News

News

How to set up a news section and publish stories on ND Theme CMS v4.

News uses two page templates that work together:

Template	Role
News Landing Page	Parent page that introduces the section and lists stories
News Story	Individual article pages (create these as children of the landing page)

Related: Page-Meta, Page-Tags, Pages-and-Templates, Archiving.

Set up the news landing page

1. Create a page (or use an existing one) and set its template to News Landing Page.
2. Give it a clear title (for example, “News”) and turn on In navigation if it should appear in the primary menu. See Navigation-and-Search.
3. Fill the landing placeholders (below).
4. In the News List placeholder, add a Generic Child Page List widget so child stories appear automatically.

Landing page placeholders

Placeholder	What to put here
Page Lede	Short intro under the page title (often Simple Text)
Page Content	Optional intro copy, banners, or other widgets above the list
News List	The story listing — typically Generic Child Page List

Configure Generic Child Page List

On the landing page, open the Generic Child Page List in News List and set:

• Title — optional heading above the list
• Parent page — usually this landing page (or leave blank to use the current page)
• Tags — filter to pages tagged in Page-Meta (for example, News). Tags are managed in Page-Tags
• Order — title or publication date order
• Show publication date — optional date line on each card
• Limit / View more link — optional caps and “see all” links

Sort order uses each story’s Page-Meta publish date when set; otherwise it falls back to the page creation date.

Add a news story

1. Create a child page under your News Landing Page.
2. Set the template to News Story.
3. Enter the story title (this becomes the article headline).
4. Leave In navigation off unless you want the story in the primary menu.
5. Fill the story placeholders (below).
6. Open Page → Page Meta and set:
   • Tags — at least News (or whatever tag your Child Page List filters on)
   • Publish date — controls listing/archive sort order
   • Preview image, image alt, and summary caption — used on cards and lists
7. Save. The story appears in the landing list on the next page load (saves are live — see Getting-Started).

Story page placeholders

Placeholder	What to put here
Publish Date	Visible date line (often Simple Text, for example April 1, 2025)
Author	Byline (often Simple Text)
Story Body	Main article content (typically a Text widget)

The Publish Date placeholder is what visitors see on the story. Listing order still uses Page Meta publish date, so keep those aligned when you care about both display and sort order.

Tags and Page Meta

Stories are not discovered by template alone in the list. Your Generic Child Page List filters by Page-Tags assigned in Page-Meta.

Typical workflow:

1. Confirm a News tag exists under Page-Tags (and mark search category / archive category if you want search grouping or archive browse).
2. Tag each story with News in Page Meta.
3. On the landing Child Page List, select the same News tag.

Optional: add a Page Tags widget on a page to display the current page’s Page Meta tags.

Tips

• Keep stories as children of the landing page so Child Page List can find them via parent + tags.
• Use Page Meta preview image and summary so cards look complete on the landing page.
• To retire a story from active sections without deleting it, see Archiving. Note: Generic Child Page List does not hide archived pages the way event and people lists do — plan archive behavior with your team if that matters for news.
• Prefer NDT widgets in Story Body and Page Content when they cover what you need. See Widgets.