News Management Documentation

Introduction

Your website package level doesn't include the ability to create news and blogs. If you'd like to upgrade to a higher package level, please contact us.

The News / Blogs page provides the ability to create news stories and blog articles.

Stories may be targeted to specific Scout sections or volunteer teams, to be displayed on those website pages, or to be shown on your website home page for all viewers to see. You may also highlight top news stories to show on your websites' home page Image Banner.

You may add text and images to your news story and set the layout to best suit the size of your text and number of images that you've attached.

Use Cases

The following panels show specific tasks. Click on a panel to see the procedures.

Add a Basic News Story

Add a news story to your website

See how to setup the fields on the 'Header Tab' for the basis of any news or blog story.

To add a new story, follow these steps:

Login with a Site Admin username and password
Open Admin/News / Blogs
Click

Add a Title to your story
Tick all Scope fields that apply to your story
Add text to the News Story field
Click

Fig. 1: Header Details

Add Images and Files to a Story

Adding a header image to your news and blogs can help draw attention to them.

Adding more images to your stories will enhance the appearance of your story.

Adding a specific photograph, logo image or flyer image can help draw the attention of website visitors towards a news or blog story. You may also want to add additional photographs to your stories to enhance the look of the story.

Images can be shown in news lists and in the story details page. If the photograph also has notes added to its file, these will also be displayed under the photograph.

NB. In most cases, if you don't add an image to a news/blog story, a library image will be used which may be appropriate for the story based on the Scope fields ticked.

To add photographs or images to a story, follow these steps:

Login with a Site Admin username and password
Open Admin/News / Blogs
a story, or click and setup the fields in the 'Header Details' tab - See Add a Basic News Story
Move to the 'Photographs & Images' tab
Click the button
Select 'Your Files' or 'Scouts Online Files' to use file(s) on your website, or from the Scouts Online image inventory
Navigate through the folders to find a suitable image
Click for a file, to see the image and its' details
Tick all file and click
Tick the Header Image tick box next to the image you want to show in news lists for your story
Ticking the Header Image tick box for other images may place them in a different place on the story page, depending on the Story Layout you selected for your story.
For more details of uploading and selecting files, see the Admin/File Manager documentation.
Move back to the 'Header Details' tab and click

Fig. 1: Add images

Set the Layout of a Story

You can set the layout of your story to best suit the amount of text and images in your story.

You can set the layout of your story to best suit the amount of text and images in your story.

To do this, follow these steps:

Login with a Site Admin username and password
Open Admin/News / Blogs
a story, or click and setup the fields in the 'Header Details' tab - See Add a Basic News Story
Change the Story Layout field
Click to see how your story will look when viewed
When you are happy with the appearance, click

Fig. 1: Story Layout field

Examples of the Story Layouts

Fig. 2: "Scouts - Embedded Header Images"

Fig. 3: "Scouts - Separate Header Images"

Fig. 4: "Classic - Embedded header Images"

Fig. 5: "Classic - Separate Header Images"

Show Your Story on Image Banner

Promote your news and blogs by showing the story with image banners.

You can promote your news and blogs by showing the story with image banners.

Website visitors can click on the news story's image to open up the full news story.

To show your news story in image banners, follow these steps:

Login with a Site Admin username and password
Open Admin/News / Blogs
a story, or click and setup the fields in the 'Header Details' tab - See Add a Basic News Story
Tick the Show In Banners field
Click
NB. To keep your website fresh, untick older news stories from time-to-time.

Fig. 1: Story In Banner Field

Fig. 1: Story on image banner

Show News List on Your Own Pages

Use the News List module on your own user-defined pages to show section or team news stories.

Use the News List module on your own user-defined pages to show news stories for a specific Scout section or volunteer team.

To do this, follow these steps:

Switch on a user-defined page in Admin/Page Management
Open the new page
Select the News List module from the [Edit Toolbox] and position it on your page
See the News List module for information about setting up the News List
See the Page Designer documentation for information about creating your own pages

Fig. 1: News List settings

Fig. 2: Classic List

Fig. 3: Image List 6 Wide

Fig. 4: Image List 6 Wide + Showcase Top Story

Email a News Story

If you have a distribution email list (E.g. An OSM email list) you can email a news story out.

If you have a distribution email list (E.g. An OSM email list) you can email a news story out.

To do this, follow these steps:

Open Admin/News / Blogs
Click next to a story, or click to add a new story.
Click
You will now see a page similar to Fig. 1
This may be pre-populated from the Members Email and Leaders Email fields in Admin/Section Details
Un-tick the Send? checkbox for any email you don't want to show
You can enter an additional distribution email address too
Enter your distribution email address
If you want the email to be sent from your own email address, enter it in the From Email field, along with your email password in the From Password field. NB. Your password is not held on the website.
Click to send out the news story or
The story email will appear similar to Fig. 2

Fig. 1: Email distribution

Fig. 2: News story email

Scouts Online Facebook Page

Scouts Online YouTube Channel

News Management Documentation

Introduction

Examples of the Story Layouts

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Scouts Online