Topic Manager - Setting Topic Properties

The Topic Manager allows the board administrator to rename a topic, change the description of a topic, hiding or unhiding a topic, changing the icon for a topic, and setting up META tags for a topic. These actions are all accomplished by editing the properties for a topic.

Changing properties for a single topic

1. Go to Topic Manager and click the "Topics" tab.

2. Click the properties (finger over document) icon next to the topic to have its properties changed.

3. Follow instructions below to change properties -- note that these are 3 separate parts of the Topics Manager page, so you make changes to one section, save it, then make changes to the next section, save it, and so on.

   • Rename topic
   • Change description, hide/unhide, change icon
   • Set META tags

Changing properties for multiple topics at once

1. Go to Topic Manager and click the "Topics" tab.

2. Check the box next to each topic for which you wish to change properties, in the "Mark" column. You can also use the up/down arrows to toggle the checkboxes above (up arrow) or below (down arrow) your current position.

3. Click the properties (finger over document) icon in the bottom row of the topics table, just to the right of the text "(marked)".

4. Follow instructions below to change properties:

   • Hide/unhide, change icon
   • Set META tags

1. Select a single topic to edit properties as noted above (renaming is not available when multiple topics are selected at once).

2. In the "Rename Topic" section, edit the topic's name as desired in the "Topic Name" box.

3. Click the "Rename Topic" button.

4. This brings up a "Gauge" which will indicate the progress of the regeneration of the topic with its new name. Wait for the gauge to finish, at which time you will be returned to the properties page, and "Note: Successfully renamed topic" will be displayed at the top. The new name will now show up throughout the board, and in the "Rename Topic" section's text box.

1. Select a single topic or multiple topics to edit properties as noted above.

2. Applies only when a single topic is selected: To change a topic description, type the new description in the "Topic Description" box. You may use Discus formatting tags to provide text formatting. Note that the topic description cannot be edited when multiple topics are selected at once.

3. To hide the topic, check the box for "Display: [x] Hide Topic." To unhide the topic, uncheck the box. Note that hiding the topic causes it not to appear on the topics page. However, this does nothing for controlling access to the topic (in Discus Pro, the Access Manager allows reading privileges to be defined).

4. To change the icon for the topic, click the radio button for the desired icon to the right of "Icon:" above the icon to be chosen.

5. Click the "Save Properties" button.

Note: When multiple topics are selected, the META tags displayed by default on the page will reflect the META tags defined for the first selected topic. The display may not accurately reflect the META tags defined for other topics. When you save the META tags, however, they will be applied to all selected topics.

1. Select a single topic or multiple topics to edit properties as noted above.

2. Enter words for the "Description" META tag, or click the "Copy from above" link to copy the topic description from the previous section into the META tag box. Note that any formatting directives in the description box should be removed .

3. Enter words for the "Keywords" META tag.

4. Choose one of the META tags options for the "Robots" META tag (descriptions of how well-behaved spiders will react are provided on the screen). To enter something other than the provided options, check the box for "Custom" and enter the desired text into the box.

5. Click the "Save META Tags" button.

6. This brings up a "Gauge" which will indicate the progress of the regeneration of the topic with its new META tags. Wait for the gauge to finish, at which time you will be returned to the properties page, and "Note: Successfully updated topic META tags" will be displayed at the top.