Adding a News Item
News items are announcements that users see in the grey panel on the left-hand side of their Apex home page. /You can create a news item by clicking News & Updates on your Admin home page.
You see a list of User Groups that are available to you. /
To create a news item that is visible to just one group:
Single-click the name of the group, to select it.
Click Add New News Item. / To create a news item that is visible to all of your groups:
Single-click All User Groups, to select that group.
Click Add New News Item.
To change which user group will see this news item, click Choose.
Create the news item by filling out the fields in this box (see the field descriptions below). / The news item in this example will be visible to all of your user groups.
Headline = The title of the item, that will appear in small font in a blue bar.
Effective Date / Time = The news item will become visible to users at that time.
Expiration Date/Time = The news item will disappear from the user view (but it will be saved in the system).
Text = The body of the news item.
~You should repeat the headline at the top of the Text area, in a larger font.
~You can format the text by using the toolbar buttons at the top of the Text area.
~If you type a web address, it will automatically create a hyperlink.
~You can embed a hyperlink inside words in your text: just highlight the words, then click the globe-and-chain icon in the toolbar. In the dialog box that appears, paste the web address.
~The Source Edit button on the far right of the toolbar allows you to toggle between “normal” editing and html. If you know html tags, you can do some advanced editing of your text.
Image = You can add a picture or graphic that will appear in the body of your news item. Click Browse to find the image on your computer or on a shared drive.
Once you click Save, your news item will automatically be activated, and it will appear at the top of the News panel.
Older news items will collapse and appear at the bottom of the news panel, with just their blue Headline Bars showing.
To expand a news item that is collapsed, click the plus sign in the Headline Bar of the news item. /Once a news item is created, it remains in the system until it is deleted by an administrator.
When you open a news item to edit it, you will see an “Active” checkbox at the bottom of the window.
If you uncheckthe Active box and click Save, then the users will no longer be able to see the item… regardless whether the Expiration Date has been reached.