Webtools How-to Guide
Article: Basics
How to...
How to create a basic article
There are two ways to create an article on Webtools: (1) You can either click Add under the Article Editor title, or (2) you can click the Article Editor link in the Article module box and click New Article. On the Add Article page, you will see a number of sections: Basic information, Meta Tags, Images & Documents, Podcast, Video, Advanced Media Files, some extra features for funding opportunities articles, Related Articles, and Related Events.
There are a few required fields in the Basic Information section. These are indicated with an asterisk and must be filled out. Anything else you see on the page is optional.
In the Basic Information section, you should enter an Article Title. Adding a Subtitle is optional. The subtitle will be displayed right below the article title on your center page.
Unit/Center/Program is something you should select based on your account, so that the article will be published on the right website.
In the Article Type dropdown, the top portion is an alphabetical list of the most common article types, followed by an alphabetical list of the remaining article types.
The Date Posted field shows the date that will be displayed as "Published on" at the bottom of the article on your website. You should click the calendar icon and select the assumed publishing date. Please note that this is not the date that the article will start appearing on the website.
An Abstract is optional, too. You may not need to provide an abstract, but you will probably need to provide an article body. Please note that most designs, in one place or another, call for the use of an abstract.
These instructions are all you need to create a simple article. For safer editing, you should remember to click Save frequently, click OK on the confirmation prompt, and Exit when you are done with the article.
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How to edit an article
In order to edit an article you created on Webtools, go to the Article Editor, and locate the article you want to edit by filtering or searching.
Once you locate the article on the articles table, click the Edit link in the Action column. Here you are at the Edit Article page, where you can find the same fields as you used to create the article.
Please remember to click the Save button on top of the page frequently for safer editing. Once you are finished with the article, do not forget to check out from the article by clicking the Exit button.
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How to preview an article before publishing
In order to preview an article before publishing, you can either click the Preview link on the Article Editor page, or when creating or editing, click Save & Preview on the Add/Edit Article page.
The default preview is the Webtools view. Here you can see all images and content with little to no formatting, so that you can see everything in one place and check it before publishing.
When you select a center from the preview dropdown, it shows you what it looks like on that center's website.
When on a center view, you can also choose from a number of resolution options to see what the page would look like on different screen sizes including mobile devices. Clicking the Reset button fits the page to screen.
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How to search/view articles by a center/program, article type, title keyword, or article ID
In Webtools, when you go to the Article Editor, the default article table shows all the articles that have ever been produced.
You can use one or both filtering dropdowns: Filter by Center, Filter by Article Type. You can also search via the search box with a keyword (searched in the Title field) or the Article ID. You can use just one, or all of these options. Click Search to apply all the filters to the article table.
Clicking the Reset button brings back the full listing of all articles.
If you know the article ID number, or when you grab the article number from the last portion of the article page URL - you can enter it in the search box and click Search. The result will be only the article you requested and the action options that belong to this article.
Finally, you can search within your articles only by clicking the related checkbox.
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How to add meta tags by subject, region and country
On the Add/Edit Article page, right below the Basic Information section, you will find Meta Tags.
Meta tags offer one other way of sorting articles on Webtools. Articles offer tags by Subject, Region, and Country. You may want to tag your article with various meta tags, which will make your content easier to search for.
It is as easy as selecting all the items that apply to your article and clicking Save.
We encourage all centers/programs to use meta tags for potential filtering purposes. Current examples from our two centers include the news page of CERS with their region, category and country sorting, and the podcast page of CNES, which can be sorted by country.
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