KB User's Guide - News Tab - News Creating/ Editing Form Fields
Introduction
The Creating News edit screen is how group space editors and administrators will create and edit News items for your target audience. This document will introduce you to the various options that exist within the Create News Item edit screen.
Create from a template
The News Template feature makes it easier for News item editors to replicate frequently used News formats and styles. News items of type Template can be created by updating the required fields and then. From the Advanced section on the right side panel of the editing screen, the News Type dropdown menu defaults to Standard, update that to Template.
To use an already created Template (without overwriting the template), select Create News and select the your template name from the drop down menu. The default selection is "No template selected".
Title
A News item needs to have a good title to alert readers that an announcement may be affecting them. It is important to keep the title clear and concise.
Summary
The Summary field should consist of several sentences that cite the main point of the news article. It should be an extension of the title, offering further explanation and detail. Body
Body
The Body field is where the detailed description of the news item should go. It should expand the ideas of the summary and go into further detail. Any questions that customers may have about the article should be answered in this section.
Source
The Source is the person who is reporting the news item. News information should come from a reliable source whom we can contact about the outage for further information, if necessary. The Source field defaults to the KB group and current author name. This field can be edited to suit your Team's needs
Site Access
Site Access determines where the news will be posted. When submitting a news article, one can choose any or all of the different sites to post the news. Once submitted, the item is live at those sites. For a list of all active KB sites, go to the SitePref tab and select Group Spaces on the left. See KB User's Guide - Settings Tab - Managing Group Relationships for instructions on adding and removing KB sites from your SiteAccess list. Select the Access section in the right side panel of the editing screen and then check the appropriate site(s). You may also select Campus access as well as Read access and Edit access from this section.
Activation
The Activation field is used to create a date when the news item will become active. This allows news authors to enter news items ahead of time and set an activation date for the item to be displayed. For scheduled events, it is best to set an activation date several days before the events occur. Select the Activation and Expiration section in the right side panel of the editing screen. Update the Activation field selecting the appropriate date after clicking on the calendar icon.
Expiration
The Expiration field is used to create the date when the news item will expire. Planned outages should be set to expire when their maintenance is complete. For unplanned outages or announcements, management and team leads will decide when the outage should expire. The expiration date needs to be updated if the relevant issue lasts longer or shorter than expected. Select the Activation and Expiration section in the right side panel of the editing screen. Update the Expiration field selecting the appropriate date after clicking on the calendar icon.
The Set to never expire link allows the news item to be appear in perpetuity.
Inactive news items will not appear in the News and Announcements Content Module. Inactive documents are viewable in KB Admin Tools > News Tab. An expired news item can still be edited and the expiration date updated.
To inactivate a news item:
- Open news item in Editor ( KB Admin Tools > News Tab )
- Select Activation and Expiration section in the right side panel of the editing screen
- Update the Expiration field
- Inactive documents are viewable in KB Admin Tools > News Tab
Additional Features in the Advanced Section
Hide when expired
Set to "Yes" to prevent end users from accessing this item after the news item expires. If "No" is selected, the expired News item is still discoverable and viewable on the the Live Site(s), however a prominent red banner will be displayed; "Disclaimer: This news item was originally posted on 20xx-03-28 10:01:13. Its content may no longer be timely or accurate."
News type
This field defaults to "Standard". The "Template" selection is for creating a reusable layout for future news items.
Impact level
This field defaults to "Standard". The "High impact" selection features the news item prominently on the homepage.
Owner
The Owner field indicates the name of the person who has authored or provided the original content. Questions about documents and review requests are directed to the document owner. You may also select another user of your group from this drop down menu.
Send notification to
Use this field to email your News item to either one address, or, delimit email addresses with a comma to send to multiple addresses. After the email address(es) are entered, a notification will be sent when the news item is created or updated.
Additional Features in the Attachments Section
Use this section to drag and drop image files.
You may also click on the Browse link to upload images from local drives. Once an image is associated with this News Item, a thumbnail of the image(s) will appear. Upon attaching an image to the News Item, an image folder is created and the URL path is displayed for your convenience.
For more guidance on adding images into your News Item, please see KB User's Guide - Documents Tab - Adding Images and Other Files to Your Documents.
Preview Button
You may see what your News item looks like on the Live Site(s) before publishing.
Internal
From the Preview button, select Internal view to see how the news item displays in your live internal site.
External
From the Preview button, select External view to see how the news item displays in your live external site.
Options Button
View activity log
Selecting this option from the drop down menu opens a table in another browser tab. The table fields display: Count where number 1 is the most recent change, the Time column displays the date and time stamp your time zone, the User column displays the NetID and domain of the editor, the Change Since Last Save column displays the percentage of how much content was changed, the Change Since Last Publish column displays the percentage of how much was changed since last published, the Version Saved column indicates whether the version was saved, and finally, the Activity column shows the status of the version and whether it was auto-saved.
News attachments
Selecting this option from the drop down menu opens a modal window that will overlay the editing screen. This modal window will be a detailed view of all options available with attachments including dropping image files, browsing files to upload and a list of the current attachments.
Shared attachments
Selecting this option from the drop down menu opens a modal window that will overlay the editing screen. This modal window will be a detailed view of all options available with shared attachments including dropping image files, browsing files to upload and a list of the current attachments.
Add comment
Selecting this option from the drop down menu opens a small modal window that will overlay the editing screen. You may enter a comment and then check the checkbox to email the comment to the owner of the News item and/or the Admin of the KB group. Selecting neither owner nor admin means the comment will be stored in the Activity log table.
Quick Info
Selecting this option from the drop down menu opens a small modal window that will overlay the editing screen. The window will contain the metadata of the news item including the Site Access, Activation date, Expiration date, Owner group, Owner, Last updater and Created.Scan for broken links
Selecting this option from the drop down menu opens a small modal window that will overlay the editing screen. If a broken link is found, it will be displayed in this window. Only absolute hyperlinks (starting with
http://orhttps://) are validated. What is displayed is the Broken link URL and the Broken link text.
Save Draft button
Publish
Selecting this button from the drop down changes the status of the News item to Published. The date and time of when the News item is published will appear above the Draft button highlighted in green.
Revert to draft
Selecting this button from the drop down changes the status of the News item to Draft. The status revert to draft will appear above the Draft button highlighted in green.
Archive
Selecting this button from the drop down changes the status of the News item to Archive. The status of Archive will appear above the Draft button highlighted in green.
Move to trash
Selecting this button from the drop down changes the status of the News item to Archive. A small pop up window will appear asking if you really want to move to trash. After selecting YES, the status of News item moved to trash will appear above the Draft button highlighted in green.