News Tool

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

News Tool Overview

 

This is the general view of the news tool from a desktop, where you can access any relevant news articles and select filters to focus your search as needed at the bar on the top. From here you may also add articles, and access other news resources.

This is the mobile view of the site.

 

How to Post a News Item

Click on the “Add a News Item” link located on the upper right hand corner of the page. A “Create News Item” form will open, and the required fields are marked with asterisks. After filling out all the required fields, check the box next to the field “verification”, and click submit.

If there are any errors, the news item will not be submitted, and a list of the errors, along with the required changes will appear at the top of the page.

 

News Form Fields

 

Expiration Date:
All News items have a default expiration date of two weeks after the posting date. When News items expire, they move from the News home page 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.
Article Body/ OR if Link, URL:
While it is possible copy entire news stories from outside sites into the field for “Article Body”, it may not be legal to do so. In that case, leave the field blank and just paste the url to the story in the next field titled “OR if Link, URL”.

Status:

The default status is “Approved”; approved items will appear on your News page immediately.

  • “Awaiting Approval” is the default status of items submitted by the public, or by site users. This status places the item in your Admin Inbox, and requires review by a site administrator before appearing on the News page.
  • “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.
Note that the member type privileges previously set by you will 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.

Access Restrictions:
Select who will see a News item by choosing from the options listed below.

No Restriction, all users will see this item: Anyone on the site will be able to see the news item.

Note: If your News tool is password-protected—meaning only members who are logged in can see its content—even when marked as “No Restriction” it will still be hidden from public users.

Restricted to only members of this site: Only logged-in members of the site will see the item.

Restrict access to only the following selected member types: 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 (the Command key on Macs) on your keyboard as you click.

Consider marking News stories as “No Restriction, all users will see this item” and checking the “Share this item” box, as this allows the news item to be read by the public on other public News pages (e.g., the Geo Area News page), and allows the item to appear in search results.

Area topics (Required):

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

To assign Topics, take these steps:

  • Topic: Select a topic from the “Topic” list and it will appear in the box below labeled Available Topics/Subtopics.
  • Available Topics/Subtopics: Double-click the topic in this box OR select it and  click the down arrow below the box. The topic will then appear in the 3rd box “Assigned”.
  • Assigned: Whatever appears in this box is what you're tagging the News story with. To remove an assigned topic, select 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. Their submitted items appear in the "Awaiting Approval" section of your Admin Inbox, and will not appear . (See Admin Inbox chapter for more information about how the Admin Inbox works.)

 

To publish a story, go to your Admin Inbox, and under the label of “Content” will be the list of all the items “Awaiting Approval”. Click on the link “News Item”, and a list of the News Items awaiting approval will appear, after, click on the headline for the story to open it. 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, select 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

For a complete list of content sharing abilities, please click here.

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 the label of “Contents” select "Shared Content" in the drop-down menu and click on the magnifying glass icon.

Next, select "News Item".

 

Then, 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.

 

 

News items can be filtered chronologically by date clicking on the "Date" label. News content can also be filtered alphabetically by headline, authoring organization, and source by clicking on the corresponding label.
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 any sites it has been shared into. For more details, be sure to refer to the Publishing Shared Content section in this manual.

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RSS Feeds from News Stories

 

Clicking on the RSS feed icon will open up a new page. Grab the URL of that page and distribute it as needed to other sites or tools that can consume RSS. This will allow a user to view News published to a probono.net site automatically pulled into another tool or site.

 

Other News

There is the option to add static links to the “Other News” section CKEditor.

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