Content Article Manager/en

Description

The Article Manager is used to find, mark featured, add and edit articles.

How to access

• Click the Articles icon in the Control Panel
• Select Content → Articles from the drop-down menu of the Joomla! Administrator Panel.
• Click the Articles link while viewing Categories, Featured Articles or another link in the sidebar.

Screenshot

Column Headers

In the table containing Articles, these are the different columns shown below.

• Ordering: Up-Down Arrows User specified ordering, default is order of item creation. When active, drag and drop ordering by 'click and hold' on the bars icon then 'release' in desired position.

• Checkbox: Check this box to select one or more items. To select all items, check the box in the column heading. After one or more boxes are checked, click a toolbar button to take an action on the selected item or items. Many toolbar actions, such as Publish and Unpublish, can work with multiple items. Others, such as Edit, only work on one item at a time. If multiple items are checked and you press Edit, the first item will be opened for editing.

• Status: Status of Article, Published, Unpublished, Trashed. Featured Article is integrated in the Status column.
  • Featured. Whether or not the Article will show on the Featured Articles Page. Article's published state by observing the icons in the Status column. Click on either side of icon to change published/unpublished or featured state. Use the checkbox and the Trash icon in the toolbar to Trash an Article.
  • Published, not featured article.
  • Published, featured article.
  • Unpublished article.
  • Trashed article.

• Title. The name of the item. For a Menu Item, the Title will display in the Menu. For an Article or Category, the Title may optionally be displayed on the web page. This entry is required. You can open the item for editing by clicking on the Title.

• Access. The viewing Access Level for this item.

• Author. Name of the Joomla! User who created this item.

• Language. Item language.

• Date Created. The date this Article was created. This date is added automatically by Joomla!, but you may change it in the Publishing - tab of the Content Article Manager Edit.

• Hits. The number of times an item has been viewed.

• Votes. Number of votes for this item. Note: The Plugin Content - Vote has to be enabled.

• Ratings. Number of ratings for this item. Note: The Plugin Content - Vote has to be enabled.

• ID. This is a unique identification number for this item assigned automatically by Joomla!. It is used to identify the item internally, and you cannot change this number. When creating a new item, this field displays 0 until you save the new entry, at which point a new ID is assigned to it.

Column Filters

Above the column headers on the right, there are 2 drop down input fields, Sort Table by: (preset to ID descending) and a number (preset to 20) to display.

These column sorting input fields shows the current method of sorting applied to the table. Use the drop down field choices and click the column heading name. Alternatively, click on the column heading to sort the list by that column's value. This will also change the value in the drop field to correspond with the column header name. The list will then be sorted in order by that column and a sort icon(up or down arrow) will show next to the column name. Click a second time to reverse the sort, which will change the corresponding drop field.

• Order. Order items will be displayed in.

• Ascending Shows ordering of selected column, ascending or descending.

• # (default is 20). Shows the number of items to display on one page, default is 20 items. If there are more items than this number, you can use the page navigation buttons located at the bottom of the table. (Start, Prev, Next, End, and page numbers) to navigate between pages.

List Filters

The List Filters, above on the left, and other filters as detailed below are in the left, bottom sidebar. These filters are a series of controls that let you limit what items show in the manager screen. More than one filter may be entered. In this case, only items that meet all of the filter conditions will show on the list.

Filter by Partial Title or ID. In the upper left is a filter or search field and two buttons, as shown below.

• To filter by partial title, enter part of the title and click Search.
• To filter by ID number, enter "id:xx", where "xx" is the ID number (for example, "id:9").

Click Clear to clear the Filter field and restore the list to its unfiltered state.

Filter by Status. Lets you show only items with the selected published status.

• - Select Status -: Shows items that are Published and Unpublished. Does not show items that are Trashed or Archived.
• Trashed: Shows only items that are Trashed. Important Note: To permanently delete items:
  1. Change the status of the items to Trashed.
  2. Change the Status filter to Trashed. At this point the trashed items will show and an icon called "Empty trash" will show in the toolbar.
  3. Select the desired trashed items and click on "Empty Trash" in the toolbar. The items will be permanently deleted.
• Unpublished: Shows only items that are Unpublished.
• Published: Shows only items that are Published.
• Archived: Shows only items that are Archived. Note: Menu items have not this Status.
• All: Shows all items regardless of published status.

Filter by Category. Lets you show only items assigned to a specific category. The list box will show the categories defined for your site.

• - Select Category -: Show items assigned to any category.
• <your category>: Show items assigned only to this category.

Filter by Access. Lets you show only items that have a specified viewing access level. The list box will show the access levels defined for your site.

• - Select Access -: Show items with any viewing access level.
• <access level group>: Show items only with this viewing access level.

Filter by Author. Lets you show only items that have the specified author. The list box will show the authors for your site.

