulletin server before the Bulletin expiration date. So, you may wish to print and check (and recheck!) your Bulletin message, and perhaps have someone else proofread it, before posting.
If you are an authorized poster, have completed your Bulletin Composing window to your satisfaction, have entered text in the Subject line, and have set the expiration date, you can select the Post Bulletin option from the Posting menu to send your Bulletin to the Bulletin server. A short lag time usually occurs between the time you post the Bulletin and the time the notification appears on your audience's screen.
If you need to remove your posted Bulletin before it reaches its expiration date, you may do so following this sequence:
- Open your Bulletin topic's summary window.
- Click once on the message you'd like to remove.
- Select Remove from the File menu (see example below).
The Bulletin system will ask you to confirm your action, and then will delete the Bulletin from the listing. It can take a few minutes before the Bulletin actually "disappears" from the listing.
Note: The Bulletin system does not send out notifications when a Bulletin is removed.
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