You use the Announcements Module for announcements and publishing new items.

You can control:

• the number columns from 1 to 4
• whether a dividing line is shown between the columns
• displaying items down then across or across then down.
• the items' display order

 

This example shows a 3 column display with dividing lines.

 

 

Add a new announcement from the module menu,

or edit an existing one by clicking its 'edit pencil'.

This displays the edit screen shown below.

Title

Enter the title of your announcement.  This is highlighted at the top of the announcement. 
Check the 'Add Date?' box to add the current date to the title. (Note: each time you save with the 'Add Date?' checked the date is added to the title so you should only check this once, geneally when you first create the announcement.)

This is a good place to enter your key phrase for the page.

Description

This is the main body of your announcement.   Be as detailed as you want.  This could be the whole announcement or it could be the synopsis of the main announcement which your are going to link to.

Remember to include your page key phrase to help your search engine ranking.  Don't be tempted to over do this though.  Your key phrase must still be a natural and relevant part of your message or it may do more harm than good.

Link

This is a link to a more detailed version of your announcement.  You can link to

• an external web address (URL)
• another page in your website
• a file you have uploaded (e.g. a PDF of a press release)

You can leave the link blank but if it is present a 'more info' link will be added to the item.

Check the 'Log?' check box if you to record when visitors click this link.  This information is displayed when you edit the item again after checking the box.

Expires

If you leave this blank the announcement remains on view for ever.  Since it is easier to remember to do this when you create the announcement you should enter an expire date.  The announcement will be removed automatically when that date is reached.

View Order

You can control the order of the announcements by entering a number here.  You can also leave this blank.  Announcements with a blank 'View Order' are displayed first with the rest in ascending numerical order.

The View Order numbers do not have to be consecutive.  It is a good idea to leave gaps when you first number them so you can slot in new announcements later.

You can give the same number to several announcements.  Announcements with the same View Order are displayed according to when you last updated them with the most recent appearing first.

In the simplest case you can leave the View Order blank and new or updated announcements will appear at the top with older ones dropping off the bottom as they reach their expire date (assuning one has been set).

 

 

You use the Announcements Manager to control how your announcements are displayed.

To display this screen select Announcements Manager from the module menu

Skin

You have considerable control over the display of your announcements through this screen.  The page skin can also control the layout to conform to your design guide.  If these are not enough you can order a custom Module Skin to meet your exact needs.  Any custom Module Skin added to your site can be selected from this drop-down list.

Columns

You set the number of columns you want in your display.  You can choose a number from 1 to 4.  The columns will be equally divided in the width available but may be forced wider by long words so make sure you check this works with the range of page widths your design supports.

Dividers

Check this box if you want a dotted grey line to separate the columns in the display.

Direction

If you have more than 1 column you can choose the way the announcements are added to the columns.

Horizontal means the announcements are added from left to right filling up one row before moving to the next.

Vertical means the announcements are added from top to bottom filling up one column before moving to the next.