Tutorial:
Adding News Articles

Last updated 7/20/21

Kellie Feramisco & Darren Grubel

1

Table of Contents

The News Component & News Articles Adding a New News Article
- Subheaders - Article Text
- Images (JPG files only)

- Attachments (PDF files only) - Hyperlinks

2

• Purpose: Currently, News Articles in your News Component is the BEST place on your website to share news, updates, and information with your families.

The News Component & News Articles

• Guidelines & Best Practices:
• Your News Component already exists on your school homepage – you do NOT need to add one.
• Make your title short and to the point • ALWAYS add a brief Subheader
• Post full article content in the Article Text box, not in your Subheader
• ALWAYS add a Thumbnail image for your articles
• Make sure news articles are current and updated regularly

The News Component

Every school website already has a News component on the home page. It appears under the slider banner on the left and is titled “School News.”

4

Navigating the News Component

1
Click “Edit Page” on the home page.

2
Look for the Component titled “News” in the left column. To access the News Component, click the green “Edit” button to the right.

5

	*IGNORE THIS
		
	SECTION. Never
		
make any edits to
	
	this section.
		
*Ignore this section UNLESS you need to

	adjust the # of
		
articles that appear on your home page.
		
Article List Count

3
The “Edit News Component” window will appear.

Component Title

		

RSS Syndication & List Count

		

IGNORE THIS SECTION

IGNORE THIS SECTION
(unless you are following Step #4)

4
Article List Count.
Click on the yellow bar to expand the section. Enter the # of articles you want to show on your home page. (No less than 2, no more than 6.) Click the green Save button.

*Use this section ONLY if you need to adjust the # of articles showing on your home page.

5	List of Articles

Your existing articles show in this list.

•	To change the order of articles, hold & drag an article row.
•     To edit an article, click the blue article title. •     To delete an article, click the red Delete on
right side.

Article Title Key

Red = Expired Blue = Posted
Purple = Scheduled (but not yet posted)

6

Adding a New News Article

1 After clicking “Edit” in the top black bar, scroll down to the “Manage Existing News Articles” section of the Edit News Component window that appears.

2
To add a new article, click “Add A New News Article.”

7

3
Component Title:
		
	Leave this blank. DO NOT make any
			
	changes to this field.

4		Article Title: Enter your article title.

This will be visible on your homepage.

5	Subheader:
Write a brief splash (2 sentences maximum) about the rest of the article.

•	You can copy the first 2 sentences from your article as a preview OR
•	You can add the important info here (dates and times) OR
•	You can summarize what the article is about to get readers interested
•	DO NOT:
•	Leave this field blank!
•	Write your entire article here! •	Place photos in this section!

This will be visible on your homepage.

Exit: to exit and see what your article looks like on the homepage.

9
Save: Click Save
when done.

6	Article Text:
This is where your full article text goes.

•	Same basic rules apply as Text Window components
•	Hyperlink to external websites or emails
•	If copying in from an email or Word doc, remember to “Paste Clean Text”
•	To add multiple photos, use the insert image icon, select them from your computer, and click insert.
•	DO NOT add PDFs here (Learn how to in How to Add a PDF Tutorial)

7	 Date Visible/Expiration Date: If you want your article to appear or
disappear on certain dates, enter them here.

8	Show Read More Link:
This is automatically selected. If you don’t need to include any additional or different info from your Subheader, UNCHECK this box!

10	Exit:
Exit this window to see what your article looks like on the homepage.

Purpose: Subheaders can be used for:

• Direct information about an event or announcement (dates, times, locations)

• Allows parents to get all the information needed on the homepage without clicking on anything further.

Subheaders	•

Summary of the article

• 2 sentences MAX about the main idea of the article

• Tip: if your article is longer than 2 sentences, copy the first 2 sentences from the article and
use them as the Subhead!

• Posting Links on the homepage

• You can post a hyperlink in the subhead for anything from sign up forms, PDFs that are already
loaded elsewhere on your website, external websites, or pages within your site already!

DO NOT:

Attach images to the subheader.

Subheader “Do Nots”

• If sized incorrectly, they may take up too much room on your
homepage and leaves your users scrolling.

• Instead, use the thumbnail option for photos to appear on your
homepage.

Include more than 2 sentences for your text.

• If you do, the subheader will be overcrowded with information.

Purpose: Article Text should be used for:

• Including information about an event or news piece happening at the school

• Even if you already mentioned the date and time in the title or subheader, include them HERE as well.

•

Article Text

Adding photos of something that happened at the school

• Include your photos of an awards ceremony or the results of the sports match or your new teacher
hires HERE.

• Adding information for which you don’t need or want an entire page on your website, but it needs a place to
live

• If you have parents calling the front office about something specific, consider writing the
information they need to know in a news article to cut down on repetitive phone calls.

