How do I run awards at my event?

Open Manage → Features and press Turn on on the Awards card. Awards needs nothing else: an event with no RSVPs, no guest list and no projector can run them.

Awards is on the website today and comes to the Cut the Cake app with version 1.2. Until then, run it from a browser, on a phone or a computer.

Awards are run by the people who can see the event's photos and guestbook: you, your co-hosts, and a venue's coordinators on its own events. Event staff cannot open the tab.

Where things stand

The top of the Awards tab says where things stand in one line, such as "Voting opens at 7:00 PM." or "14 of 22 have voted.", with the one button for that moment under it, such as Close voting or Reveal. Under that, one row names what happens next and when, such as Nominations · Opens 7:00 PM. Press it to see all five steps (Set up, Nominations, Voting, Envelopes and Winners), each with its time or its number and the one in progress marked Now; press it again to fold them, and the choice is kept on that device. As you reveal each award, its winner appears under that row, the newest largest.

Name the awards

On the Awards tab, press Add an award, beside the number of awards; with no award named yet, the form is already open. Choose what wins it (A guest, A dish or A photo), then press one of the suggestions under Pick one, which adds it, or type a name under Or name your own and press Add award. Each award is a row saying what wins it and how many nominations it has (how many votes, once voting opens); press it to open the award's panel, where everything about it is done. A new award's panel opens as soon as you add it. One to three is plenty. An event can have up to 12.

Until voting closes you can rename an award in its panel, add another, or Remove one, at the foot of its panel and pressed twice, which also removes its nominations. With two or more awards, each row has a grip beside its name: drag it to move the award, or use the arrow keys on a grip. Once voting is open, an award somebody has voted in keeps its name and cannot be removed: its Remove is dimmed, and pressing it says to hide the award instead. They are revealed in the order listed.

Switching off Guests see it in an award's panel takes it off guests' pages, the ballot and the screen, and its nominees and votes are kept. A hidden award moves under Hidden, a row below the awards that shows how many it holds; press it, open the award, and switch Guests see it back on to show it again. While it is hidden nobody can vote in it or nominate for it, it cannot be revealed, and it gets no winner the next morning. An award can be hidden until it is revealed.

Nominations

Guests nominate from their own page, or with no account from the ballot's link, one nomination each for each award, which they can change. From the link a guest picks a person from the list, a dish from the Potluck sheet or one they type, or a photo booth picture, and the entry says who nominated it. While Photos is on, a guest can also send one photo from their phone as their nomination, from their own page or from the link; it joins the album under their name, where you can hide or bin it. The link never shows the album. To choose every nominee yourself, turn off Guests can nominate in the Awards sheet; while it is off, an award with fewer than two nominees says Add at least two nominees, or turn on Guests can nominate. Either way you can add to the ballot: press Add a nominee in an award's panel. The picker stays open after each one and says it is on the ballot, so you can add several; press Done when you have finished.

• A photo is picked from the album or the photo booth. Adding a photo award turns Photos on, so guests have somewhere to add pictures; if you turn Photos off again, the award says guests can't add a photo to nominate and offers Photos settings. You can tick several and press Nominate 3 photos (the button counts them); each becomes its own entry. Upload a photo, above the photos, adds up to 25 pictures from your device to the album and ticks them. If Photos was off, uploading turns it on, and guests can then add pictures too. A draft or a wrapped-up event has no upload. On your own ballot the same button takes one picture, since a ballot holds one nomination for each award.
• A dish comes from the Potluck sign-up sheet when Potluck is on: the dishes guests signed up to bring are offered first, each with who is bringing it. Add a dish by name types one that is not on the sheet, and with Potluck off every dish is typed. Add a description adds a line saying what it is.
• A guest is picked from the people who answered Yes. Add someone else types somebody who is not on the list, such as a walk-in. Add a description adds the line the room knows them by, such as "inflatable dinosaur".

Above the photos, the picker offers filters where they would narrow anything: Album or Photo booth when the event has both, Mine for photos you added, Added by with a name for each person who added one, and When with each hour of the party that has photos. Pick as many as you like: choices in one row widen it, and each further row narrows it. The picker then says how many are showing, such as "12 of 40", and Clear takes the filters off. The button that nominates stays at the foot of the screen while you scroll. The round mark with two arrows in a photo's corner opens it full screen without ticking it, and Nominate this photo under the open photo nominates that one.

On the tab, on guests' pages and on the screen, a nominated or winning photo is shown whole, never cropped, and it is never given a name: a winning photo is the picture beside the award's name. Where there is no room for the picture, the line says the award has a winner. Press a nominee's or a winner's photo on the tab to open it full screen.

A dish or a guest can have a picture from the album or the booth beside it: press Add a picture. Each dish and each guest is given a number in the order it was entered, so a card on the table can carry it. The same thing nominated twice is one entry, and an award holds up to 40.

