Widget Tag

++SPOTLIGHTTEXT++

What It Does

The ++SPOTLIGHTTEXT++ widget is used on the homepage and main section pages to display a text link to the spotlight article without displaying the spotlight image. The spotlight article is the featured article for the site or section, the content that you want to highlight most on the page. (See the ++SPOTLIGHT++ entry for details on how Big Medium selects the spotlight article.)

Reasons to use the ++SPOTLIGHTTEXT++ widget instead of the ++SPOTLIGHT++ widget:

• Your site does not use spotlight images on the homepage and/or main section page.
• Your design separates the spotlight image and spotlight text, so you would like to use the ++SPOTLIGHTTEXT++ widget in combination with the ++SPOTLIGHTIMAGE++ widget instead of using the all-in-one ++SPOTLIGHT++ widget.

The Markup Results

The ++SPOTLIGHTTEXT++ widget is an inline element that is not contained in any HTML block tags. The only HTML tags it contains are the <a> tag for the article link and <br> tags for any line breaks you may indicate in the spotlight link format (see below).

Templates Using This Widget

You can use the ++SPOTLIGHTTEXT++ widget only in these templates:

• Homepage
• Main section page

(Use the ++INDEX++ widget to display all links for subsection index pages, which do not have spotlight articles.)

Customizing This Widget

Users with webmaster or administrator accounts may customize this widget in the site's widget editor. To get there, click the "Widget Settings" link in the left-column menu of the Big Medium control panel. The following settings affect the ++SPOTLIGHTTEXT++ widget:

• Require spotlight image to display spotlight article. This setting is located in the "Link Formats" section of the site's widget settings. If you select this option, an article will be displayed as a spotlight only if it has a spotlight image loaded from its article edit page.
• Date format in spotlight links. This setting in the "Date Format" panel determines the way the date is displayed in spotlight links.
• Display edit icon/link alongside links to articles. This setting in the "One-Click Editing" panel of the widget settings adds the one-click editing link to all widgets that display links to articles, including ++SPOTLIGHTTEXT++. The format of the link (icon, brief text, or both icon and brief text) can also be set in the "One-Click Editing" panel.

In addition, you may adjust the contents of spotlight links in the "Link Formats" panel of the site's widget settings. See below for instructions on changing the order and content of long-format links.

For information about preventing news articles from appearing in the ++SPOTLIGHTTEXT++ widget, see the ++HOMEPAGENEWS++ and ++TOPNEWS++ entries.

You can prevent a main section from generating spotlight articles on its main section page by selecting the "Don't generate a spotlight article for this section" option in the section's Section Editor settings.)

Changing the Order and Style of Spotlight Links

Users with webmaster or administrator settings may customize the appearance of spotlight links in the "Link Format" section of the site's widget settings.

Spotlight links are built from the elements indicated in the selection of pulldown menus listed under "Spotlight articles." The first pulldown menu shows the first element of a spotlight link, the second pulldown menu shows the second element, and so on. You may choose any of these elements and put them in any order by changing the selections in the pulldown menus.

There are three types of selections available in these pulldown menus:

• Content. The types of content available to include in a spotlight link are: headline/link, article description, publish date, byline and section.
• Separators. Separators are elements included to create space or other dividers between the content elements in a spotlight link. They include: spaces, colons, periods and line breaks.
• Blanks. The first line of each pulldown menu is blank. Selecting a blank pulldown does not include anything in the link.

As described in the section above, the date format used in spotlight links is selected in the "Date Formats" section of the widget settings.

Styles

The article link in the ++SPOTLIGHTTEXT++ widget is displayed in the "Spotlight Headline Links" style; the article description is presented in the "Default Body Text" style; the date is presented in the "Promo Dates" style; the byline is presented in the "Promo Bylines" style; and the section is presented in the "Section Links" style.

Need more help?

For further assistance and documentation, visit the website of Global Moxie, the developer behind Big Medium.