Question: How do I add a news item?

Answer:

StepInstructionsExample or PictureNotes
1 You can add news items only if you have a News element on your web page.

If you have a News on your web page, skip to Step 2.

If not, decide where on your web page it should go, click the plus-sign in that area of your page, and select News from the Element Gallery.

 
2 Click the Add News button at the top of your News section.  
3 The News Item page will be displayed.  
4 Ignore the Homepage (submit for approval) checkbox.

Checking it is a common mistake. If you do, School Loop will send a request to the Palms Middle School webmaster to put your news item on the school's home page instead of on your own web page.		 If you really do want to put a news item on the school's home page then you should first check with the principal and/or Friends of Palms president(s).
5 Set the Publish and Expire dates to the days when the news item should appear on your web page, i.e., the first and last days when students will see that news. You can type the dates or pick from the pop-up calendar.

Publish date:
Usually the starting date will be today, and that's the default.
Expire date:
If the news won't be worth displaying after a given day, fill in that day. For example, if the news item is reminding students about an upcoming test, fill in the day of the test since you won't need to remind them after that day.

If you want a news item to stay in your News section for the entire semester or the entire school year, set the Expire date to the end of the semester (e.g., February 5) or the end of the school year (e.g., June 30). However, for "permanent" news like this you might consider adding a Rich Text element to your web page instead, since older news "falls off" the news list to a separate page as new news items appear.
For more tips see this question:

When should I post news?
6 Fill in a news item heading. Examples:
Solar System Test on Thursday
Library Research Tips
  
7 Fill in the body of the news item. You can use plain text or take advantage of the icons in the toolbar to make the news item fancier.

These are the same tools that you get in a Rich Text element, except that the Block Quote, Table and Source icons aren't available.		 For editing tips see the questions in the Editing text section.
8 You can optionally add "Attachments" to your news item. They can be documents you upload (e.g., PDF files) or links to web pages on the Palms website or anywhere else on the Internet.

You can add as many attachments as you want. You can't attach a file that's in your School Loop "locker" but you can use the instructions below to upload it again.

To attach a document, click the Attach File button, fill in the name that you want to have appear, click the Browse or Choose File button to select the file to upload, and click the Upload button.

To link to a web page, click the Post Link button, fill in the name that you want to have appear, copy and paste the address (URL) of the web page to which you want to link, and click the Submit button.
Attaching a document:

Attaching a web page link:
 
9 Ignore the Enable Disussion checkbox. We don't have the School Loop service that allows students to post messages on the website.  
10 Click the Publish button. The news item is added to your news list.

There's a reason the button isn't named Save. The Publish button publishes your news straight to your live website (if today is within the new item's date range).		 If you make a mistake or change your mind about the news item, click the Cancel button instead.

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