Until voting closes, each dish award's panel says where its dishes come from, such as "From the Potluck sheet · 6 dishes signed up". To keep an award to part of the sheet, press Choose categories on it (Change while the sheet has no categories yet), pick the categories that are in the running, such as Desserts for a best dessert, and press Done to keep them (Save in an app version before 1.4); Cancel puts the choice back. You and your guests are then offered only the sign-ups in those categories for that award, and Every dish puts the whole sheet back. None, dishes are typed in takes one award off the sheet altogether while Potluck stays on for the event: nobody is offered a sign-up for it, and every dish is typed. A dish that was already entered stays on the ballot, and so do its votes; to take one dish out, press Hide on it. Something a guest offered that was not on your list belongs to no category, so it is offered only while the award takes every dish. A dish can still be typed for any award. With Potluck off the line says so, and Potluck settings opens the Potluck sheet.

Guests choose from the people coming only when guests can see who's coming. With that off, you name the nominees for any award a guest can win, unless Who can vote is Anyone at the party: then guests type a person's name, and a name already on that ballot is refused. Guests can still nominate photos and dishes.

When nominations and voting open and close

Both open when the party starts, and guests keep nominating while voting is open. Before then, guests see the awards on Guest home.

• Open nominations now on the tab opens nominations early.
• Voting opens in the Awards sheet is Now, When the party starts, or Custom, a time during the party. Once nominations are open, the tab also offers Open voting now.
• Close voting on the tab closes it, and is offered once voting is open and an award has a nominee. Otherwise voting closes at the event's end time.

Reopen voting is offered after you close it, until the first reveal or the end time. Once an award is revealed, voting stays closed.

Who can vote

Each person on an answer of Yes has one ballot, with one vote for each award. A ballot is cast one of two ways, whichever comes first:

• From the account that answered. The guest's Awards page asks Who is voting? and lists everyone on their answer.
• By name, at the code. Somebody with no account opens the ballot's link, picks their name and votes. Names are offered only while guests can see who's coming.

You and your co-hosts vote without answering your own invitation. While nominations or voting are open, the first button under Voting on the Awards tab is your own ballot: press Open your ballot, which reads Vote once voting is open and stays filled until you have voted in every award, and the guest's Awards page opens with you as the voter, whatever Who can vote says. A host or co-host who hasn't answered their own invitation is part of the number the turnout is read against, voted or not; a co-host is included once they have signed in, and one who answered Maybe or No is added when they vote. Once you have voted in some of the awards, a line under the buttons says how many. If you answer Yes to your own invitation, the same button opens the ballots of the people on your answer instead: a vote you had cast as a host stops counting and does not carry over, so your Awards page asks you to choose again. A co-host who is removed, or a host who hands the event on, stops being counted as a host at once. A venue's coordinators and event staff have no ballot unless they are on the guest list.

Under Who can vote in the sheet, Anyone at the party also lets somebody the list does not know type a name of up to 20 characters, pick one of 12 icons with a color behind it, and vote. A typed name cannot repeat one already voting or one on the guest list. This is an honor system: one ballot for each phone.

With Voting for yourself off, as it is for a new event, nobody can vote for their own name, a photo they added or a dish they signed up to bring. A phone voting with no account is known only by its name, so the rule reaches it less far: a name picked from the guest list cannot vote for itself, and such a phone cannot vote for a photo it uploaded, but a typed name is not checked, and it can vote for a dish it brought. Anybody may vote for something they nominated.

The ballot's link and code

While Awards is on and you have named an award, Voting on the Awards tab has Copy the link, and Share where the browser can share. Who the link is any use to follows that rule: with People on the guest list, a guest picks their name from the people who said they are coming, and somebody not on the list is pointed to the invitation where anyone with the link may answer it; with Anyone at the party, they type a name and vote. No projector is needed and nobody has to sign in. Until nominations open, or until voting opens where guests cannot nominate, the page lists the awards and waits. The Awards tab draws no code of its own: a code for the room to scan is on the projector, or on a sign you print.

The link works while Code guests scan is on in Projector settings, as it is unless you turned it off.

With no screen in the room, print the code instead. Once the event is published, Voting on the Awards tab has Print a sign. It opens one page to print and prop up: the party's name, its cover photo, the code to scan with its address underneath, and the wifi code where the event has a network. Where it has both, two boxes above the sheet choose what it carries, and both start ticked. The code on the sign is the same one the projector shows, so it stops working if you turn off Code guests scan.

On the projector, guests need only the one code already on the screen. With the booth on it is there before the first shot, and until nominations open the words under it are for the photos alone. From the time nominations open it is there even with no booth, the words under it say what it opens (Photos and voting, or Vote at an event with no booth), and its page shows the awards above the photos with a Nominate for tonight's awards button while nominations are open and Vote for tonight's awards once voting is.

Hide or remove an entry, or remove a voter

Under Nominees in an award's panel, Hide takes an entry off the ballot, until that award is revealed. Votes for a hidden entry are dropped, and each of those voters is asked to choose again. A hidden entry moves under Hidden, a row below the others that shows how many it holds; open it and press Show to put one back.

