Announcements

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How to create an announcement for your website


In this tutorial, you will learn all about the announcement content type. The announcement content type is used to present information about events or department news for site visitors (e.g. highlighting a department's accomplishments by showing off new research or displaying faculty awards). Because of the announcement's banner function on the front page, an announcement is often the first thing a site visitor will see. Keep that in mind when creating content.

The announcement content type is unique in that most of the fields populated with information when creating an announcement do not appear on the front page. The user must click the banner image to read all of the information you have created.

 

Step 1: Creating an Announcement


Using the menu bar at the top of the page, hover over the "Content" tab and select "Announcement" from the "Add Content" menu.

Screenshot of the content menu in Luggage showing how to create an Announcement

 

Step 2: Add Information to Fields


I will start creating an announcement by filling out the required fields. The first is the title. I am going to make the title unique so that search can find the page. The title will also show up as the largest heading on the Announcement page. The next field is titled "Alternate URL."

The alternate URL field allows us to link the announcement to an existing page. If we make an announcement about an existing news item, for example, we can enter the URL of the news story into this field and have the announcement banner redirect to that story. Several examples of alternate URLS in announcements can be found on a website I created, called Fisheries. Instead of directing the visitor to an announcement, the banners lead to pages about the fisheries extension.

Screenshot of an example title for an announcement

The next required fields are category and tags. I selected "Economics", which is the best category that best describes my announcement. Multiple categories can be selected by holding down either the command button (on Macs) or the control button (on Windows machines). Tags are descriptive words that enable users to search for pages more easily. They also create a relationship between pages that have similar tags.

Screenshot of Categories and Tags

The body text is the next field. This will contain the main text of my announcement. We can format the text, add images, links and files. Feel free to click on the screenshot to view a larger image.

Screenshot of an example announcement body text

 

Step 3: Create and Add a Banner Image


I noticed that there is a "Caption" field underneath the banner image upload button. The "Caption" field is overlaid on the banner image itself. Looks like there is a red star and this field is required. It is the main image that will show on my homepage!

I am going to use a banner image related to my announcement. Remember: the announcement banner is required. The banner dimensions are 1180px × 346px. The upload button can be found here:

Screenshot of the banner image upload button

Now, I am going to look for the banner image on my computer and click on "Open" to upload the banner image. For more information about uploading images, click here to view the tutorial.

After uploading the banner image, I enter alternate text for screen reader use and a title that will be seen when a site visitor hovers over the image. Click on the image below to view its full size.

Screenshot of banner image after being uploaded

Want to learn more about how to Crop an Image?

Watch the Video on Cropping an Image in Paint (Windows) or Cropping an Image in Preview (Mac) created by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach IT

Step 4: Publish Your Announcement


After making sure that everything on my announcement is accurate, I will save the changes. It looks like the default setting on the announcement content type is to leave it unpublished. It appears I have permissions to turn the announcement public by scrolling to the bottom of the page, and clicking on "Publishing options". I checked the "Published" box.

Screenshot of available options

If you do not have access to this checkbox, you can still publish your announcement by scheduling it for publishing. Enter a date and time for your announcement to be published. If you would like your announcement to only be published for a limited amount of time, you can enter in a date and time for "Unpublish on." Please note that your announcement may not necessarily be published or unpublished immediately at the scheduled time. More information on scheduled publishing can be found on this tutorial page.

Screenshot of an example of scheduled publishing.

 

Step 5: Double-Check Your Content


As a good rule, I like to double-check anything that I create to make sure all of the information is accurate, links go to the right destination, and formatting looks correct. Here is my finished front page banner (click for full size):

Banner image

Here is my announcement page:

Full Announcement

Congratulations! You just made your first announcement.


You are well on your way to making an awesome Luggage site. Click here to view other Luggage tutorials.

If you have questions about this tutorial, please contact Ann Greazel by emailing websupport@iastate.edu.

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