Description:
The Content Item New, and Edit, screens allow the creation of new Content Items in the Back-end for display on the Front-end of the web site and the ability to edit existing Content Items that have been entered either through the Front-End or the Back-end of the site.
Toolbar:
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| Content Item: New | Content Items: Edit |
Save: Click Save to save any changes made during the current editing session, and return to the Content Item Manager screen.
Apply: Click Apply to save any changes made so far in the current session, but remain in the Content Item screen to continue editing. If the current action was creating a new Content Item it will now have been saved, and will appear on the Content Item Manager list. In addition, the current session now becomes an Edit action rather than the Add action it was previously. Once the editing session is complete click Save as above.
Cancel: Clicking Cancel at any point ends the current creation session and returns the display to the Content Item Manager screen. Any changes made since the session commenced will be lost and the new Content Item will not have been created.
Help: Click the Help icon at any time to view this Help Screen.
Item Details
Title: Enter a name for this Item as you would like it displayed at the top of the published page. It is possible to set whether this Title will display or not within the Parameter settings.
Title Alias: Enter a short name for this Item.
Section: Select the Section from the drop down list to which this new Content Item will be assigned. The Section must have been created before the Content Item and Category. This list will only display those Sections that relate to Content Items.
Category: Select the Category from the drop down list to which this new Content Item will be assigned. It is essential to have already created the Section and Category before the Content Item. The drop down list will only display those Categories that belong to the Section selected in the previous box.
Intro Text: (required) This message on the screen reaffirms that a Content Item must have content entered into the Intro Text field below. Without this content it will not be possible to Save the Content Item. It does not matter whether there is text entered in the Main Text field or not you must have content within the Intro field.
The Intro text is the abbreviated version of a Content Item that is shown within Blog and Front Page listings with a Read More navigation link to access the full content as added to the Main Text.
Intro:
The Intro field of the Content Item New/Edit screen is the area where the actual content is entered that will appear in the finished page. In particular this field is the Introductory (or lead-in) text used by Joomla! as the ‘headlines’ for the Front Page and as the text used in Blog style pages to introduce an article.
Every Content Item created must have content in this field.
Main Text:
The Main Text field is an optional, additional area for the actual content of a Content Item. It is used to hold the main story or article that the Content Item is about. If the Intro is used to hold the complete article then this field is redundant.
If it is used then a Read More… link will be added automatically to the end of the Intro section of content in the finished article that a User clicks to access this section from a Blog or ‘headline’ style page.
WYSIWYG Editor:
The WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) Editor is the means by which the text is entered into the Content Item.
Attributes Tabs:
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| Publishing | Parameters | Meta Data | Link to Menu |
Publishing:
Show on Front Page: Check the Check Box if this Content Item should be visible within the Front Page Newsflash/Blog style displays if they are active.
Published: Check this Check Box to Publish this Content Item. It will be available to be viewed at the Start Publishing Time and Date set below.
Access Level: Identify which User Group level can view this Content Item. Select from Public, Registered, or Special. See User Access Levels for further details on these.
Author Alias: If needed, enter an alternative name for the Author of this Content Item. This can be used for example, when the ‘real’ Author – whose User name would otherwise appear on the display page of this Item – wants to make an announcement as the Site Administrator. Another example would be when the Item is actually written by A N Other author but the Content Item is created by one of the administration team.
Change Creator: If needed, it is possible to change the name displayed as the original author of the Item. This might be of use, for example, when an Item has been substantially updated or rewritten by another author, and bears little, or no, resemblance to the original.
Ordering: Control where this Content Item will appear in Content Item Manager in the Back-end, and consequently its position in any Menu Item display in the Front-end. Select this position from the drop-down display of current Content Items contained in the Content Item Manager.
Override Created Date: If a document is re-issued following a review, or it has been rewritten, for example, it is sometimes appropriate to change the Creation Date for the Item. This avoids the need that would arise for example if a new Content Item was added, of creating new Menu Items and/or breaking external links that may have been made to a particular page.
