Website articles (site pages) – MC Professional

On this page:

Managing website articles
Using the Article List, filters, and columns
Creating a new article
Advanced settings (parameters)
Metadata information (SEO)
Personalizing content with Merge Data
Editor icons and functions

Managing website articles

In MC Professional, Articles are the actual pages or content blocks that make up your website. An article contains information you want to display on your site, such as text, images, and links. Similar to a newspaper, a single webpage can show just one article or a collection of multiple articles.

To access your articles, go to Website > Articles.

Using the Article Manager, filters, and columns

The main Article Manager page displays all the pages on your site. You can find, sort, and track your content using the following controls:

Finding and sorting articles

Filter search: Enter all or part of an article title, or its unique ID number, into the search bar to find it quickly.
Select Category: Display only the articles belonging to a specific category.
Select Author: Filter articles by the admin who created them.
Select State: Filter your list to show only Published, Unpublished, or Archived articles.
Column sorting: Click any column header (like Title, Category, or Date) to sort the list by that item.

Understanding the list columns

#: An index number automatically assigned by the system.
Checkbox: Select this box to target one or more articles for toolbar actions like publishing, unpublishing, moving, or deleting.
Title: The required name of the article. Click the title to edit the article.
Published: Shows the current status of the page. This can be Published, Not Published, Archived, Pending (the start date is in the future), Current, or Expired. You can click the status icon to toggle publishing on and off. Hover your mouse over the icon to see scheduled start and stop dates.
Front Page: Shows whether the article is set to display on your homepage. Click the icon to change this setting.
Order: The display sequence of your articles. If your menu settings use "order" to display items, you can change the sequence by clicking the sorting arrows or entering numbers and clicking the "save order" icon in the header. If your menu uses an override like alphabetical sorting, these order values are ignored.
Category: The category the article belongs to. Click the category name to edit it.
Author: The admin who created the article.
Date: The article's creation date.
Hits: The number of times the article has been viewed by visitors to your website. You can reset this counter to 0 inside the article editor.
ID: A unique identification number assigned automatically for internal linking. It cannot be changed.

Understanding the toolbar

Use the checkboxes next to any article in your list, then select one of these toolbar buttons at the top of the screen to take an action:

Publish / Unpublish: Instantly shows or hides pages on your website.
Archive: Changes the article status to archived. Archived articles are safely saved on your site and can be displayed on menu items set to an "Archive Layout," but they cannot be published to regular live pages.
Move: Shifts selected articles into a different category. A screen will display showing target categories on the left and your chosen articles on the right. Select the new location and click "move" to finish.
Copy: Duplicates articles to use as templates. Select the destination category on the left and click "copy."
Move to Trash: Sends articles to the internal trash bin. Articles can be recovered from the trash later as long as they are not permanently deleted.
View Trash: Opens the trash bin where you can view or restore deleted articles.
Permissions: Opens the access area to control which database groups can view your content.

Creating a new article

Go to Website > Articles and click the New (+) button in the top toolbar.
Enter an Article Title. This title appears at the top of a member's browser tab when they view the page.
Review the Alias. The system automatically creates this short web address based on your title. Note: Every article must have a unique alias. If you see an error saying "The chosen alias is already in use...", add a word or number to change it (for example: change "community" to "community-page" or "community-2").
Add your text, links, and images to the main body editor.
Set your Group Access permissions using the checkboxes on the right-hand side of the screen to choose which member groups can view this page.
Click Save.

Important formatting rule

We do not recommend copying and pasting content directly from outside sources into the editor. This can bring incompatible, unwanted HTML code into your website or email client, causing your content to display incorrectly. Instead, paste your text as plain text and apply formatting using the editor tools.

Adding links and images

From the article editor, you can use the specialized buttons at the very bottom of the article screen or on the toolbar:

Linking internally: Click the Site Links button at the bottom of the page to pull in a link from elsewhere on your MC Professional site.
Linking externally: Highlight your text and click the Insert/Edit Link icon on the second row of the toolbar.
Adding pictures: Click the Image button at the bottom of the screen. We suggest inserting only images that you have previously uploaded to the Media Manager. You can also upload new files through this pop-up window if needed.

