News CMS

Managing Topics

In order to manage topics, you must be an administrator. If you are a contributor, the Topics link does not appear in the primary navigation.

When you add a news item, you must assign it to one or more topics. Visitors to your site's news archive can browse items by topic.

To manage topics, click Topics in the primary navigation bar. On the left side of the Manage Topics page is the topic list for your department; your department's name will be the main topic. You can expand or collapse a topic by clicking on the plus or minus sign beside the topic name.

Guidelines

Topics are used mainly by your site's visitors when they browse news items in your archive. When adding and managing topics, consider the following guidelines:

• Topic names should be short, unique, and descriptive. Visitors shouldn't have to guess at what a topic contains.
• Avoid adding too many topics. Visitors shouldn't be overwhelmed with choices.
• While you can add subtopics to subtopics, avoid adding subtopics to subtopics to subtopics to subtopics. If a subtopic is several layers down, visitors might not click through to find it.

Adding Topics

To add a topic, follow these steps:

1. Select the topic under which you want the new topic to appear.
2. Click the Add link on the right side of the page.
3. In the Name field, enter the name.
4. In the Placement field, select "Make this topic first" to place it first in the list or select a subtopic to place the new topic after it.
5. Click Save.

Editing Topics

To edit a topic, follow these steps:

1. Select the topic you want to edit.
2. Click the Edit link on the right side of the page.
3. Modify the text in the Name field.
4. In the Placement field, select "Make this topic first" to place it first in the list or select a subtopic to place the new topic after it.
5. Click Save.

Removing Topics

To remove a topic, follow these steps:

1. Select the topic you want to remove.
2. Click the Remove link on the right side of the page.
3. Click the Remove Topic button.

Note: If you try to remove a topic that has news items in it, a message will appear stating that the topic cannot be removed because it contains items. You must change the topic for each of those items before you can remove the topic.

Note: You cannot edit your department's main topic.