Start Publishing: This is the date and time when the Content Item will first be viewable from the Front-end of the web site. Prior to this point – provided it has a Published status – it will show in the Back-end as Pending. There are two choices of action here; either enter the Date and Time manually into the field, ensuring that the format is the same as has been set for this parameter in the Global Configuration, or alternatively, click on the 
calendar icon and select the date from the calendar that is displayed.
Finish Publishing: This is the date and time when the Content Item will no longer be visible in the Front-end. After this date and time it will be displayed in the Back-end as Expired. As with the Start Publishing option above the same two methods of date and time entry exist.
After the new Content Item has been saved for the first time, an non-editable information pane will be displayed at the foot of this tab. It will contain the following information:
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Content ID: The Identification Number that the system (MySQL) has assigned to it.
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State: Whether the Content Item is currently Pending, Published, Expired, or Unpublished.
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Hits: The number of Hits (See: Page Impression Statistics ) that have been made on the full Content Item.
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Reset Hit Count (button): The only interactive part of this section. This allows the Hits to be reset to 0 (zero). A warning dialogue box will pop up to check that this is the desired course of action.
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Revised: The number of times that this Content Item has been opened and saved since its original creation.
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Created: The date and time upon which it was originally created.
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Last Modified: The date and time when the Content Item was last amended/saved, and by whom.
Parameters:
Page Class Suffix: This field can contain a suffix that is to be applied to the CSS classes of this page. This allows individual page styling with relative ease. For example, if the suffix .bl (short for Blog) is entered here, all CSS code elements in this page will have .bl added to them. h2 becomes h2.bl. Separate entries in the CSS file of the template would then be applied as entered.
Back Button: Set whether there is a Back navigation button inserted at the base of the target page being displayed. Options are Use Global (the setting made for the whole site in the Global Configuration), Hide, or Show. The Global site settings are overridden by these individual page settings.
Page Title: Select Show or Hide to set whether the Page Title text entered above will appear at the top of their respective target page displayed in the Front-end of the web site.
Linked Titles: The Global Configuration ->Content Tab screen has a setting within it that sets a Global rule with regard to whether Content Item titles are linkable, or not. It may well be that the Global rule is No. However, there may be occasions when it would be useful and/or essential that a title is linked. It is possible to do this using this feature which can override the Global rule and allow Items on the target page display to be displayed with linkable titles. The options available are Use Global, Yes, and No. Select Use Global to follow the Global rule for the web site. Select No to always use standard format text titles. This function will only work when the Item Titles field above is set to Show.
Intro Text: Select Show or Hide to set whether the Intro Text is displayed above the Main Text after the User clicks the Read More… link on the Front Page and therefore views the full Content Item. This setting will have no effect if no Main Text has been entered and therefore the full Content Item has been displayed on the Front Page.
Section Name: Select Show or Hide to set whether the Section Name is displayed or not. The Section Name is the name given to the Section when it was created in the Section Manager, and any changes needed are made there.;
Section Name Linkable: It is possible to make the Section Name text appear as a link to the actual Section page and therefore display a list of all the Categories within that Section.Category. This function will only work if the Section Name is set to Show in the previous field. Select Yes or No (default) to set whether this function is activated.
Category Name: Select Show or Hide to set whether the name of the Category, the Content Item belongs to, is displayed beneath the Content Item name.
Category Name Linkable: It is possible to make the Category Name text appear as a link to the actual Category page and therefore display all Content Items within that Category. This function will only work if the Category Name is set to Show in the previous field. Select Yes or No (default) to set whether this function is activated.
Item Rating: Use this feature to set whether the Item Rating images are displayed in Content Items on the target page display. Select Use Global to follow the Global rule for the web site. Select Yes to override the Global rule and always make the Item Rating appear. Select No to override the Global rule and never show the Item Rating. This feature does not control the function of enabling rating.
