Members area essentials
Your Members area gives you a private space to share information with selected people. This guide walks you through every step—from switching the feature on to keeping pages hidden until they’re ready.
1 Activate your Members area
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In your dashboard, open Members area.
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Click Activate members area.
Your private hub is live and you can start adding people and pages straight away.
2 Add a welcome message
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In the dashboard, go to Website pages.
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Find Members area and click Edit.
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Add a short greeting explaining what you’ll post here, plus any quick instructions or contact details.
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Select Save.
3 Add a new member
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Open Members in your admin menu.
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Click Add member and enter the person’s name and email address.
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Choose Live (immediate access) or Disabled (access later).
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Select Save.
4 Bulk import up to 50 members
Use the Bulk import of members tool to add as many as 50 people in one go. You have two options:
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Paste a list copied from a spreadsheet or text file. Each line must be name, email with no header, for example:
John Smith,john@gmail.com
Jane Doe,jane@example.co.uk -
Type them in manually, making sure to follow the correct format and space them out line by line.
If you have more than 50 entries, split them into several imports and repeat the process.
5 Perform actions on multiple members
Select several names, then choose to delete, disable, enable, resend password setup email or export CSV (email address and name only). This saves time when you need to update a group.
6 View and manage member status & passwords
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Status – set by you. Tick the box next to a member’s name and select Enable or Disable. Disabling suspends their login without deleting their details.
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Password setup – a green tick means the member has set a password; a red cross means they haven’t. Invitation links stay live for five days. If one expires, select the account (or several) and click Resend password setup email.
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If a member later forgets their password they can use the Reset it by email link on your Members area login page.
7 Create members-only pages
Create a new page, then drag it one level to the right under “Members area” in the page tree. The page becomes a sub-page of Members area and is protected automatically. To make it public again, drag it back to the left and out of the Members area section.
8 Hide a page while you edit
Click the green tick beside a page name to turn it into a red cross. While the cross shows, the page stays hidden from everyone except admins. Click again when you’re ready to show the page.
9 Understand session time-outs
The system keeps you signed in for a short period after closing the browser, so returning within a few minutes won’t ask for your password again. Important: After a longer spell of inactivity it logs you out automatically for security, so you’ll need to sign in when you return. If you’re on a public device, log out manually and avoid saving your password.
Conclusion
With these essentials you can activate your Members area, welcome newcomers and control exactly what they see—keeping your community space safe and organised.
Need a hand? Our support team is here 24/7:
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Email us at team@hugofox.com
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Use the contact page
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Silver or Gold customer? Call us on 01635 888 442