Learning Centre

Blogs

The Blog tool in the Govstack Content Management System lets you add a blog section to your website where you can create blog posts and categories to engage your audience. Learn how to add a blog post, create categories to organize your blog posts and edit your blog and blog category page settings.

Accessing blogs

To access the Blogs feature, select the arrow next to 'Blogs' which is located in the left tree menu in the Govstack back office. 

Add a blog post

To add a blog post, you need to:

  1. Select the 'Posts' folder located under the main 'Blog' page in the left tree menu
  2. You will see a list of all your blog posts. You can select any of these blog posts to edit them. To create a new one, select 'Create Blog Post'

Next, you need to complete the blog post details.

Complete the blog post details

You can now add the blog post content and adjust the content settings. Don't forget to select 'Save and publish' once you've finished adding content and adjusting the settings.

Under the 'Settings' tab, you can assign a posting date, blog category and author to your new blog post:

  1. Next to 'Post Date', select the date you'd like the blog post to be published
  2. Next to 'Categories', click 'Add' and check off all the blog categories you'd like the blog post to appear under
  3. Next to 'Author', click 'Add' and search for the name of the author you'd like to assign to the blog post. Once you've selected the author, click 'Submit'

Under the 'Settings' tab, you can turn on or off the 'Disable comments' toggle to control whether or not users can comment on the blog post.

Under the 'Content' tab, you can add and edit the content of your blog post. This is where you can write and design your blog content using the available content components. You can also add extra content and adjust the content settings in the same way you would on a regular web page.

Add a blog category

You can use blog categories to organize your blog posts according to various topics. To create a new blog category or sub-category, you need to:

  1. Navigate to the 'Categories' folder under the main 'Blog' page
  2. Hover your cursor over the 'Categories' folder, or over the existing category folder that you want to add a sub-category below
  3. Click on the three dots '...' and select 'Blog Category Page' from the 'Create' slide-out panel
  4. In the 'Enter a name' field, add the blog category name
  5. Under the 'Content' tab, you can add a short description of the blog category to appear on its page. Add your introduction to the textbox next to 'Listing introduction'
  6. You can also add extra content and adjust the content settings in the same way you would on a regular web content page
  7. Click 'Save and publish' once you've added the new blog category

Add or edit a blog author

You can add blog authors to assign to blog posts and provide a short biography and social links for them to help engage your audience. To add a new blog author, you need to:

  1. Navigate to the 'Authors' folder under the main 'Blog' page
  2. On the right side, you will a list of your blog authors. To add a new one, select 'Create Blog Author'
  3. Under the 'Content' tab, you can add a short bio and related links for the author
  4. In the 'Author bio' textbox, you can provide a short bio about the author which will appear on every blog post assigned to them
  5. Next to 'Author page', you can link to another page associated with the author. Click 'Add', then 'Add link', and add the URL for the page. Click 'Submit'
  6. Next to 'Social links', you can add social page links for the author.  Click 'Add', then 'Add link' and add the social URL. Click 'Submit
  7. Add and format an image for the author if you'd like, then click 'Save and publish'

Add an author image

To add an image for an author, you need to:

  1. Select the 'Content' tab on the author's page
  2. Next to 'Author image', select the '+' to upload an image from your Media Library
  3. Next to 'Image style', select the image ratio to use for the author image
  4. Turn on or off the 'Box pad' toggle to indicate whether you want padding around the image or not
  5. Click 'Save and publish'

Blog and blog category settings

You can customize the layout of your main blog landing page as well as the each blog category page. To access blog or blog category settings, select the 'Settings' tab on your Blog page or any of your category pages.

The 'Item text position' setting lets you choose where you want the title for featured blog posts to appear in relation to the blog post's associated image. You can select to have the title appear above, below, to the right or left of the image or overlaid on top of the image.

You can add background colours to your blog or blog category using the colours that are part of your website design.

Add background colours

To add a background colour to your blog or blog category, turn on the 'Add background colour' toggle setting. Next, choose your background colour from the options next to 'Background colour'.

Colour options

The colour options are based on the design of your website. You may be able to change the design colours depending on your Govstack plan. To get access to the website design features, speak with your GHD Digital Account Executive.

The 'Items per row' setting lets you choose how the blog posts under a blog or blog category will be presented on the blog or blog category page. You can choose between one and eight blog post items per row.

You can choose the font size for the headings and secondary headings (if applicable) of the blog post items on your blog or blog category page. Next to 'Item heading size' and 'Item secondary heading size', choose between a small, medium or large font size.

Next to 'Item text alignment', choose how you want to align the text in each blog post item on your blog or blog category page. You can choose to left align, right align or centre the text for your blog post items.

Turn on the 'Remove item spacing' toggle to remove the space between blog post items on your blog or blog category page.

Turn on the 'Hide image' toggle if you want to hide the associated image for each blog post item on your blog or blog category page.

In the 'Listing Iimage style' setting, you can choose the shape of the images for the blog post items on your blog or blog category page.

If you select 'Original', then your images will appear with their original ratios on the page. Keep in mind that different images may have different ratios, so your blog post items may display images of different shapes if you select this option.

If you select one of the ratio options, then all the blog post items images will display in that ratio. The first number in each ratio represents the width while the second number represents the height. For example, a 2:1 image would be twice as wide as it is high.

If your image is cropped oddly or doesn't look the way you want it to after adjusting the image style, you may need to change its focal point so that it crops properly when changing the image ratio. Learn how to change the focal point of an image in your gallery in the 'Media' tab in the Govstack main menu.

Next to 'Items per page', select the number of blog post items that you want to display on your blog or blog category page.

Next to 'Default author', you can select a default author that will be displayed for all blog post items on your blog or blog category page. To add a default author, you need to click 'Add' and search for the author you want to add. Once you have selected the author, click 'Submit'.

Next to 'Disqus username', enter your disqus username so users can comment on blog posts. If you leave this blank, commenting will be disabled.

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