• - Select Author -: Show all items regardless of their author.
• <your author>: Only show items with the specified author.

Filter by Language. Lets you show only items that have a specific language assigned. The list box will show the languages defined for your site, similar to the example below.

• - Select Language - or All: Show items for any language.
• <your language>: Show items only for this language.

Filter by Tags. Lets you show only items that have a specified tag. The list box will show the tags created for your site, similar to the example below.

• - Select Tags -: Show items with any (or no) tag(s).
• <tag>: Show items only with this tag.

Filter by Max Levels (Item Level). Lets you show only items whose category/tag/... is at or above the specified level in the category/tag/... hierarchy.

• - Select Max Levels -: Show all items regardless of level of their assigned category/tag/....
• 1: Only show items whose category/tag/... is at the top level in the category/tag/... hierarchy (in other words, with categories/tags/... whose parent category/tag/... is "- No Parent -".)
• 2-10: Only show items whose category/tag/... is in the top 2-10 levels in the category/tag/... hierarchy.

Page Controls: When the number of items is more than one page, you will see a page control bar as shown below. The current page number being viewed is shaded.

• Start: Click to go to the first page.
• Prev: Click to go to the previous page.
• Page numbers: Click to go to the desired page.
• Next: Click to go to the next page.
• End: Click to go to the last page.

Toolbar

At the top you will see the toolbar:

The functions are:

• New. Opens the editing screen to create a new article.

• Edit. Opens the editing screen for the selected article. If more than one article is selected (where applicable), only the first article will be opened. The editing screen can also be opened by clicking on the Name of the article.

• Publish. Makes the selected article available to visitors to your website.

• Unpublish. Makes the selected article unavailable to visitors to your website.

• Feature. Marks selected article as featured. Works with one or multiple article selected.

• Unfeature. Changes the status of featured articles to unfeatured. Works with one or multiple articles selected.

• Archive. Changes the status of the selected article to indicate that they are archived. Archived article can be moved back to the published or unpublished state by selecting "Archived" in the Select Status filter and changing the status of the article to Published or Unpublished as preferred.

• Check-In. Checks-in the selected article. Works with one or multiple article selected.

• Batch. Batch processes the selected article. Works with one or multiple items selected.

• Trash. Changes the status of the selected article to indicate that they are trashed. Trashed article can still be recovered by selecting "Trashed" in the Select Status filter and changing the status of the article to Published or Unpublished as preferred. To permanently delete trashed article, select "Trashed" in the Select Status filter, select the article to be permanently deleted, then click the Empty Trash toolbar icon.

• Help. Opens this help screen.

• Options. Opens the Options window where settings such as default parameters can be edited.

Batch Process

The Batch Process allows a change in settings for a group of selected articles marked with a check-mark in the corresponding check-mark boxes. To use: select one or more articles form the table of articles being viewed and click on the 'Batch' Toolbar button. This will open a pop up window as shown below.

You can change one value or all values at one time.

Note: if you copy items to a new category, changes you have selected from language and access level will be applied to the copies, not the original.

How to Batch Process a group of articles:

1. Select one or more articles on the list by selecting the desired checkbox(es).
2. Click the 'Batch' Toolbar button.
3. Set one or more of the following values:

• To change the Language, select the desired language from the Set Language list box.
• To change the Access Levels, select the desired new access level from the Set Access Level list box.

• To change the Category, select a category. To leave the category unchanged, use the default value of "Select".

1. To copy the items to a different category, select the desired category from the category list box and check the Copy option. In this case, the original items are unchanged and the copies are assigned to the new category and, if selected, the new language and access level.
2. To move the items to a different category, select the desired category from the category list box and check the Move option. In this case, the original items will be moved to a new category and, if selected, be assigned the new language and access level.

• To add a Tag, select the desired tag from the Add Tag list box.

When all of the settings are entered, click on Process to perform the changes. A message "Batch process completed successfully." will show.

Note that nothing will happen if you

• don't have any items selected or
• have not selected a language, access level or category.

If you wish to clear your entered selections, click on the Clear button. This will return all of the Batch controls to their default values. Note that this does not uncheck the check boxes for the items.

Custom Fields

If you want to know how to use Custom Fields, click Adding Custom Fields

Quick Tips

• If Joomla is installed without sample data, one article category called "Uncategorised" is created automatically. If you want to use other categories for articles, you should create them before trying to add articles.
• To see trashed and archived articles, set the Status filter to All.
• To change the ordering of articles within a category, click on the Ordering column heading to sort by this column. Also, it is easier to see the ordering if you filter on the desired category.

Related Information

• To add or edit Articles: Article Manager: New/Edit
• To manage Categories: Category Manager
• To manage Featured Articles: Article Manager: Featured Articles