Announcements are used to communicate important or emergency information to your community. They can be about emergencies, disruptions, policies and more, and are visible across the entirety of your site.
We have created the OC Announcement content type to create announcements in the easiest and most efficient way. It's also best practice to create all your announcements into one folder.
Announcements are not always necessary or the best choice to impart information. Before you get started, check out our handy list of when you should or should not use an announcement.
How to create an OC Announcement
Here's how to create an announcement page, but first we'll take you through creating a single folder for all your announcements.
- Right-click on your homepage in the site tree.
- Select Create Page, and choose OC Folder as the content type.
- Name the folder something indicative like 'Announcements' and Publish the folder.
- To create the announcement itself, right-click on your 'Announcements' folder.
- Select Create Page.
- Choose OC Announcement as the content type.
- Fill in the necessary fields.
Note: if you hide your OC Announcement from search, it will not appear on your site. To ensure that it is not hidden go to the Settings tab of your announcement page and make sure the Hide this page from search box is unchecked. - Publish your page.
What to include on your OC Announcement page
Use the following information to fill out the fields of your announcement page:
| Field | Function |
| Page name | Completes the unique page URL |
| Announcement title | The title displayed at the top of the announcement block |
| Level of importance (determines order and styling) |
Determines the order in which announcements appear if you have more than one – high ones show at the top, then medium ones, then low ones.
This also determines the color of the announcements, which is configured in your theme. |
| Short description of announcement |
A brief overview of the announcement. This displays inside the announcement block, below the title. Note: although there is a character limit of 400, make sure you keep this description as concise as possible. On mobile devices, announcements that are too long take up most of the screen. We recommend keeping your announcements to approximately 150 characters. |
| Link to more information about this announcement | A link which appears below the short description inside the announcement block. |
| Can site visitors dismiss this announcement? |
Determines how the user can interact with the announcement.
Unless the topic relates to an emergency or is relevant to everyone, it's polite to let your visitors dismiss the announcement. If you publish a new version of an announcement that someone has dismissed in the past, it will come out of their dismissed announcement list and appear as a new announcement. |
| Custom dismiss button text (leave empty for close icon) |
If you need users to acknowledge your announcement (for example, to accept your terms and conditions), enter text here that will appear on a button. If you leave the field empty, a close icon will appear at the top right instead (assuming you're allowing users to either minimize or completely remove the announcement).
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| Show in banner at bottom of page (e.g. for cookies announcements) | Choose whether to make the announcement appear in a 'sticky' banner at the bottom of the page – it will stay visible as users scroll. You might want to use this for information about site cookies. |
We also recommend trying to keep your announcements as short and concise as possible. It's always best to look at your announcement on a mobile device to ensure that they don't take up the entire screen.