Author Names: Use this feature to set whether the name of a Content Item’s Author is displayed in the Content Item on the target page display. Select Use Global to follow the Global rule for the web site. Select Yes to override the Global rule and always make the Author Name appear. Select No to override the Global rule and never show the Author Name.
Created Date and Time: Use this feature to set whether the the date and time that this Content Item was created are displayed in the Content Item on the target page display. Select Use Global to follow the Global rule for the web site. Select Yes to override the Global rule and always make the Created Date and Time appear. Select No to override the Global rule and never show the Created Date and Time.
Modified Date and Time: Use this feature to set whether the the date and time that this Content Item was last modified are displayed in the Content Item on the target page display. Select Use Global to follow the Global rule for the web site. Select Yes to override the Global rule and always make the Modified Date and Time appear. Select No to override the Global rule and never show the Modified Date and Time.
PDF Icon: Use this feature to set whether the PDF icon is displayed in Content Items on the target page display. The PDF Icon (sometimes also just represented in plain text) allow the download of the Content Item as a PDF file. Select Use Global to follow the Global rule for the web site. Select Yes to override the Global rule and always make the PDF Icon appear. Select No to override the Global rule and never show the PDF Icon.
Print Icon: Use this feature to set whether the Print icon is displayed in Content Items on the target page display. The Print Icon causes a new browser window to open with the basic text content of the Content Item displayed without any of the web site graphics or design showing. This allows a User to conveniently print the Item. Select Use Global to follow the Global rule for the web site. Select Yes to override the Global rule and always make the Print Icon appear. Select No to override the Global rule and never show the Print Icon.
E-mail Icon: Use this feature to set whether the E-mail Icon is displayed in Content Items on the target page display. The E-mail Icon permits the ever present ‘Mail to a Friend’ facility to be used allowing a copy of a particular Content Item to be sent to an e-mail address. Select Use Global to follow the Global rule for the web site. Select Yes to override the Global rule and always make the E-mail Icon appear. Select No to override the Global rule and never show the E-mail Icon.
NOTE: Changes made to the Parameters within this Menu Item, only affect this instance of the Blog – Content Category Menu Item display and does not alter the Global rules that may be set for them within the Global Configuration.
Key Reference: This is the unique reference key that can be used to identify a particular document. The Key Reference is searched for by the “option=com_content&task=findkey&pop=1&keyref=key.reference.name” function in the joomla_root/admin/com_content content.php file.
DocBook Type: This is a feature under development and should not be used on a production web site.
Meta Info:
In addition to the fields below in which to set the Meta Data for this particular Content Item, there is also an option within the Global Configuration -> Metadata Tab, to set a web site wide collection of Keywords and Descriptions that are then automatically appended to every Content Item. These avoid the necessity of repeating the same entry of words and ensures a minimum set of Meta Data wording is always used.
Description: This field corresponds to the Meta Tags in the Head of an HTML page. Enter a brief description as to the purpose of the Content Item. This information is used by some Search Engines which then categorise the page accordingly.
Keywords: Enter a number of Meta Keywords that reflect the substance of the Content Item. This information is used by some Search Engines which then categorise the page accordingly. In addition, Keywords are central to the functioning of the Related Items Module.
Add Sect/Cat/Title: Click the Add Sect/Cat/Title button to automatically add all the words contained in the Section Title, Category Title, and Content Item Title to the Keywords field above. If this is done be sure to edit out the superfluous words (and, then, this, for example)
Link to Menu:
The fields in this Tab will create a Link – Content Item Menu Item in the Menu selected.
Select a Menu: Select the Menu, on which the new Link – Content Item will be created, from the displayed list of existing Menus in the Front-end of the web site.
Menu Item Name: Enter a name for the new Menu Item. This will be the entry that will be visible within the Menu itself.
Link to Menu Button: Once all the fields above have been satisfactorily completed, click the
Link to Menu button to commit the changes to the system and create the new Menu Item.
Existing Menu Link: If the Content Item has previously been linked to an existing Menu the details of this will be displayed in this field. The current change will appear in this field once the button has been clicked.