Why You Might Use News

News has a variety of uses and these are a few examples to help you understand how other Tendenci clients are using this content module.  Feel free to think outside the box and use News in other ways that suit your own organization's needs.

News Content Ideas:

• Press Releases

• Announce New Partnerships and Vendors

• Member News

• Share Your Biggest Sponsors and Donors with the Public

• Promote Upcoming Events and Share Highlights of Past Events

• Industry News Items

• Announce new Staff and Board Members

How to Create a News Items

Creating a News Item is easy.  The first thing you'll want to do is go to your Blue Superuser Nav Menu at the top of your website, (you must be logged in as a Staff/Superuser to access this) and underneath the "Content" dropdown, you'll find "News".  Click on the green circle with the plus sign inside next to News to add a News Item.

This will create a News Item that you can now edit and save.  Here are the different content fields of a News Item and explanations on what each field does.

Please note that items marked with a * are required.  All other fields are optional. 

• Headline*
  • The Headline is the Title of your News and is what will display at the top of your News Page view as well as in the News search view.  
• URL Path*
  • The URL path is the news link after http://yoursite.com/news/ 
  • For example, if you enter great-story in the URL path in the image above, and your website is http://greatwebsite.com then the link once you've saved the article would be http://greatwebsite.com/news/great-story.
  • You can customize the URL path or simply hit tab after you've entered in your Headline and Tendenci will auto-suggest a URL Path for you.
• Summary
  • The Summary box is where you type a short description that explains what the news item is about.  This should be 2-3 sentences that will explain why someone wants to read this news.  The summary is displayed on the News Search and in the RSS feed.
• News Body*
  • The body of the News is the rich text (WYSIWYG) editor where you can add your text, upload and embed media including photos, images, and files, and customize the look and layout of your News.
• Tags
  • Tags enable your site users to quickly search for News with similar topics and are search engine friendly.  You can also use tags to dynamically pull in content from News to your homepage and custom boxes.  (This is an advanced feature that requires some basic knowledge of Django Template Tags and web design.) 
• Source
  • The source is the name of the company, non-profit, or media outlet where this News was obtained.  
• Website
  • The website field is for linking to the URL of the Source.  You can enter the website URL as http://website.com, www.website.com, or http://www.website.com and each format will work correctly.  Once saved, this field will be converted into a hyperlink and displayed with the News Item for readers to link to if they'd like. 
• Release Date/Time
  • The Release Date/Time is a field to select the date and time that you publicized the article.  This can be the data and time that you created the News here, on your Tendenci website or it can be a custom selected date/time based on when the News Item was first released elsewhere.
• Time Zone
  • This field is to customize the time zone for the release date. 
• Contact Box
  • The contact box allows the author or publisher of the News Item to be credited and provide contact information where they can be reached.  All of these fields are optional. 
• Permissions Settings
  • The Permissions Settings allow you to customize who is allowed to view and/or edit this specific News Item.  You can select Public View, (all visitors can see), or choose from Groups, Users, Membership Types, and Superuser only permission options by clicking the "Show Advanced Permissions" link. Read more about Tendenci's content specific permissions controls in this help file.
• Superuser Only Settings
  • Superuser Only settings are only visible to Superuser-level site users.  These settings include selecting to include the news item in your RSS feed, and then whether to publish the news (check "Active") or to keep the news unpublished if you aren't done editing but want to save it (uncheck "Active").
  • The Status detail drop down gives you a way to noting if you want to article Active, Pending, or if you have made it Inactive.  The status detail is ONLY for a quick way of noting why the news item is active or inactive and has nothing to do with publishing the news.  You must have the "Active" checkbox checked above the Status detail menu to publish the news item.
• Add News Button
  • After you have added your content, simple click the Add News button to save and finish creating your News.  You will be directed to the News View page after it has saved. 

Edit a News Item

Editing a News Item is just as simple.  To Edit a news item, navigate to the news item's page view while logged in as a site Superuser. 

Then, mouseover the News Tab to dropdown the News options.

and select "Edit News" to edit the News Item.  Follow the same guidelines for the fields as described above when adding news and then click the "Save News" button.  

Did This Help File Answer Your Question? If not - visit the Tendenci Help Files for more help!