Managing the Front Page

SUPERCEDED BY EDITORS NOTES 2021

 

THE FRONT PAGE

The front page is the landing page for the website, and is where most first-time visitors arrive. The content on the front page should be relatively fast-changing and hence transient. The mechanism for putting material on the front page is to create the content in a more permanent place and then promote it to the front page. The facility to retire date-specific items from the front page immediately after that date should always be used.

The simplest way to put an item on the front page is to create it as an Article in EDITOR/Tools/Hidden_Groups/Announcements. Using Hidden Groups means that everything can be treated in the same way as 'normal' groups i.e. articles and events can be promoted to the front page, events will appear on the Calendar and previous articles can be found by searching.

  • There is a limit on the number of words that can be displayed on the front page for each item; the software will decide how much to display if the limit is exceeded. The position where the break occurs can be controlled by inserting a Teaser Break (use the icon). 
  • If possible include an image in the section above any Teaser Break, so that the Front Page isn’t just a block of text.
  • Do not leave any blank lines after the text as they will display as white space.
  • To promote an item to be front page go to Publishing Options at the bottom of the page and tick the Promote to Front Page box.
  • Promoting an event to the front page - The create event page includes the publishing options in the Menu settings window near the bottom of the page. This enables a single (but not a repeated) event to be promoted to the front page.
  • Insert an appropriate date in the Retire from Front Page box. (Retirement takes place at midnight on the date specified e.g. if an event is on 1st May then set Retirement Date to 1st May not 2nd.)
  • The Welcome Message should normally be at the top of the front page so do not tick the Stick at Top of Lists box on any other item.
  • If you add new items to the front page, check if some can be taken off to keep a balance.
  • The order of items on the front page can be sorted in EDITOR/Sort the Front Page by dragging the symbol on the left side of the items.
  • Keep an eye on the Occasional Events group – This may contain items which need promoting to the front page as their dates approach and some future items may have been promoted rather early.
  • Note that downloads included in an item do not display on the Front Page, although the download will be available if the whole item is viewed.

BB 30 July 2020