Center for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence


Add a News Item

The image at right shows the Add News Item page. It was accessed by clicking on the link for Add News Item located under NEWS on the Admin page. This page is similar to the Edit News Item page described previously except that it does not have a drop-down list for Status. All new items are automatically assigned pending status so that you may preview your work and correct any errors before posting.

Using the image at right, we will add a news item (Creature Feature from COSEE-SouthEast) to the COSEE-OS website. Beginning with the Title field, roll your mouse over the text boxes and drop-down lists as if you were adding information to this form.

Site. Center name, in this case Ocean Systems, which is automatically supplied by the CMS.

Date. Enter the date you want posted adjacent to your news item title. You may type the date in or click on the calendar icon to pick a date with your mouse. We'll go with the default, which is today's date and the date we expect to post this item on our website.

Title. Enter the title of your news item. News item titles should be kept fairly short - full sentence descriptions are better left for the blurbs.

Short Blurb. Enter a brief description of the news item. The short blurb is only used when the news item is recent enough to be featured on the Home page (see the existing item in the News box on the Home page, which will be replaced with the Creature Feature item we're adding now). Note that the News box is somewhat limited in size and you should check that your short blurb does not override this box.

Long Blurb (META Description). Enter a longer description of the news item (usually a paragraph), which will be posted beneath the title on the News page. This field will also display in the META Description tag in the source code.

Full Text. Enter a full description of the news item that will be posted when you click on the MORE link associated with the long blurb on the News page. Note that you may include links and images in your full text description.

External URL. This is the location of the news item, if it is to be linked to externally. If your news item is linked to an external URL, the full text will not display; instead, the MORE link associated with the long blurb will take you to the external URL web page. We want our full text to show, so we'll leave this field blank.

Thumbnail Image. To upload a small image for display on the Home page and to the left of the long blurb on the News page, click on the Browse button to locate your file on your hard drive. The recommended image size for thumbnails is 70x70 pixels. See Appendix A for help on resizing and cropping images.

META Keywords. Enter a list of comma-separated words that describes the topic of this page. Click here for more information on META keywords.

META Author. Enter the name of the person who created or posted this item.

Submit/Cancel. Click the Submit button at the bottom of the page to upload your information and thumbnail image (if you're including one). To cancel your changes click on the Cancel button.

Clicking on the submit button will open the Show News Item page. Note that the current status of the item is pending. If the page looks ok, click on the orange link for Publish This News Item at the top of the page to post your item to the website. You may also edit or delete the item, add a new item, or list all items from this page.

View the thumbnail image and short blurb for the Creature Feature news item on the Home page, the long blurb on the News page, and the full text that displays when you click on the MORE link on the long blurb.

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