Company News

The Company News App comes with a standard layout for its default home page, List View, and Item View, as shown with sample content below. All layouts can be customized. Note that if there's only one folder, the Home Page will look like the List View.

As with all Apps, there are many ways to customize. When you're in the App, hover over the Admin icon in the Toolbar, and click App Admin to access the settings.

Other than the name and description, you can:

• Show Ratings or Comments - many organizations want social features included for their news items. Optimal settings for this are to check the boxes for enable thumbs up, public ratings, enable comments, always show comments, and public comments. This will allow for logged-in users to like or comment on news items and for all users to see the results. Learn more about Settings in the App Overview article.
• Choose which fields to display - click Manage Fields to view the current fields on Company News. If you mouse over a field you will get the crosshairs which allow you to hold and drag the field to reposition it, or you can click the edit pencil to show more options or the red circle to delete the field. Learn more about managing fields in the App Overview article.
• Change the layout - edit the layout of the App Home page, List View, or Item View. Learn more about Layout for Apps.
• Use folders to group contents - click Folders | Security to add, rename, or delete folders to categorize Company News listings. Click on the folder name to adjust the security of that folder. Learn more about Security for Apps.
• Add an approval function - want to allow all staff or members of one department to add news, but you'd like to moderate the content? Add approval via workflow. To do this, click Approval Workflow, then click on a folder name to assign an Approval Manager workflow by folder. Learn more about managing folder workflow in the App Overview article.
• Advertise items - click Advertising Options, then click on a folder name to determine whether items in that folder will be advertised to the site homepage. Typically for Company News, default advertising is turned on so all items appear in the What's New feed on the Home Page. Learn more about advertising options in the App Overview article.

These are just a few of the many ways you can customize the Company News application so it fits with your goals.

To add a news item (assuming you have the permissions to do so):

1. Within the News App, click Add, top right.
2. Add the details of your news announcement:
   • Title - enter a brief but descriptive Title (required)
   • Summary - this will show in the advertising and in views such as the List View and others if selected
   • Message - the main body of the News announcement; can include all types of formatted text such as bullets, links, etc.
   • Publish On - this field is pre-filled with a default date/time but can be altered as needed
   • File attachment - use this if you have a document which should accompany the new item
   • Link attachment - if there's an associated link, you could add it here, but it's easier to simply add a link within the Summary field
   • Advertise to - specific options for advertising to the What's New feed on the Home Page:
     • Do Not Advertise - News item is created but not advertised on the Home Page
     • Advertise Now - News item is created and immediately advertised
     • Advertise On - choose a specific date (and time, if preferred) that the item should advertise; helpful when you're creating a News item well in advance but want it to advertise closer to the date
   • Thumbnail Graphic - either go with the default graphic or add a specific graphic by clicking 'Choose File'

Click Save to finalize your News item.

If a News item is updated, best practice is to edit the item (i.e. rather than creating a new item) so users can locate all information in one place. Editing a News item is just like editing any item on the intranet. Go to the item and click the edit pencil on the right side.

As you edit, keep in mind how the News item will look to users in the What's New feed. You can update the title of the item with new information so it's clear to users what has changed. Or add a Summary to highlight aspects of the item.

To retain your changes and maintain the current position in the What's New feed, click Save without adjusting advertising settings. To bump the newly-changed item to the top of the What's New advertising, click 'Advertise Now' before clicking Save to retain your changes.