- Welcome
 - Log-In
 - Calendar
      - Subscriptions
      - Adding Personal Events
      - Labels
      - Adding Public Events
      - Highlighting
      - Text Reminders
 - Notepad
 - To Do List
 - Quick-Links
 - Resource Links
 - RSS Feeds
 - Groups
 - Final Note

This guide is intended to introduce you to the main features of NULink, a customizable student calendar and information portal. Please take the time to familiarize yourself with the features below to best navigate NULink and best manage your student group information. If there are any questions left over after you have completed this guide, please email the NULink team with any questions, suggestions or ideas. Enjoy NULink!

For an easy visual guide to NULink, please go here.

NULink users can visit the Web site (asg.northwestern.edu/nulink) to view all of the campus information, or log-in to NULink and set up a customized calendar, personal to do list, individual quick-links and more! To log-in click the link at the top right of the NULink homepage. Students then enter their NU netID and password to see their customized NULink page. You must be on-campus or logged-in to a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to use the customized section.

Note: NULink uses a secure authentication system when dealing with student netIDs and passwords. Please be ensured that your netID and password will never be shared with anyone, and are safe from third-party viewers.

Note:The calendar feature is the centerpiece of NU Link. It enables student group leaders to post their group events and meetings, and students to view them. This basic exchange of information is the key to NU Link, however, for it to work properly, information must be complete, accurate and continuously updated.

NULink must be an authoritative source of information, or students will not use it. Because of this, NULink asks student group "privileged" members (either student group presidents or assigned members who are granted access to event posting) to be precise in their data entry, and continuously update the calendar daily to ensure upcoming events are still being run, and all events are accurate and correct. Thank you for your help with this and please follow our "Event Change Policy" under "Adding Public Events."

Below is a run through of the individual features of the calendar function:

Understanding how "subscriptions" work is important in understanding how NULink works. NULink is essentially an enormous database of event information entered by student groups, university administrators and individual users. Students have access to all of the public information in some form, but for their customized calendars accessed by login, they do not obviously want to see absolutely everything show up. So students selectively chose information they want to display on their calendars by "subscribing" to student groups. By doing so, events entered for a certain student group (one "subscribed" to) will automatically appear on a student’s home calendar (and so will any future events that are added, changed, or deleted). Events not subscribed to can still be viewed through other means, but will not necessarily appear on the calendar automatically.

To subscribe to a group’s events:

• Click "Change Subscription" (right below the NULink calendar)
• Check off all student groups or categories of events you want to automatically load events for on your home calendar. Click on the different categories to browse different student groups.
• Click "Sports" to chose sports teams whose schedule of events you want automatically loaded on your calendar.
• Checking-off groups or sports teams automatically signs you up for the events. Simply click the "X" in the upper right-hand corner of the subscriptions drop down bar to close subscriptions.

Each Northwestern student will be able to add their own events to their online NULink calendar that is seen when they enter their netID and password to access their personal NULink page. This feature enables every NU student to use the NULink calendar as their main planning tool. Students can add everything from doctor’s appointments to office hour meetings, and no other student will be able to access this private information.

To add a personal event:

• Click "Add Personal Event" (right below the NULink calendar)
• Add the title, location, date, time, and description of the event. Note: To select a date simply scroll over today’s date and a calendar will appear. Click a date, and then move the mouse off the calendar.
• Enter event information in blank fields.
• Click submit

To edit a personal event:

• Click the event you want to edit on the NULink calendar. The calendar details will appear.
• Click "Edit Event" in detail menu.
• Change the information you want to alter.
• Click submit

Who Can See It:

• Only the individual who entered the information, no one else.

Students have the opportunity to assign "labels" to their personal events. These labels help students categorize their personal information, and highlight categories of personal events (such as "Homework") on their calendar.

To add a label to a personal event:

• Click "add personal event." (Below the NULink calendar)
• Type in the title, location, date, time and description.
• Choose a preexisting label or click on the "label" drop down menu, choose "new label," and enter the label title.
• Click submit to add the event

Who Can See It:

• Only the individual who entered the information, no one else.

Note: Only privileged student group leaders have access to public event entry on NULink.

If a user has authorization to add events for a student group, they will see the link "Add Public Events" immediately under their calendar and next to "Add Personal Event." By clicking on this link, a drop down menu will appear asking the user to enter information about the event.

To add a public event:

• Click "Add Public Event" (right below the NULink calendar)
• Add the title, location, date, time, of the event. Note: To select a date simply scroll over today’s date and a calendar will appear. Click a date, and then move the mouse off the calendar.
• Select the category of the event. This will allow users to find the event by browsing by the category selected.
• Select the group from the drop down menu. Users with privilege to add events for multiple groups will see multiple groups in the drop down menu.
• Add a description. In the description, feel free to provide a text link to the student homepage or event flyer.
• Click Submit

To edit or delete public events

• Click the event you want to edit on the NULink calendar. The calendar details will appear.
• Click "Edit Event" or "Delete Event"
• For editing, change the information you want to alter. For deleting, the event will be deleted.
• For editing, click submit.

