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News Tool

The News Tool allows administrators to share the latest news with their users. This resource contains the following sections: 

News articles display in three views: Latest, Topic, and Year. The yellow navigation bar just below the large title of the page indicates your current view, while the other available views are underlined as links. The Year view, below the View by cue, works irrespective of whether you're in Topic mode or Latest News mode.

See screen shots below of the News navigation bar's different display modes:

Latest News: A maximum of three headlines display beneath each News heading (e.g. Alerts or General News).

Topic

Year

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How to Post a News Item

Click the add a news item link at the top right of any News page. An FCKeditor form will open with fields to be completed. Fields with asterisks are required. If you overlook a required field, the system will remind you by posting it at the top of the form when you try to submit it.

News Form Fields

Expiration Date
Default date is two weeks from the posting date. When News items expire, they disappear from the News home page and are moved to the archive. Users will still see the news item listed under the "Year" view for the year it was posted. You will also find them by going to your Admin Inbox>Approved>News Items and clicking the Expired link in the navigation that runs along the list of items.

Article Body
Keep in mind that while technically, you may paste news stories copied from outside sites here, legally it may not be OK to do so. In that case, leave this field blank and paste a url to the story in the url field just beneath this box.

Status
The default status is Approved. Approved items appear on your News page immediately.

  • Awaiting Approval places the item in your Admin Inbox waiting for review by a site administrator. This is the default state of items submitted by public or site users.
  • Deleted places the item in the Admin Inbox under Deleted items.
  • More Information Requested and Rejected are useful internally as a way to mark items you're not ready to publish or want someone else to review. Selecting either of these puts the story in your Admin Inbox under the same category.

Shared
If you check the box "Share this content item with other probono.net sites," you allow members in all practice and geographical areas to retrieve it in a search. Admins from other areas will also be able to add the item to their practice area news pages. Member type privileges set by you still apply to shared content.

See Publishing Shared Content for more information.

Priority: Checking the box next to "Mark this item as a priority item" places it at the top of your News page under an Alerts heading. Alerts appear only in the Latest News display mode and may display up to three articles at one time. See screen shot below:

Access Restrictions
Select who will see a News item by choosing from the options listed. Keep in mind the following:

If your News tool is password-protected--meaning only logged in site members can see its content--an item marked No Restriction will still be hidden from public users because they will not be able to access the News page in the first place.

However: consider marking News stories as No Restriction and checking the Share this item box. This allows them to be read by the public in other, public News pages (e.g., the Geo Area News page), and frees them up to be returned in search results.

Restricted to Members of this Site: All logged-in members of the site will see the item. Even if this item is published on a public News page it will only display to logged-in members.

Allow access by these members: Only the user type(s) you select from this list will see the News story. To select more than one, hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard as you click.

Area topics (Required): News stories may be tagged at the top Topic level only.

NOTE: All content, from library materials to news stories to calendar events, must be tagged with one or more Topics.

To assign Topics, take these steps:

  • Topic: Select a topic from the drop down list and it will appear in the box below labeled Available Topics/Subtopics. (News stories do not have Subtopics available for tagging; this is for Library items only.)
  • Available Sub-Topics: Double-click the topic in this second box OR select it and hit the down arrow below the box. Note how the item appears in the 3rd box labeled Assigned.
  • Assigned: Whatever appears in this box is what you're choosing to tag your News story with. To remove an assigned topic, highlight it and either double-click, or hit the UP arrow above the box.

Click Submit to post the article and you will automatically return to the News page you were on when you chose to add a new item.

  • TIP: If you do not see the item you just posted it's more than likely that the Status was not set to Approved. Look for it in your Admin Inbox > Awaiting Approval > News list. If your item is there, click its title to open it. Scroll down to the Status box. Choose Approved. Then click Submit.

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Updating or Deleting a News Story

To delete or make changes to a live News story, open its content form by clicking the edit imagenext to its headline. Make your changes, then click the Submit button at the bottom of the screen. If you wish to delete the story, change its status to Deleted, and click Submit. (The item will only disappear from the News' live pages. It will remain in your Admin Inbox News section under Deleted Items.)

NOTE: If the story was shared in from another area, the fields you may edit are limited to Status, Priority box, and Area Topics. In addition, you can click the Settings tab to send the item to one or more areas' Admin Inboxes for possible publication. All other settings are decided by the settings of the original post. See Publishing Shared Content for more information.

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Approving a User-Submitted News Item

Non-admin users are permitted (and encouraged) to submit news stories of their own. However, such items are not automatically published to the site; they appear in the "Awaiting Approval" section of your Admin Inbox until an Area Administrator reviews and approves them. (See Admin Inbox chapter for more information about how the Admin Inbox works.)

To publish such a story, go to your Admin Inbox. You'll already have all Awaiting Approval content displayed, so just click News Item and also the magnifying glass iconbeside it. Open the story's FCKeditor content form by clicking on its headline. Before approving, be sure to review or reformat the following:

  • Expiration Date
  • Article Body: (Note: Non-admin users do not have access to FCKeditor when submitting News items, but instead enter info in plain text.)
  • Status
  • Shared
  • Give Priority
  • Access Restrictions
  • Topic(s)

Now switch the item's status to "Approved" and click Submit at the bottom of the page. Or, elect any other status option you want.

  • NOTE: The name and email address of content submitters displays at the bottom of each form. If you have any questions about the story click on the email address to send a query.
  • TIP: If the story submitted includes a link to another web site, copy and paste its URL into a new browser window to check the link.

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How to Share-In News Content From Other Sites

If you are finding that your site's news tool does not have enough content, take advantage of the Shared Content tool. You can access this tool from the Admin Inbox, under "Shared Content" in the drop-down menu and by clicking on the magnifying glass icon. Next, select "News Item" and you will see a list of news resources that have been shared-in from other Pro Bono Net sites. This tool provides information on the news item's headline, authoring organization, date, expiration date, PBN site source, topic(s), and restrictions where applicable.

Shared Content View

Shared Content View

News items can be filtered chronologically by date clicking on the "Date" text. News content can also be filtered alphabetically by headline, authoring organization, and source by clicking on the appropriate text.

To approve a news item to your site's News Tool, click on the title of the article and update the status to "Approved." Assign topics as necessary and click on "Submit." The Shared Content will appear in your site's News Tool. If the resource is deleted or edited by the site that originally shared the calendar content, the content will be automatically updated on other sites it has been shared into.

For more details, be sure to refer to the Publishing Shared Content section in this manual.

TIP: Another way to filter is to utilize the Shared Inbox Search Filters. You can access this through the Admin Inbox, by clicking on "Shared Content" in the drop down menu. Then, click on the "Shared Inbox Search Filters." Select or deselect filters for shared content from other sites as necessary. Check boxes next to a site name indicate that the particular site will be excluded from sharing-in content to your site. Clicking on the plus symbol next to a site name will display its practice areas, which can also be selected or deselected as necessary. Click "Finished" to save changes. Please note that these settings are user specific.

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RSS Feeds from News Stories

Public News pages now generate RSS feeds. Users can subscribe to these feeds for their web pages, online news aggregators, or desktop newsreader applications. There are two ways to do so:

1. Click the RSS icon at the top right of the News page.

2. If using Mozilla's Firefox, go to any News page and click the RSS icon in Firefox's url field.

Other News

You have the option of including a section titled generally "Other News" at the end of the main body of the News landing page. Other News is an FCKeditor box that that you can populate with links to other sites of interest.

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