Advanced settings (parameters)

When editing an article, you can use the options panels to change default settings. These standard parameters handle the basic ownership, scheduling, and lifecycle of the article. While the system automatically generates defaults, you can manually adjust them:

Parameters (Article)

Author and Author Alias: Defaults to the current user. Use the alias field if you want to display a different author's name on the live webpage.
Created Date: Defaults to the exact time you created the file, but you can manually change this using the calendar icon.
Start / Finish Publishing: Enter a future date and time to automatically publish or unpublish an article. This is helpful for time-sensitive announcements or event pages.

Advanced parameter overrides

These settings control the explicit layout rules, visibility of administrative metadata, and user utility features for the specific page. They generally provide three choices: Show, Hide, or Use Global (which inherits the site-wide configuration found in your global Article Manager settings). Choosing "Yes" or "No" forces an override:

Show Title: Controls whether the article headline displays on the webpage.
Title Linkable: Turns the headline into a clickable hyperlink that opens the full article.
Intro Text: Controls whether your text before a "Read more..." break stays visible when a user clicks the full link. (Note: "Read more..." breaks only work on Category Blog or Front Page Blog layouts, not standalone articles).
Category Title and Category Title Linkable: Controls whether the category name displays and whether it links back to a full category summary page.
Author Name, Created Date, and Modified Date: Displays or hides these timestamps on the webpage.
PDF, Print, and Email Icons: Displays quick-action buttons for your visitors. The PDF icon opens the page as a downloadable document, the Print icon opens a printer-friendly layout, and the Email icon opens a form to share the page link.
Key Reference: An advanced field used by web designers to reference articles flexibly.
Alternative Read More: Enter custom text to show next to your "Read more..." links. If left blank, the system defaults to using the Article Title.

Metadata information (SEO)

This section controls hidden information used by search engines to index your website. These entries are completely optional:

Metadata Description: A short summary of the page for search engine results.
Metadata Keywords: Search terms separated by commas (for example: "cats, dogs, pets"). Case does not matter; "CATS" will match "cats".
Robots: Specific instructions for automated software programs that catalog web content.
Author: An optional author credit embedded directly in the page's hidden source code.

Personalizing content with Merge Data

Below the text editor, you can click Merge Data to insert database fields into your text. The merge fields are replaced with actual information about your members or database.

These tags appear in the format ##Attribute Name## (for example: ##First Name##).
When a logged-in user views the page, the system automatically replaces the tag with their actual profile information.
Safety rule: Only use merge fields on pages that require a secure member login, as the system needs to know exactly who is viewing the page to fill in the data safely. Select Toggle Editor to switch between this standard view and raw HTML code.

Editor icons and functions

Below is a description of each icon found within the WYSIWYG (What You See is What You Get) editor, as well as its corresponding function.

First row

	Bold - Makes selected text bold.
	Italic - Italicizes selected text.
	Underline - Underlines selected text.
	Strikethrough - Strikes through selected text.
	Align Left - Aligns selected text to the left.
	Align Center - Centers selected text.
	Align Right - Aligns selected text to the right.
	Align Full - Fully justifies the selected text
Note: to change the font, size or style of text, select the text and then select the new font, size, or style from the drop-down menus in the editor toolbar. To maintain consistency throughout the site, it's recommended to use paragraph, Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, etc. formats whenever possible.

