Volunteer Sign Up Sheets Locations

After activating the Locations extension, a new Locations section will appear under the Settings menu of the Sign-Up Sheets admin area. Here is the recommended setup order:

1. Choose an address format. Go to Settings > Locations > General and select an address format from the dropdown. If you are in the United States, select “United States” — this will create fields for Street Address, Apt/Suite, City, State (dropdown), and Zip Code when you save your settings. Choose “Blank” if you want to create your own fields from scratch.
2. Review and customize your fields. Go to the Fields tab to see the fields that were created. You can change labels, add new fields, reorder them by dragging and dropping, or edit the display format.
3. Create your locations. Go to the Locations tab to start adding locations. Each location has a name and values for each of your active fields.
4. Assign locations to sheets and tasks. When you create or edit a sign-up sheet, you will see a new Location dropdown. You can also assign a different location to individual tasks to override the sheet-level location.

Important: Choose your address format first and save the General settings before creating locations. This will automatically generate the default fields for your selected country or format. You can always add more fields or modify the defaults afterward.

The General settings tab controls the address format, display options, popup appearance, and the map feature.

Address Format & Labels

• Address Format — Select the address format template that best fits your needs. Options are:
  • Blank — No fields created. Use this if you want to build your own set of custom fields from scratch.
  • United States — Creates fields for Street Address, Apt/Suite, City, State (dropdown with all 50 states + DC), and Zip Code.
  • United Kingdom — Creates fields for Address Line 1, Address Line 2, City, County, and Postcode.
  • Generic/International — Creates fields for Street Address, Address Line 2, City, Province/Region, Postal Code, and Country.

  When you change this setting and save, the default fields for the selected format will be created automatically. Existing custom fields you have added are preserved, but the display format template will be reset to the new format’s default layout. You will be prompted to confirm before saving a format change.

• Location Label — Customize the label used for the location column in sheet and task lists. The default is “Location”, but you can change it to “Venue”, “Site”, or anything else that fits your needs.

Column Display Options

These checkboxes control where the location column appears on the public side of your site:

• Show Location column in SHEETS lists — Displays a location column in the main list of sign-up sheets.
• Show Location column in TASKS lists — Displays a location column in the task/item list when viewing an individual sheet.
• Show Location column in USER SIGNUPS list — Displays a location column in the list of things a logged-in user has signed up for.

Even if a column is enabled, it will only show content for sheets and tasks that have a location assigned.

Hide Empty Fields

• Hide Empty Fields in Display — When enabled, any address fields that are left blank for a location will be removed from the popup display, including their line breaks. This keeps the popup clean by not showing blank lines for optional fields like Apt/Suite or Address Line 2. When disabled, the formatting structure is preserved even when some fields are empty.

Popup Styling

These settings let you customize the appearance of the address popup that appears when a visitor clicks on a location name:

• Background Color — The background color of the popup. Default is white (#FFFFFF).
• Border Color — The color of the popup border. Default is gray (#999999).
• Border Width — The width of the popup border in pixels. Default is 1.
• Text Color — The color of the text inside the popup. Default is black (#000000).
• Maximum Width — The maximum width of the popup in pixels. Default is 394. On mobile devices, the popup will automatically shrink to fit the screen.
• Padding — The inner spacing of the popup in pixels. Default is 25.
• Border Radius — Controls the roundness of the popup corners in pixels. Set to 0 for square corners, or increase for rounded corners.
• Box Shadow — Adds a subtle shadow effect behind the popup for a more polished look.

Map Feature

• Enable “Map It” Link — When enabled, a clickable link will appear at the bottom of each location popup. Clicking it will open the address in Google Maps on a desktop browser, or in the default map app on a mobile device.
• Map Link Text — Customize the text for the map link. Default is “Map It”. You could change it to “Get Directions”, “View on Map”, or anything else.

The Fields tab is where you manage the address fields that make up your locations. If you selected an address format preset in the General settings, you will already see the default fields for that format listed here.

Understanding Fields

Each field has the following properties:

• Admin Name — An internal name for your reference in the admin area.
• Label — The public-facing label shown when creating or editing a location, and in the address display.
• Input Type — The type of form input. Options include: text, email, telephone, URL, number, select (dropdown), radio buttons, checkbox, textarea, and date.
• Description — Optional help text displayed below the field when editing a location.
• Options — For select and radio field types only. Enter the choices as a comma-separated list (e.g., “Option A, Option B, Option C”).
• Required — Whether the field must be filled in when creating a location.
• Active — Inactive fields are hidden from forms and display but remain in the database. You can reactivate them at any time.

Adding a Field

Click the Add Field button to create a new field. Fill in the properties and click Save. The new field will be added to the end of the field list and will appear when you create or edit locations.

Reordering Fields

You can change the order of your fields by dragging and dropping them in the fields list. After rearranging, click the Save Order button that appears to save the new order. The field order determines the order fields appear both in the location edit form and in the formatted address display.

