Version 7 - What is an easy way to set up BlueNote for text messaging?

This may be the best place to start when learning how to use BlueNote to send notifications to smart devices such as phones and watches. Because there are no restrictions on ways you could set up text messaging, consider this page a suggestion of how we've seen it used effectively in many practices.

Each user will need to determine under what circumstances they want a notification to be sent to them. If the light can already be seen as part of your set up, the user will make choices from the existing Light Panel when they are entering their phone number.

For example, if an assistant chooses to receive an SMS (text) notification on a phone and/or smartwatch any time the existing light "Help at Front Desk" button is activated from any computer in the practice, this would be programmed in a single Alert Manager at the BlueNote client chosen by the device user. To receive only the notification above, the user would toggle only the red SMS button beside the "Help at Front Desk" light to green. No text messages would be received for any other Lights.

You can see that if all of the SMS notifications were toggled to green, a user would receive an SMS notification every time that any light is pressed, anywhere in the office. Of course, this is not practical, so we've come to the conclusion that many offices prefer to separate their SMS notifications from their regular lights. This way, users will only receive SMS text messages when someone intentionally uses BlueNote to send one.

First Step: Create a Second Panel for SMS Text Messaging Only

You can add SMS Lights for each user without having to add more lights to the front of your Light Panel. To do this you will need to open System WIde Changes and then Publish the changes that you make out to all workstations.

1
Open System Wide Changes by choosing Menu > Preferences > Options > Advanced > System WIde Changes. Type in " configure" when prompted.
2
Choose  Light Panels on the left-hand side, then tab over to Panel 2. This is where you will be adding your SMS Lights.
3
Click into a blank space to Edit the Light. Add the Name of the person, then SMS: Be sure to add a colon, which allows the light to Prompt for more information.
4
Edit the Light with any other modifications; i.e. colors, tones, or BlueNote tabs. Then Save the Light and follow the same steps to create each additional SMS light.
5
With a second panel created, the names of the panels will appear as tabs on your new configuration. By default, these names will display as Panel 1 and Panel 2. Rename Panel 1 to " Main" and Panel 2 to " SMS" by choosing "Panel Names" and editing the name that will appear on that tab.
6
Once all your edits have been made, choose Publish from the left-hand side, Save and Publish Changes to all Clients, then type in the word " publish" to Publish the changes.

Here's what your light panel will look like with the second SMS messaging panel:

Second Step: Have each user choose a BlueNote client for their phone settings

A BlueNote client can only hold one phone number at a time, and is responsible for delivering all SMS notifications to that phone or smartwatch. The BlueNote client will need to be turned on and the proper notifications selected for the user to receive SMS text messages.

1
At the BlueNote client that a user has chosen, open BlueNote and select  Menu > Alert Manager  > Notifications.
2
Under Notifications, toggle the Off button to On so that it appears green. Have the user enter their mobile number and select their mobile provider.
3
The "Next" button will appear. Click it to send the activation code. Once the activation code is retrieved, enter that into the box provided.
4
At this point, the user can either choose "Turn on SMS Alerts per Light" or they can tab over to the SMS tab (or Panel 2) at the top of their Alert Manager. The user will then locate their designated SMS Light's notifications and toggle the SMS beside their Light green to tie that Light to their phone number.
5
The SMS notification is now active. Any time the Light is activated, the user will receive an identical text message.
Repeat these steps at a new BlueNote client for each of the SMS Lights that you wish to set up.  Note that this particular setup is a suggestion only. However, this is a consistent method for users to activate Lights specifically created for text notifications rather than as part of general Light Panel alerts.

Using an SMS Light

With each of your SMS Lights programmed, to activate one, tab over to the SMS tab. Click on the name of the person that you wish to send the message to in order to bring up that Light's Action WIndow. Type your message in the Comment box, then Post the Light.

Note that SMS messages are read-only. You cannot respond to a text message that was sent by BlueNote.

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