IMPORTANT: To cancel/update a public event (Event Change Policy)
There is no cancel feature on NULink, but please follow the changed events policy below if you have permission to add/change/delete events for a student group:

• Click the event you want to edit on the NULink calendar. The calendar details will appear.
• Click on the event on your calendar
• Click "Edit Event"
• In the title of the event, type "--CANCELED!" or "--UPDATED" next to the event title. For example, "Student Group Event--CANCELED!"
• In the description, indicate why the event was canceled or changed if you chose.
• Click "Submit"

It is imperative that all student groups abide by these rules. It is important that students using NULink have control over the information appearing, and if student group leaders cancel events or change them without notification, the calendar will stop being a trusted source of information. Think of it from the individual perspective--one day you see an event, the next day the event is gone without explanation. We must work together to avoid this. Thank you for your cooperation with this.

Who Can See It:

• All NULink users not logged-in.
• All NULink users who have subscribed to that student group
• All NULink users who have subscribed to "popular events," if that event receives the threshold number of clicks to make it "popular."
• All NULink users who browse by your event’s category.

Users can select groups for which events automatically showing up on the user’s calendar are highlighted in a color of the user’s choice. This allows users to easily see an event by a particular student group since it stands out from the list of events. Users can also highlight personal events by assigning a "label" (see "Labels") a certain color for easy visualization of the calendar.

To highlight a group’s events or personal labels:

• Click "Highlight Events" (right below the NULink calendar)
• Click on a student group, sports team, or personal label you want to highlight.
• Click on a color in the color pallet that appears.
• Close the drop down menu by clicking the "X" in the upper right-hand corner of the drop down bar.

It is imperative that all student groups abide by these rules. It is important that students using NULink have control over the information appearing, and if student group leaders cancel events or change them without notification, the calendar will stop being a trusted source of information. Think of it from the individual perspective--one day you see an event, the next day the event is gone without explanation. We must work together to avoid this. Thank you for your cooperation with this.

Who Can See It:

• Only the individual who entered the information, no one else.

Public Events that show up on your home calendar (for groups you have subscribed to), can be clicked to see more information about the event. At the bottom of the right-hand section of the calendar details bar (that will drop down when you click an event), a link will appear that reads, "Reminder." By clicking this link, you will have the option of having a text message reminder of the event sent directly to your cell phone 30 minutes prior to the start of the event.
Note: this feature is currently being revised, and will be available in a few days.

The notepad is a space on the logged-in homepage that allows students to type any information that will be saved until deleted. NULink’s mission is to serve as a student information manager, which means students should feel free to use NULink for personal information as well. Enter anything from a cell phone number, to an address, to reading assignments, and you will be able to access this information any time you log-in to NULink.

IMPORTANT: To save information that you type in Notepad, you MUST CLICK "SUBMIT." If you do not, all information will be lost.

To store a note:

• Click "Home" if the Notepad is not viewable.
• Type information in Notepad.
• Click "Submit"

To delete a note:

• Click "Home" if the Notepad is not viewable
• Erase the entire current note or add a new one
• Click "Submit"

To hide/view notes:

• Click on "Notepad" title in the purple section of the "Notepad" bar.
• If expanded, the Notepad will collapse, and if collapsed, the Notepad will expand.

Who Can See It:

• Only the individual who entered the information, no one else.

The To Do List is a more formalized list of tasks that are set by the user. This list is a clearer organization of tasks, and so more longstanding information or tasks should be entered here rather than the Notepad for ease of visualization.

To add a task:

• Click "Home" if the Notepad is not viewable.
• Type your task into the space provided in the "To Do List" purple box on the bottom right-hand corner of the NULink homepage.
• Click "Submit"

To delete a task:

• Click "Home" if the "To Do List" is not viewable
• Click the check box next to the task you want to delete.

To hide/view "to do list":

• Click on "To Do List" title in the purple section of the "To Do List" bar.
• If expanded, the "To Do List" will collapse, and if collapsed, the "To Do List" will expand.

Who Can See It:

• Only the individual who entered the information, no one else.

NULink provides users with a way to quickly access Web sites they frequently use with one click from the NULink homepage. The links in the grey bar at the top of the page are called "Quick Links." Users can pick exactly which sites get displayed there. These sites can be anything from academic pages to frequently viewed sites, such as Facebook.

To add, delete or change a quick-link:

• Click "Edit" on the right side of the grey bar (under the purple permanent link bar). A drop down menu should appear.
• Type in the name of the Web site, which will appear in the grey bar.
• Type in the Web site address, beginning with "http://".
• Click "Edit" again or the "X" in the upper right-hand corner of the drop down bar to save your information.

  Who Can See It:

  • Only the individual who entered the information. Quick-links only appear on personalized NULink pages accessed by netID and password authentication

The "Resource Links" section appears at the bottom of the NULink homepage. These are the same links that are on the HereAndNow Web site. Simply roll your mouse over different categories of links to easily find the information you are looking for.

Underneath the resource links users will see "RSS Feeds," links to headlines at various news sources that are updated every day. NULink automatically displays the top headlines at various news sources so that users do not have to visit the pages individually to see the news. By clicking on the headline, users are taken to that news source’s Web page where the full story is stored.

By clicking "Directory" in the purple bar of the Web site, students will be able to see an updated student group directory with student group descriptions and contact information for the group’s officers. You will be able to click on the group’s Web site from this page and be redirected to that page.

Please remember that any information entered into NULink can be changed, and the system is as flexible as you want to make it. Feel free to change subscriptions to events and meetings, play with your links at the top of the page, and add and remove personal events at will.

Finally, please provide the NULink team with as much feedback as possible. We are hoping to make this site the best possible resource for Northwestern students, but in order to do so, your feedback is needed. Email us with questions, suggestions and ideas, or if you are interested in joining the NULink team.

Enjoy NULink! (which happens to be pronounced 'New Link')