Second row

	Find - Opens a window to let you search for content in the editor
	Find/Replace - Opens a window to let you search for and replace content that in the editor.
	Unordered List - Creates a bulleted list of selected text items. Each paragraph will be a bullet. For example: It does not matter whether the paragraphs are long or short, only that you have hit return and started a new line between each item you select for the list. Make sure to select only the text you want to put in the list. To add new items to the list, simply go to the end of a paragraph on the list and hit return. This will automatically add a new bullet to the list.
	Ordered List - Works exactly like the unordered list above, but creates a numbered list instead of bullets.
	Outdent - Decreases the indentation of selected text, moving it towards the left.
	Indent - Increases the indentation of selected text, moving it towards the right.
	Blockquote - Browsers insert white space before and after a blockquote element, as well as margins for the element. Blockquotes are used for long quotations.
	Insert/Edit Link - Turns the selected text or image into a link to an external site.
	Unlink Hyperlink - Removes the hyperlink from the selected image or text.
	Insert Anchor - Lets you insert an anchor in the HTML content. The list of anchors already created will appear in the drop down list within the Insert Hyperlink dialogue box.
	Insert/Edit Image - Inserts an image in the page. You can specify the location of an image hosted on an external site. If an image is already selected from within the content, you can change the appearance and other properties of the image.
	Font Color - Opens a drop-down color palette for choosing the color of the selected text. Once the desired color has been chosen, highlighting text and clicking this icon will apply to color to the selected text.
	Highlight Color - Opens a drop-down color palette for choosing the background color of the selected text. Once the desired color has been chosen, highlighting the text and clicking this icon will apply the color as a background to the selected text.
	Check Spelling - This button will check the spelling of text in the editor.

Third row

	Undo - Reverses the last action taken.
	Redo - Can be used after undoing an action to do the action again.
	Insert Table - Opens a dialogue box in which you can specify the parameters of a table. If creating a new table, it's recommended to specify the width of the table (100%, for example) before adding content to the table.
	Row Properties - Brings up the Row Properties dialogue. You can adjust the alignment, vertical alignment, height, and background color.
	Cell Properties - Brings up the Cell Properties dialogue. You can adjust the alignment, vertical alignment, column and row span, color, width, height and background color.
	Insert Row Before - Inserts a new row above the row in which the cursor is located. The new row will have the same number of cells as the selected row.
	Insert Row After - Inserts a new row below the row in which the cursor is located. The new row will have the same number of cells as the selected row.
	Delete Row - Deletes the entire row in which the cursor is located.
	Insert Column Before - Inserts a new column to the left of the column in which the cursor is located. The new column will have the same number of cells as the selected column.
	Insert Column After - Inserts a new column to the right of the column in which the cursor is located. The new column will have the same number of cells as the selected column.
	Delete Column - Deletes the entire column in which the cursor is located.
	Split Cell - Splits the cell in which the cursor is located into two cells to undo a previous merge.
	Merge Cells - Merges the selected cells into one.
	Insert Horizontal Rule - Inserts a horizontal line across the content area.
	Remove Formatting - Removes HTML formatting from selected content.
	Hide Gridlines - Tables without a border are given a dotted border by the editor so that you can see them. Clicking this button hides those lines.
	Subscript - Makes selected text subscript.
	Superscript - Makes selected text superscript.
	Insert Custom Character - Lets you insert special letters, characters and symbols.
	Insert Embedded Media - Inserts a multimedia object in the page. You can specify the location of media hosted on an external site.

Fourth Row

	Edit CSS Style - Allows you to edit the CSS style of the selected element.
	Citation - Used to markup citations, such as title of magazines or newspapers.
	Abbreviation - Used to markup abbreviations, so the long form is displayed as a tooltip.
	Deletion - Applies deletion formatting to the selected text.
	Insertion - Applies insertion formatting to the selected text.
	Insert/Edit Attributes - Allows you to inert or edit the attributes of the selected text.
	Print - This function prints the display view of your page.
	Cleanup Messy Code - Corrects improper HTML code.
	Preview - Frequently used for proofreading, this icon will open a preview window of content within the editor.
	Toggle Full Screen Mode - Expands the Editor to a full screen view. All edited content is transferred.
	HTML View - A window appears that will allow you to edit the html of the current page.

Below the editor

	Image - Allows you to insert an image from your Media Manager
	Pagebreak - Creates a pagebreak
	Read More - Inserts a Read More link in the Article NOTE: Only applies to blog type layouts
	Site Links - Allows you to insert a site link
	Merge Data - Allows you to place attributes from your database into the page. In the editor, these will appear in the format ##Attribute Name##, but to anyone viewing the page they will appear as that attribute from that individual's profile. For instance, ##First Name## will appear as the individual's first name on the page. Merge fields should only be used on content which requires login.
	Toggle Editor - Toggles the editor to the HTML view

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