DO NOT USE THE ARTICLE TEXT FIELD IF:

All relevant information is posted in the subheader (date, time, location, etc.)

Article Text “Do Nots”

• If this is the case, make sure you UNCHECK the “Show Read More Link” box, which is automatically checked by
default unless you uncheck it.

Your Homepage Will Look Like This If You…

…do not have a Subheader for your News Article.

…do not have any News Articles.

…include more than 2 sentences in the subheader.

…do not uncheck the “Show Read More Link” box & do not place text in the Article Text.

13

Purpose: There are 2 types of images for News Articles:

• Thumbnail Image (REQUIRED)

Images (JPG Files Only)

• Appears on homepage with News Article

• Can be a preview of a document you are sharing, a photo of your school/students, clipart, or an
image/icon from the internet • Must be a .jpg file!
• File name may not contain spaces or strange characters! Stick to letters and underscores (_).

• Embedded Image (OPTIONAL) • Appears INSIDE the article.
• If you want a users to click Read More and see a photo within the article, upload it here.

• Must be a .jpg file!

• File name may not contain spaces or strange characters! Stick to letters and underscores (_).

Adding a Thumbnail Image (Required)

1 Click the Article Title in the Edit News Component window.

3
Click the Images tab.

IGNORE

4
In the Thumbnail Image section, click the green “Browse” button under “Upload New Image.”

2
Images, Attachments & Placement Tabs appear. These 3 tabs were not here before. They appear next to the Article Text tab only after the initial article has been saved and you go back into the article.

*You will NOT use the Update Image Width/Height button and can ignore it completely.

5	 Find your .jpg file on your computer in the window that
appears, select it and click “Open.”

*You will NOT use the Placement tab and can ignore it completely.*

*MUST be a .jpg file without spaces or strange characters in name! Other files
not accepted.*	15

6

Crop and/or Rotate Image if needed. In window that appears with image, use slider to zoom in and out. Use rotate buttons to rotate.

9
Image will appear here.

7
Add Alt Text. Brief description of
the image. *Required to remain ADA compliant.

8
Click Crop.

10
Click Save Image.

16

11
View News Article on home page to double-check Thumbnail appears as desired. Thumbnail auto-scales for all sites and has rounded corners for Intermediate & High School sites.

17

If you want to use your PDF as the Thumbnail You MUST first convert the PDF to a .JPG image:
1. Open your PDF on your computer. It should open in Adobe Acrobat Reader. 2. Click “File” in the upper left corner.
3. In the drop-down, click Export To > Image > JPG.

4. Choose where you want to save your file and click Save.

5. Now you can proceed with the steps to add the file as a Thumbnail image for that article.

18

Adding an Embedded Image (Optional)

1
Repeat Steps 4-10 for Adding a Thumbnail Image, but in the Embedded Image section.

2
On homepage, click “Read More” on News Article
to view full article and double-check Embedded Image appears as desired.

19

Attachments (PDF Files Only)

Purpose: To add additional documentation as a reference to your news article.

• Will appear INSIDE the article as a clickable link at the bottom of the article.

• Can be a flyer, brochure, form, etc.

• Must be a pdf file!

Adding a PDF File (Optional)

1
Click the Attachments tab.

2
Enter PDF file title. This will appear as the name of the attachment at the bottom of the article page.

3
Click Choose File.
In the window that appears, navigate to your PDF file, select it and click Open.

4
Check the box asking if you want a Rich Text Format (RTF) file created. *Always make sure this box is checked to remain ADA compliant.

5
Click the green Add File button.

6
PDF & RTF file links (with
titles) will appear in Existing Documents list.

7

To add more PDFs, repeat Steps 2-5.

21

8 On homepage, click “Read More” on
News Article to view full article and double-check PDF files appear as desired and download when clicked.

22

Purpose: To link to websites, internal pages or
Hyperlinks	other resources within News Article.
• Can only be used in Subheader and/or Article Text.

• Can NOT be used in Article Title.

Adding a Hyperlink (Optional)

1 On the Article Text tab, in the
Subheader or Article Text box, highlight the text you want to convert to a hyperlink.

2
Click the Edit icon in the menu that appears.

3
Paste the URL to which you want the page to link in the URL field. You can use:
• An external website, OR • An internal page, OR
• The web address of a PDF you have already uploaded.

4

Check the “Open in new tab” box. This ensures the user isn’t taken away from the article when they click.

5
Click 4	Update.

6
Repeat Steps 1-5 for
any other hyperlinks you want to create.

7
Click Save.	24

8
Find your News Article on the home page to confirm links work correctly.

• If you added a link in the Subheader, it will appear on the home page.
• If you added a link in the Article Text, click on “Read More” to view the article and test the links.

25

QUESTIONS? CONTACT US!

Kellie Feramisco

kellieferamisco@cusd.com

x79093

Darren Grubel

darrengrubel@cusd.com

x79030

26