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Create a news page

We recommend that you use the news page template rather than the default blank page template to publish news items. The benefits are:

  • News items display chronologically, most recent first, and you can pin important news to the top.
  • You can embed a news feed in another page, for example your home page, which automatically updates when you publish a news item.
  • You can tag news items with keywords – for example, ‘Publications’ or ‘Postgraduate’ – to enable visitors to filter busy news pages by their interests.
  • You can filter news feeds by tag, which is useful for feeding a subset of news to other pages on your website, such as research news or announcements for current students.

An example of a SiteBuilder news page in List view

In this article:

Create a news page

  1. Go to the page under which you want to create a news page.

  2. Go to Edit > Create a new page:

    The SiteBuilder page 'Edit' menu, with the 'Create a new page' option highlighted

    Note: To create new pages, you need edit or admin permissions for the parent page.

  3. Select Change page template to expand the options, then select News:

    The 'Create new page' screen, with the option to create a news page highlighted

  4. Set the news options:

    News page settings

    • Number of recent items: Set the number of items that will appear when the page loads. Visitors can view older items via links at the bottom of the page.

    • Display format: How news items will be arranged on the page:

      • Select List to display each news item on its own row:

        An example of a SiteBuilder news page in List view

      • Selecting Tiles will display news items in blocks:

        A news page with the Display format set to 'Tiles'

        Note: If you're using the Tile format, we recommend you upload an image for each news item. If no image is uploaded a stock image of flags will be displayed above the news content.

    • Tag list position: Choose whether the tags list will appear On the right of your news page, or At the top.

    • If you chose List display, select the Display uploaded news item images in abstracts checkbox to show thumbnail images to the left of each article's abstract.

      Note: This option does not affect how thumbnail images display in a news feed embedded in another web page. Thumbnail properties in news feeds are defined within each feed.

    • Choose whether or not to Show Facebook Like buttons for public news items. For details on how to make a news page public, see our guidance on Permissions in SiteBuilder.

    • Select Show social media sharing buttons to display a Share this button at the bottom of each item. Visitors who select the button will have the option to share an item on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or via email.

      Note: Ensure that the page's view permissions have been set to public if you want the Share this button to appear on the published page (or news feeds using this page as a source).

  5. Enter the rest of the page properties: URL, Page heading, Title bar caption and Link caption. For more guidance on these properties, see our article on how to create a new blank page.

  6. Select Create new page.

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Change an existing page to a news page

Important: It is not possible to change a page from the News template to another template. If you intend to change a page to use the News page template, make sure you do not need any of the current content; you will not be able to revert to the old page.

  1. Browse to the page you want to conver to a News page.

  2. Go to Edit > Edit page properties:

    The SiteBuilder page 'Edit' menu, with the 'Edit page properties' option highlighted

  3. Expand the Change page template & options section:

    The 'Change template & options' section in the SiteBuilder Page properties screen

  4. Select Change, then choose the News template from the list.

  5. Set the News options as described above.

  6. When you've finished editing the page properties, select Save changes.

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Show Facebook Like buttons alongside news items

Note: to display Facebook Like buttons, ensure that the news page's view permissions are open to anyone.

  1. Go to your news page.

  2. Go to Edit > Edit page properties.

  3. Under Change page template and options, select Show Facebook Like buttons for public news items.

  4. Select Save changes.

  5. View your page – a Like button appears alongside each news item:

    A news page entry with the Facebook 'like' button highlighted

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Add social media share buttons

Note: The Share this button will only appear if the page's view permissions have been set to public. For details on how to make a page public, see our guidance on Permissions in SiteBuilder.

  1. Go to your news page.

  2. Go to Edit > Edit page properties.

  3. Under Change page template and options, select Show social media sharing buttons to display a Share this button at the bottom of each item. Visitors who select the button will have the option to share an item on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or via email.

  4. Select Save changes.

  5. View your page – a Share this button appears beneath each news item:

    A news page entry with the Facebook 'like' button highlighted

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Edit tags

  1. Go to the page where you want to edit the tags.

  2. Select Edit tags:

    The tags list, with the 'Edit tags' link highlighted

  3. To edit an existing tag or create a new tag:

    1. Select the Edit button next to the tag you want to edit. Otherwise, select the Create new tag button:

      The 'Edit tags' screen, with the button to create a new tag highlighted

    2. In the Edit tag pop-up, enter your tag's name:

      The 'Edit tag' pop-up

      You can also choose to select a colour for the tag, which will be displayed in the tags list on your page. Events will be displayed on the calendar in the same colour as the selected tag, or the first tag alphabetically if more than one is selected.

    3. Select Save.

  4. To delete a tag:

    1. Select the Delete button next to the tag you want to delete:

      The 'Edit tags' screen, with the button to delete a tag highlighted

    2. In the Edit tag pop-up that appears, select the Confirm button:

      The pop-up to confirm you want to delete a tag

  5. When you're finished editing your page's tags, select Save.

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Group tags into sections

If your news page has a lot of tags, you may find it useful to create tag sections, which create headed groups that you can assign individual tags to - for example, you could create sections for tags related to subjects, journals or conferences:

A news page with tags grouped into sections for 'conferences', 'journals', and 'subject'

To create tag groups:

  1. Go to the page where you want to edit the tags.

  2. Select Edit tags:

    The tags list, with the 'Edit tags' link highlighted

  3. To create a new section, enter the name in the New section name box, then select the Add button:

    The 'Edit tags' screen, with the 'Create new section' box highlighted

  4. To edit an existing section, use the Rename section button to rename a section, the Move up and Move down buttons to change its position in the list, or the Remove button to delete it.

  5. To move a tag into a section, select the tag in the list, then the Move here button for the relevant section:

    The 'Edit tags' screen with a tag selected and the 'Move here' button highlighted for a section.

  6. Once tags have been assigned to the sections you want, select Save.

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