Guide to Authoring

What is a News Item?

News items are short pieces of content similar to articles that concern a current event of interest to the Astrocartography Net community.  They can be announcements of meetings, classes, conventions or reports about these events.  They can be about births (stars, planets, organizations, web sites, people?) or deaths.  Sometimes they will be announcements about new features on the site.

The most recent news items are listed in a box at the upper left column of the page.  From there a link takes you to a chronological listing of all news items.  News items often have an effective date (the earliest date they can be published) and an expiration date (when they are stale and can be removed).  Finding a news item can involve a few clicks:  from the News  box in the left column either click on a listing to see the full article, or click on "News" to see the full list and then click on one of the listings.

How to Create a News Item

Go to your Member Folder (click on My Folder at the top of the screen) and click Add > News Item.  You will be shown a form which allows you to enter everything you need to complete the News Item:

Title

The title should be short and descriptive.

Description

The description should describe the news event in just a few words so that it can easily fit in the News box.

Body

The body of the News story can be entered in the Kupu Editor window.

Image

The image can be selected from your Member Folder or one of its subfolders if you have previously uploaded it, OR you can upload an image to your Member Folder from your computer.  An image is not necessary, but it makes the news item more interesting.

Image Caption

Text description of your image.

Related Items

If this news item concerns the site or some content on the site, you can create links to that content which will show up in a box at the bottom of your news item text.

Once you have filled out the form, be sure to click save.

Publishing Your News Item

When you create your news item, it will have a state of private. This will show up in the state: tab in the upper right hand corner of the news item in red.  A private item can only be seen by you and the site managers.  Click on the state: tab to make your news item visible.  Now everyone can see your news item as long as they know how to make  their way to your Member Folder where it is stored.

To publish your news item, click the state: tab once again, this time selecting submit.  Now the state will change to pending. This means that everyone can see the item AND it is waiting for approval by a reviewer so it can be published.  When this happens, the state will change to published, and the item will start to show up in the News box.