An entry you or a co-host added also has Remove. Press it, then Remove for good: the entry is deleted and cannot be put back, and anyone who voted for it is asked to choose again. A guest's nomination has no Remove; hide it instead.

When a nominated guest takes themselves out, the entry moves under Hidden too, marked Took themselves out, and you cannot put it back or remove it. A nominated photo that is removed from the album leaves the ballot the same way a hidden entry does.

People voting from a phone with no account are listed on the tab in a row that says how many are voting without an account and opens when pressed. Remove, pressed twice, frees the name and drops its ballot. Anything that phone nominated stays on the ballot with its name; hide an entry to take it off. Use it for a name on the screen you do not want there, or for a guest who finds their name already taken.

What stays sealed

While voting is open and at least one award has a nominee, you see how many people have voted, and nothing about who is ahead. You see who is voting from a phone, never what a ballot says. Once you reveal an award, you see every entry's count. Under that award's Nominees, the winner comes first and is marked Winner; in a tie, each winner is. Guests see the winner only, unless you turn on After a reveal, guests see every count.

Reveal the winners

After voting closes, the tab names the next award and offers a Reveal button for it. Press it, then press again to confirm. A reveal fixes the result for good.

Until the last award is revealed, Voting on the Awards tab has Projector: while the projector is off it opens the Projector's sheet and turns it on, and once it is on it opens the Projector tab. Don't suggest this in the Projector's sheet takes the button away. If a screen is showing the projector, it plays the nominees and then the winner, and guests' phones show the winner once the screen has. With no screen, every phone shows it at once. With a screen up, leave 21 seconds between reveals; a press before then is refused until the screen has finished. A reveal takes the whole screen, banner included. It shows up to 12 nominated photos, or 10 nominees of any other kind, in the order they were nominated, and counts the rest as + 3 more. A tie shows up to four winners there and counts the rest; afterward the corner card shows two of a tie and counts the rest. The rest of the time photos keep every turn, and a card in the corner by the guests' code says where the awards stand: Awards tonight before nominations open, Nominations are open, Voting is open with how many have voted, each winner so far between reveals, and one winner at a time once all are out and the morning after. With no photos on the screen those lines sit under the event's cover picture, or in the middle of the screen when it has none. The screen never says to scan: the code's own label says what it opens, such as Nominate or Vote. With Code guests scan off, the screen still says voting is open, with no code beside it. An app version older than 1.2.1 mirroring to a TV shows the earlier awards slide between photos instead.

Play that reveal again, in a revealed award's panel, replays it on the screen, until the next morning.

If two or more entries share the most votes, they share the award. On a page, a winner's card shows up to four of a tie and counts the rest, such as + 4 more; an app version older than 1.2.1 shows them all. If nobody voted, the award says there is no winner.

If you press nothing

In the first round, voting closes at the end time, and any winner you have not revealed appears on guests' pages at 9:00 AM the next morning, or the same morning for a party that ends after midnight. The winners stay on guests' pages as long as the event does.

Another round

Once voting has closed, Start a new round appears at the top of the Awards tab: beside Reveal while an award is still sealed, and on its own once every award is out. It never appears while voting is open. The people who run Awards can start one: you, your co-hosts, and a venue's coordinators on its own events. Press it, then press again to confirm. The round closes for good, any winner still sealed goes onto guests' pages at once with no reveal, and a new round begins with no awards in it. Name its awards as you did the first time.

A new round is not tied to the party's end. Nominations and voting open as soon as it starts, or, for a round started before the party, when the party starts; Open nominations now opens it sooner. It stays open until you press Close voting, or until 7 days after it opened, when voting closes by itself. Any winner you have not revealed then appears on guests' pages at 9:00 AM the next morning. So the day after the party you can run a round for the best photo of the night, once the album has filled. People voting from a phone keep their names from one round to the next.

Earlier rounds

Once there is an earlier round, a row at the foot of the Awards tab says how many, such as 1 earlier round. Press it to list them, each named by when its voting closed on the event's clock, such as Closed Sat, Oct 31, 11:04 PM, and press one to see its winners.

Each earlier round has Guests see this round. It is on, unless the round closed before the party started: trying Awards out before your party keeps the practice round off guests' pages. Switch it on to show the round to guests, or off to hide it from them. Guests find the earlier rounds they can see at the foot of their own Awards page. The screen and the ballot's link only ever show the round that is on, and while it has no award yet the screen and the code guests scan leave Awards out.

The rules in the sheet

Press Settings at the top of the tab, or Edit on the card:

• Guests can nominate, on for a new event.
• Voting for yourself, off for a new event.
• Voting opens, when the party starts unless you set it.
• Who can vote: Anyone at the party, as a new event starts, or People on the guest list.
• After a reveal, guests see every count, off for a new event.

Turning Awards off hides it from guests; the awards, nominations and votes are kept.