Article Manager
Article: An article is generally a page of your website, but one page can also be made up of several articles.
- Add new articles, edit existing articles
- Adjust article permissions
Category Manager
Category: A category is like a folder for your articles; you can have a single category for all articles or several categories for different groups of articles. Categories allow you to sort and keep track of your articles. Example: You may have 1 category for all "public" articles and another for all "members only" articles.
- Add new categories, edit existing categories
- Adjust category permissions (note: if you have only 1 category, be sure to adjust permissions so that all groups are able to access it)
Menu Manager
Menu: The menu is your site’s navigation menu and can contain buttons that open articles, forms, documents, etc.
- Add new menu buttons, edit existing menu buttons
- Adjust menu permissions
Permissions
There are several areas that have permissions which need to be set, and all must be adjusted in order to see articles/pages or navigation buttons as you add them. If you see an error message that reads "You do not have access to this article", Article Permissions need to be adjusted; If you added a Menu Item and cannot see it in your navigation menu, Menu Item Permissions need to be adjusted.
- Article Permissions – Website > Article Manager > "Permissions" towards the top-right. These control which groups in your database are able to view/access the articles/pages in your site.
- Menu Item Permissions – Website > Menu Manager > "Edit Menu Items" > "Permissions" towards the top-center. These control which groups in your database are able to view the navigation buttons on your site.
- Category Permissions – Website > Category Manager > "Permissions" towards the top-center. These control which groups in your database are able to access the content (articles/pages) contained in each category.
Adding New Menu Items/Navigation Buttons
- Website > Menu Items.
- Click the title of the menu you want to add to in the first column on the left
- Click the "New" button towards the top-right of the screen
- Select the "Menu Item Type" (This will determine where a user goes after clicking the new navigation button you’re adding)
- Complete the process ("Save" or "Select an Article" if you chose the "Single Article" option, for example)
Changing a Menu Item
If a navigation button already exists and you want to change where it points, follow these steps. (For example, when your site design is complete, your navigation is setup per your specifications – however, all buttons will point to the same "Lipsum" article/page initially – you’ll want to use the following instructions to change them):
- Website > Menu Manager
- Click the title of the menu in the first column on the left
- Find the existing menu item and click the name of it (if you don’t see it initially, you may need to go to the next page(s) – use the arrows at the bottom of the list to change pages)
- Click "Change Type"
- Select the new "Menu Item Type"
Note: If the "Menu Item Type" is correct ("Single Article", for example) and you simply need to change which article/page it points to, follow steps 1-3 above then click the "Select" button by "Select Article" on the right-hand side.
Menu Item Types
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Database
- My Profile (allows members to access their member profile once logged in)
- View All (use this to create a "member directory" button)
- Advanced Search (the most comprehensive search page, offers several options to search by)
- Export Center (generally an Admin option, this button would provide a shortcut to obtain any export files you’ve generated)
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Article Content
- Frontpage Blog Layout (this will link to a "Frontpage Blog Layout" if you have any setup)
- Single Article (this will link to a single article/page of your choice, suitable for most navigation buttons)
- Category Blog Layout (this will link to a "Category Blog Layout" if you have any setup)
- Category List Layout (this will link to a "Category List Layout" if you have any setup)
- Archived Article List (this will link to an "Archived Article List" if you have any setup)
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Community
- Event Calendar (this will add a button to your navigation menu that will take users directly to the Event Calendar)
- Event List (will take users directly to the Event List)
- News Feeds (will link to a "News Feed" if you have any setup)
- My Community (will link to "home page" of the Social Community)
- Blog (will link to your MC Professional blog)
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Community Forum
- View Forum List (this will take users to the Community Forum page, displaying all Categories/Forums they have permission to see)
- My Posts (will take users to a page displaying any posts they’ve made)
- Most Recent Posts (will take users to a page displaying the most recent posts made)
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Polls
- This section will display any Polls that you have created – if no Polls are listed, you have not setup any.
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Forms
- This section will display all published forms you have, choose the one you want to add a navigation button to.
- Directory Searches
- This section will display directory search(es) you've created, choose the one you want to link to.
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Search Criteria
- This section will allow you to link to a criteria based saved search you've created from the Profile List.
- Profile Lists
- This section will allow you to link to a profile list type saved search you've created
- Other
- Login/Logout (adds a login/logout button to navigation)
- External Link (adds a navigation button that will take users to an outside page – you can specify the URL after selecting this option)
- Forgot Password (adds a button to the Forgot Password page)
- Separator (adds an unclickable menu item that users can hover over to view the menu items underneath)
Media Manager
Website > Media Manager
The Media Manager stores any images, documents and/or media files that are used within your site. You are able to keep the Media Manager organized by creating different folders (a "documents" folder for all document type files and an "images" folder for all image type files, for example). To create a Folder, access the Media Manager and type a folder name in the box that is directly below "Files" and directly to the left of the "Create Folder" button. Now click the "Create Folder" button. To upload files to a certain folder, click the folder title and then click the "Upload" button that is directly under "Upload File" towards the bottom. This will display a box for you to select the file from your computer; once selected it will upload automatically. Images can then be inserted to any article/page using the "Image" button that is located directly under the article editor window. Documents can be inserted to any article/page as hyperlinks using the "Site Links" button that is located directly under the article editor window (select "File" once the Site Links window opens).
Tips
Forms: Forms must be set to Published in order to add them as Menu Items or as hyperlinks within your articles/pages using the "Site Links" option.
Articles: Articles must be created before you can add Menu Items/navigation buttons that point to them.
Documents: You can add Menu Items/navigation buttons that open documents (a "By-Laws" PDF, for example) by first adding the document to your Media Manager. Once uploaded, right-click on the document’s name and select "Copy Link Location/Copy Shortcut" from the menu that appears. Now follow the steps to add a new Menu Item and choose "Other" > "External Link", then paste the document’s URL into the "Link" box and click "Save".
Media Manager File Names: Before uploading images and/or documents to your Media Manager, you should save them/rename them to remove any spaces and capital letters. The same goes for folder names in your Media Manager - lowercase and no spaces. You should also stay away from any special characters in both file and folder names. To retain easy-to-identify file names, try replacing spaces with _ or -.