Quick Guide to Fields in Mercury Events and News

Category
Drupal Version
Tags

This page highlights the main fields (boxes to type text into) that need to be completed for each type of content in Mercury. The OUTLINE for this page is below:

Always-required Fields for Both Events and News

These are the fields you will ALWAYS have to enter for EVERY type of information (news, event) you put into Mercury:

Title

Your event, news item, or image might be shown in places other than your website. So, choose a Title that:

  • clearly explains what your event or news item is about.
  • is self-explanatory even when not on YOUR website.

Summary Sentence

  • Provide information that adds to the information already given in the Title, and use only 10 to 12 words at most.
  • This will show up on the Georgia Tech Events Calendar or News feed (if you share with their group).

Groups

The calendars and news feeds where this information will show up. Your group (example: "Clough Commons") will automatically be chosen. As appropriate, you might also get permissions to share your event or news item with other groups you belong to (perhaps an affiliated School or Department).

Default Workflow

Choose "Published" or your item stays hidden and will not show up on any calendars or news feeds.

Required Fields for Events

Below are the additional required fields you should fill in for each event.

Event Time

A calendar will pop up and allow you to choose the Date, but you must type in the Time.

Invited Audience

  • Choose whether your events is for: the public, students, faculty/staff.
  • You can choose more than one audience, if you'd like, by holding down Control/Command while clicking on each audience.

Event Category

The goal of these tags is to make your event easier to find on OTHER calendars (especially the very large GT Events Calendar).

There’s a checkbox labeled "Include this event on the Campus Calendar” (within the Categories and Keywords fieldset). Including events on the campus calendar is as simple as checking this box. To exclude them from the campus calendar, leave the box unchecked.

Optional Fields for Events

It is not required, but it is highly recommended that you also fill in these other fields for events:

Location

You only need to enter information into the FIRST box. Type at least the Building and Room Number but, for events with an off-campus audience, consider adding the Full Address in case they need directions.

Contact

This is very helpful for your audience if they have questions, especially when your event is shown on OTHER CALENDARS (i.e. not yours).

Body

You can give a fuller description of the event here. It can have lots of details, times, agendas, etc. Multiple paragraphs are allowed.

Optional Fields for News

To best publicize a news item when you share it, especially on the GT Events Calendar/News feed, it is highly recommended that you also fill in these other fields:

Category and Core Research Area(s)

These tags help people (including Institute Communications) sort through the HUGE number of news items to find topics of most interest to them.

Body

This is where the text of your news article goes. Without it, your news article will just be a title and summary sentence.

Fields for Images

If you plan to use an image with your event or news item, create it FIRST, before creating said event/news.

Title

Make it easier to find images when trying to add them to news items. Use a simple pattern for the Title field, such as:

  • Organization name or abbreviation: Clough
  • Significant subProgram or subcategory for your organization: Art Crawl or Students
  • Date image was created or uploaded: 2013
  • Short phrase describing image (1-4 words): Winners in photography

In this example, your title for this image would be: "Clough Art Crawl 2013 - Winners in photography."

Image (Browse / Choose File)

Upload the file for your image or picture.

Where to Add Images for News/Events

On both the "Create Event" and "Create News" pages, you can add images under the section called "Media."

Start typing the Title of images you've created into these fields to attach individual images.