Track chair: Using macros to enter information in emails

What are macros?

When sending messages from the Communication Centre, you can use certain macros or tags in your emails, which will autofill with the relevant data from your conference. Macros use square brackets, as in the example below, and a short string of text which defines their function:

Dear [[Name]], 

The example above used fours macros: 

• The [[Name]] tag which will automatically enter in the first name of each of the recipients
• the [[ConferenceName]] tag which fills in the full name of the conference (eg., The 5th International Abstract Submission Conference 2015)
• The [[SubmissionsEndDate]] tag which draws out the date for the submission deadline from the submission setup. 
• The [[ChairNames]] tag which fills with the full names of all of the people set as chairs in the administrator section of the conference setup.

The macros that you use are entirely up to you, as an administrator. Most of the default emails already in the system will use a number of macros and they can serve to give you some idea of how to make the most of this functionality.

Recipient Macros

These macros are designed to automatically fill in with the details of the recipient when filled in, so that you don't need to worry about sending an individual email to many people. 

• [[Name]] - The name of the recipient. Defaults to ‘Colleague’ if we don’t have an attached user.
• [[Surname]] – The surname of the recipient. Defaults to ” if we don’t have a user.
• [[Email]] – The email of the recipient.

Conference Macros

As standard, all messages from the Communication Centre include the conference long name, the conference URL, and the dates of the conference. However, you may still find it useful to include that information in the text itself. The tags for the deadlines are useful, but you may also just manually enter in whatever date you like, or just indicate a more general time period if the exact date is provisional.

• [[GeneralChairNames]] / [[ChairNames]] - The list of chairs as a sentence, e.g. “Erika Miklos and James Field Corbett”
• [[TrackChairNames]] / [[ChairNames]]- The list of track chairs as a sentence, e.g. “Erika Miklos and James Field Corbett”
• [[ConferenceName]] – The long name of the conference.
• [[ConferenceShortName]] - The short name of the conference.
• [[ConferenceMonth]] - The month the conference is taking place.
• [[ConferenceYear]] - The year the conference is taking place.
• [[SubmissionsEndDate]] – The date submission ends.
• [[ReviewingEndDate]] – The date reviewing ends.
• [[ReviewingDeadlineDate]] – The date reviewing ends.
• [[NotificationToAuthorsDate]] - The date the conference intends to notify authors.

URL Macros

The email header will also already contain the conference URL, but you may still want to point the recipients directly to the conference. 

• [[ConferenceURL]] – The url for the conference.
• [[LoginURL]] - The login url with the recipient’s email included for quick logins.
• [[ForgottenPasswordURL]] – The forgotten password url with the recipient’s email.

Reviewer Macros

The two tags for the reviewer invitation are absolutely essential when inviting people to become reviewers. The template for the invitation which appears already in the Communication Centre will use the two tags and it is definitely recommended that you leave those in. 

• [[ReviewerEmail]] – An alternative to [[Email]]
• [[ReviewerAcceptInvitationURL]] – That reviewers unique accept invitation url.
• [[ReviewerDeclineInvitationURL]] – That reviewers unique reject invitation url.

Paper Macros

• [[Title]] - The paper title.
• [[SubmissionTitle]] – The paper title.
• [[SubmissionID]] – The ID of the paper.
• [[Format]] - The submitted format of the paper.
• [[AcceptedFormat]] – The accepted format of the paper.
• [[Abstract]] – The abstract of the paper.