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News Administration

This module allows you to easily create a news area on your site. Some use this as in site news such as additions of functionality and content, where as some use as a quick way for users to catch up on recent information pertaining to the subject matter of the site. These news items can also be used as lead-ins to some content in the article module. Click on "News Administration" in "Admin Suite" and you will be taken to the window shown below.

Submit and Upload News

From this window you can submit new news items to be displayed on your site. The first thing you have to do is enter in the e-mail and password of a submitter account. If you don't have one already then you will have to create one.

The next thing you should enter is the "News Title" and "News Leadin", which will be shown as a pair for each news item when all the news items are listed. The leadin should be a short description of the main idea of the news item. "News Content" will be the actual news bite itself. If you would like to link this new item to a more extensive article, then this text area is where you would put the link.

Finally, if you are familiar with HTML you can select "Yes" for the "Allow HTML" option. This allows you to enter HTML code in this page’s text fields. If you don't want to put in HTML then select "No" and your text will be properly formatted.

If you would like to see what this news item will look like on the front end of your site before you continue you can click on "Preview", which will open a pop-up window showing the item. If you are happy with the way the news item looks, then you can click "Submit". If you are not happy with the way the news item looks you can go back and edit the text fields above or if you would like to start over you can click on the "Reset" button and all the text fields/areas will be cleared for you. Once you are finished with your news item, don't forget to click "Submit"!!!!

When you have submitted the news item, click on "News" to return to "News Administration".

News Moderation

The first option in this window is a pull-down list that allows you to specify, by status, which news items will be shown in the list below. The list itself contains an "ID" field, which is the integer id number for each news item, the "Title" of the news item, the "Submitter", which in the member account that was used to post the news item, and the "Date Submitted". The status of a news item is indicated by a highlighted checkmark if it is approved, a highlighted x-mark if it is rejected and a highlighted question mark if it is pending. To switch between the three states you can click on one of the darkened two buttons. Keep in mind that a news item must be approved to appear on the front-end of your site.

If you would like to change one of these existing news items, you can click on the "Edit" button to the right of the appropriate news item and you will be directed to the window shown below.

From this window you can edit all the information that you entered when you originally created the news item as well as a few other things. The "Start Display" and "Stop Display" fields allow you to specify when the news item will be shown on the front end of your site (you should always use the full capitalized month name and format given when entering a date). You can also change the approval status from this window using the "Reject/Approve" pull-down list.

When you are finished editing the news item, click "Submit". Also, if at any point you need to start this entry over, you can click on the "Reset" button to return all the text fields/areas to their saved values. To return to "News Administration" click on "News" in the top left of the window.

Administrate Pages

The idea behind this window is to make changes to the format of the news pages. If you need to make any changes, click on the appropriate "Edit" button, which will take you to the window shown below.

The two options (page name and title image) are for naming your page and you should choose one of them.

If you prefer to have an image for the title instead of the text for the page, you can click on the "Browse" button and choose an image from your hard drive.

Note that a title image replaces the "Page Name" in the page content, but not on the window title.

Next you need to type your "Meta tags".

What is a Meta Tag?

"Area Content" is the next option. This is the basic text that appears in the page you have selected.

Finally, if you are familiar with HTML you can select "Yes" for the "Allow HTML" option. This allows you to enter HTML code in this page’s text fields. If you don't want to put in HTML then select "No" and your text will be properly formatted.

When you entered all your information, don't forget to click submit!!!!!

Once you are done changing the page setup you can either click on "Page List" to edit the page setup of the other pages in this module or you can click on "News" to return to the news administration menu.

Submission Permissions

For this window a highlighted checkmark represents yes and a highlighted x-mark represents no.

The first option is "Allow Visitor News Submission", which if set to yes allows users to submit news items. If this is set to no, then news items can only be added from the back-end of the site. The next option is "Auto Approve News Submissions", which if on automatically sets all submitted news postings to approved instead of pending.

The last two options on this page allow you to be notified via e-mail when someone submits a new news posting. If you would like to be notified, then select yes for "Email Notification of News Submissions" and put the e-mail address you would like the notification to go to in the text field below that. If you enter an e-mail address, don't forget to click submit!!!

Custom Tag Information

Here you will find a list of custom tags that pertain to this module.

What is a Custom Tag?