Newsagent/Template Articles

Newsagent
Author	Chris Page
Contact	Support
Repository	github
Issue tracker	github
OS	Neutral (web based) Will not work with IE8 or older
URL	Newsagent
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Newsagent supports a "template" system that allows users who find themselves repeatedly selecting many of the same options when using Newsagent to set up a template article to make the process faster and easier. Template articles are similar to normal articles - they are created via the normal Compose page - except that they never appear in feeds, and they appear in a special "Templates" menu on the userbar. When a user creates a template article, they can later select the template from the "Templates" menu to create a new article based on the template, and then only need to change values specific to the new article.

Creating a Template article

To create a template article, use the normal Compose page:

• Go to the Compose page
• Set the subject
• Set the summary and/or article text (these are still required for templates, even if you just use a placeholder "Enter content here!" message)
• Set the feed(s) that articles created from this template should be added to.
• Set any notification options that should be used when creating articles from the template.
• THE IMPORTANT BIT: change the "Publish" option to be "Template (not published)" and enter an appropriate name in the "Template Name" box. This will be the name used to identify the template in the "Templates" menu.
• Click "Create article".

This will create a template article with the name set in the "Template Name" box. The template itself is not visible anywhere except to the author (and administrators). It is never published, and its notifications are never sent; it's essentially a filled-in dummy article. However, once a user creates one or more templates a new "Templates" option will appear in the grey userbar at the top of the page.

Using a previously composed Template article

Move the mouse pointer over the "Templates" option in the userbar and a menu will appear listing the templates you have access to use.

Select a template from that list to bring up an edit page. The edit page will be pre-populated with all the settings stored in the template, and they can be edited as needed for the new article.

Once the article has been edited click "Edit article". At that point, the system will take the edits to the template, create a new article based on them, schedule any notifications, and generally behave like a new article has been created.

Additional information

There is no limit to the number of templates a user may create (although too many will make the menu a bit unmanageable!).

Templates may be edited as normal via the article list page. Template articles will appear in the article list much like normal articles, but in order to see them you must select the "Templates" option from the "Status" dropdown - once ticked, you can see template articles, edit them, or delete them.

When editing templates, be sure to leave the "Template Name" box unchanged. If you modify the contents of the "Template Name" box, the original template article will not be updated; a new one with the new settings you have made will be created instead!