Add Blog or News

How to add a Blog or News page

Use these instructions to add a Blog or News page to your intranet. They are easy to set up and are great tools for sharing news, ideas and other types of information.

Display subpages chronologically, as posts in middle of page

By selecting the News/Blog content type you transform the way subpages appear. Instead of showing up only in the SuperNav on the left, or in a directory navigation on the page, subpages appear chronologically in the main column of the page.

On the left-hand side of blog and news pages you see a list of recent post titles; click on a post title to view the full post. You can use the page search in the SuperNav to search for a post. You can also filter posts by date (via a list of months), by post owner, or by tags (learn about tags).

Difference between List, Blog and Grid display styles

• List shows excerpts of posts: For each news item an image (optional), the title, and an excerpt or summary of the post show on the News main page. This is more concise than a blog and the excerpts give the scent of the full post.
  
  
   
• Blog shows whole posts: For each post, the title and full post show on the blog section main page. This makes it easy to read a full post, but can result in a lot of scrolling.
  
  
   
• Grid shows card style posts: For each news item an image, the title, and an excerpt or summary of the post shows in a card, which is laid out in a grid with the other posts. Grid - Title separate places the title below the image with the news excerpt. Grid - Title overlay places the title on top of the image, with a gradient over the image to keep the title readable.
  
  Grid - Title separate
  
  
  Grid - Title overlay
  

First add a new page

1. Navigate to where you want to create the new page and click the Add button (plus icon) in the page header.
2. Give the page a clear title. It's a good bet to include either Blog or News in the page title.
   • Example: ThoughtFarmer Customer Care Team Blog.
3. Click on the Content type dropdown on the right and select the News/Blog content type.
4. Click on the Template dropdown on the right, and select the desired template.
5. Select the radio button on the left for whether you want a List, Blog, Grid - Title separate or Grid - Title overlay display style. If you select List, choose whether to Display thumbnail images with the checkbox.
   
   
   (See the Auto follow options and Lock this page feature headings below to learn about other News/Blog options shown in the image.)
    
6. Click on Security permissions on the right under Security and make sure all the right people have edit permission on the page. (See complete instructions on how to change permissions to view & edit.) Click Done when you are finished.
   
   
    
7. Click Publish and your Blog or News page will appear, ready for posts to be added.

Auto follow options

When the content type News/Blog is selected, a new option appears in edit mode - radio buttons under Auto follow options. The two options are:

• When someone follows this news/blog, they also auto follow all posts.
• When someone follows this news/blog, they do not auto follow any posts.

If you select that news/blog followers will automatically follow all posts under the news/blog, followers will be notified of new posts, as well as comments, likes and edits on those posts.

If you select that news/blog followers will not automatically follow any posts, followers will be notified of new posts, but will not automatically be notified of comments, likes and edits on those posts. (If the followers choose to start following an individual post, they will receive notifications about activity on the post as determined by their personal notification settings.)

Lock this page feature

Once the content type News/Blog is chosen, a new option appears in edit mode - the checkbox Lock this page. If you check this box, people who have edit permission can still add new posts, but they are not able to make edits to the main news or blog page itself - it is "locked". Only the page owner can edit the news or blog page when it is locked.

Add a Blog or News post

Adding a post to a Blog or News page is almost exactly the same as adding a basic page.

1. Navigate to the Blog or News page where you want to add a new post.
2. Click the Add button (plus icon) on the right of the page header.
3. Enter a title for your post in the Enter a title box.
4. Select the Publishing details that you want. (See Date options heading below to learn about Publishing details.)
5. Enter the body content of your post in the Rich Text Editor box.
6. Click Publish when you are done. Blog or News posts will show at the top of the list of posts.

Add a gallery-style Blog or News post

You may want to have a Blog or News post that showcases images the same way that a Gallery page type does. Your intranet administrator may have created a Post template that includes a Photo gallery details card. If that is the case, select the appropriate template, and you are good to go. If not, follow these steps to create a gallery-style post. You will need to have permission to modify individual templates to follow these instructions.

1. Navigate to the Blog or News page where you want to add a new post.
2. Click the Add button (plus icon) on the right of the page header.
3. Enter a title for your post in the Enter a title box.
4. Click Set up cards on the right. The Update cards window will appear.
5. Click Modify template in the Update cards window.
6. Click the plus sign in the main column (where you want to add the gallery).
7. In the Card menu that opens on the right, click on the Photo gallery details card.
8. Click Done in the Update cards window.
9. Save the page.
10. Click Add images to add images to the gallery post. (To learn more about adding images, see Add a photo gallery.)

For a gallery-style post to appear with an image in List or Grid View News, you need to add a Thumbnail image to the post. To learn more, see How to add a Thumbnail Image​.

Date options when adding post or news item

When you follow the above instructions to add a post to a blog, forum or news section you will see three options that do not appear when you add other types of intranet pages.

• Publish now: Click this to set the official publish time and date as the moment you click Publish on the post.
• Publish on: Use this to set a future date, time and timezone for the post to publish and show at the top of the section. Or set a past date for a retroactive post. If you set a future date for the post to publish, the post will only be visible to the page owner and administrators until the time it is set to publish, when it will become visible to everyone with View permission on the post.
  
  
   
• Sticky: Check this box to keep your new post at the top of the section, even after it's not the newest post anymore. You can set a date for the post to stop being sticky, or just edit the page and uncheck the box when the post is no longer as relevant. To set a date, select the Sticky checkbox, then click on Always or the edit button that appears on the right. Click on the date and time that now show to bring up a calendar and dropdown menu for setting date, time and timezone for the post to stop being sticky.

Play video in News Carousel posts

When you create a post that appears in a News Carousel on the intranet, video embedded in the post will appear in the News carousel. The video thumbnail will show in the News carousel post with a play symbol on it, indicating to the user that they can press play and watch the video right there within the News carousel.


 

Hot intranet tips!

#1: Set up a meeting agenda & notes section

Try using a News section to post and collaborate on meeting agendas & notes. This can help you wrangle multiple versions of meeting agendas and meeting notes with ease and show your stripes as a true innovator!

#2: Give the page a full, clear title

"Team blog" No thank you!

How many teams do you have at your company? How many team blogs could there be? Stand out and make it easy to find your blog, forum or news section by giving it a clear title that people will recognize.

Examples:

• Do: "Global Call Centers Blog" or "Fondue Machine Help Forum" or "Fjarðabyggð Office News" (Fjarðabyggð is the tenth largest city in Iceland!).
• Don't: "Office Blog" or "Help Forum" or "Latest News."