Use Manual mode to populate a widget

What's inside this article:

• Basic information
• How does Manual mode work?
• Enable Manual mode
• Add items
• Set the order
• Customize a widget teaser
• Create a placeholder

Basic information

This article explains how you can use Manual mode to add content to a widget. Manual mode is available for the following widget types in Pangea CMS:

• Breaking news widget
• Content widget
• FactCheck widget
• Multimedia widget
• Poll widget
• Slide-in widget

How does Manual mode work?

When Manual mode is enabled, the widget promotes the items that are manually selected in the widget builder. The content on the widget does not change unless items are manually added / removed in the widget builder.

Manual mode gives you full control over the widget content. The following special options are available when you update a widget using Manual mode:

• Order: Set the order of the items.
• Teaser: Customize the widget teaser for any promoted content page.
• Placeholder: Create a placeholder.

Enable Manual mode

To enable Manual mode, hit Manual in the Content section of the widget builder.

To learn how to build a new widget from the beginning, see the relevant article below:

• Build a Breaking news widget
• Build a Content widget
• Build a FactCheck widget
• Build a Multimedia widget
• Build a Poll widget
• Build a Slide-in widget

Add items

After you select Manual, follow the steps below to add items to the widget:

1. Hit Set manual content.

   

2. Set the search filters according to your needs. Then, hit Search to refresh the search results.

   

3. Search for and select each item you want to promote on the widget.

   

4. Hit Save to confirm your choice.

   

The items are now added in the widget builder.

Set the order

To change the position of an item, use the drop-down menu in the bottom-left corner of the box. For example, if you select 1, the item is positioned first.

Customize a widget teaser

You can customize the widget teaser for any promoted content page on the widget. The widget teaser is the simple preview of the item that is displayed on the published widget.

To customize a teaser, hit Add teaser / Edit teaser in the item box.

For detailed information, see the following article:

• Customize a widget teaser

Create a placeholder

A placeholder is a custom widget item. For each placeholder, you can manually define the title, image, link, and all other elements. This option is useful if you need to promote a page from an external site, or if you need to promote a page that is not a content page (such as a Section or Infopage).

To create a placeholder:

1. Hit Set manual content.

   

2. Select + Add placeholder.

   

3. In the Placeholder settings, define the necessary elements for the placeholder. Some elements will not be displayed on the current widget. This varies, according to the type of widget and its defined layout settings.

   

4. When you are satisfied, hit Save > Save.