Editing the Display Format

Below the field list, you will find an Edit Field Display button. This opens a template editor where you can customize exactly how the address is displayed in the popup. The format uses placeholders like {city}, {state}, and {zip} that correspond to your field slugs.

For example, the United States format looks like this:

{address_1}
{address_2}
{city}, {state} {zip}

Each line becomes a separate line in the popup display. You can rearrange placeholders, add punctuation or separators, and combine fields on the same line however you like. A live preview shows you how the format will look with sample data as you type. Click Reset to Default to restore the format for your selected address preset.

The Locations tab is where you create and manage your actual locations. Each location has a name and values for each of your active fields.

Creating a Location

1. Go to Settings > Locations > Locations tab.
2. Click Add Location.
3. Enter a Location Name (required). This is the clickable name that will appear in your sheet and task lists.
4. Fill in the address fields. Required fields are marked with an asterisk (*).
5. Click Save Location.

Editing a Location

Click the Edit link next to any location in the list to update its name or address fields. Changes will be reflected everywhere that location is assigned.

Deleting a Location

Click the Delete link next to a location to permanently remove it. Any sheets or tasks that had this location assigned will no longer show a location. This action cannot be undone.

Exporting Location Data

The locations list includes export buttons for Excel, CSV, PDF, and Print, allowing you to export your location data for reference or record keeping.

Enter the license key from your purchase to enable automatic updates. You can find your license key in the purchase confirmation email or in your account on the plugin store.

• Paste your license key into the License Key field and click Activate License.
• When activated, the status will show as Active and you will receive automatic updates.
• To deactivate a license (for example, to move it to a different site), click Deactivate License.

Tip: If you are running version 6.1.0 or later of the main Volunteer Sign Up Sheets plugin, you can also manage this license from the centralized Licenses page under the Sign-Up Sheets menu. That page lets you view and manage the license keys for the main plugin and all installed extensions in one place, and includes an “Activate All” feature for All Access or bundle keys.

Once you have created your locations, you can assign them to sign-up sheets and individual tasks.

Sheet-Level Location

When you create or edit a sign-up sheet, you will see a Location dropdown in the sheet settings. Selecting a location here sets the default location for the entire sheet and all of its tasks.

Task-Level Location

When editing a task, you will also see a Location dropdown. By default, it is set to “Use Sheet Location”, which means the task will use whatever location is assigned to the sheet. If you select a different location, it will override the sheet-level location for that specific task only.

This is useful when an event spans multiple venues. For example, you might set the sheet location to “Main School Building” but assign “Gymnasium” to a specific task like “Setup Decorations”.

How the Hierarchy Works

The extension checks for a location assignment in this order:

1. Task location — If a specific location is assigned to the task, that location is used.
2. Sheet location — If the task has no specific location, the sheet’s default location is used.
3. No location — If neither the task nor the sheet has a location, no location is displayed for that task.

When a location is assigned and the appropriate column display option is enabled in the General settings, the location name will appear as a clickable link in the sheet or task list.

Clicking the location name opens a small popup that displays:

• The location name in bold at the top.
• The formatted address using your display format template.
• A “Map It” link (if enabled in General settings) that opens the address in a map application.
• A “Close” link to dismiss the popup.

You can click a different location name to switch to that popup, or click Close (or the same location name again) to dismiss it.

When the “Map It” link is enabled in the General settings, it will appear at the bottom of each location popup. The behavior depends on the visitor’s device:

• Desktop browsers — Opens Google Maps in a new tab with the address pre-filled in the search bar.
• Mobile devices — Opens the device’s default map application (such as Apple Maps on iPhone or Google Maps on Android). If no map app is available, it falls back to Google Maps in the browser.

You can customize the link text from “Map It” to anything you prefer, such as “Get Directions” or “View on Map”, in the General settings.

The Locations extension adds two template tags that you can use in your email templates:

• {location_name} — Replaced with the name of the location assigned to the task (or sheet, if the task has no specific location).
• {location_address} — Replaced with the full formatted address as plain text (suitable for emails).

You can add these tags to any of your confirmation, reminder, or other email templates. If no location is assigned, the tags will be replaced with an empty string.

If you are using the Calendar display extension, locations can be displayed on the calendar alongside sheet and task titles. The location appears as the same clickable popup used elsewhere, so visitors can view the address and map it directly from the calendar view.

To enable this, look for the location display options in your calendar settings when creating or editing a calendar.

While this extension is designed for managing physical locations, the customizable fields and labels make it flexible enough for other purposes. Since you can change the “Location” label to anything, and create any fields you like, you could use it to display:

• Contact information for each event or task (e.g., a coordinator’s name, phone, and email).
• Special instructions or notes that volunteers can view in a popup by clicking on a link.
• Room or booth assignments with additional details.
• Any other supplemental information you want to associate with sheets or tasks.

Simply change the Location Label in the General settings, create fields that match the information you want to collect, and the popup will display whatever you have configured.