Add or edit a project

About the Projects module

The Projects module gives each project its own page on the intranet. A project page shows the project’s status, its start and end dates, the people in the project team, the main content and any documents. Staff find projects through a Projects page that lists every open project, through search, and through tags. Finished projects move to a list of past projects.

Use a project page for work that has a beginning and an end and that staff across the organisation need to follow, such as an office move, a new finance system or a restructure. For permanent guidance, use a task or guide instead.

A project can be a single page, or a multi-part project with several pages under it, such as Background, Timetable and Frequently asked questions. A multi-part project gets a contents list and previous and next links, in the same way as a guide.

Set up the Projects module

An administrator does this once.

  1. Go to Options, then Modules, and switch on Projects. A Projects menu appears in the left-hand menu.
  2. Add a new page, call it Projects, and set its template to Projects listing. Any text you put in the page appears above the list of projects.
  3. Go back to Options, then Modules. Open the Projects tab and choose that page as the Projects page. The intranet uses this for breadcrumbs on project pages.
  4. Add the Projects page to a menu.
  5. Optional: go to Appearance, then Widgets, and add widgets to the Project Sidebar. They appear on every project page.

Who can add and edit projects

  • Contributors can write projects but cannot publish them.
  • Authors can publish and edit their own projects.
  • Editors and administrators can publish, edit and delete any project.

Your intranet may have changed these roles.

Add a project

  1. In the left-hand menu, select Projects, then Add project.
  2. Type the name of the project as the title.
  3. Write the main content in the editor.
  4. Fill in the Project details box: the dates, the status and the project team. Leave the Status as Active for a project that is under way.
  5. Write an Excerpt and set a Featured image. Both appear on the Projects page.
  6. Select Publish.

To edit a project, select Projects, find the project in the list and select its title.

What staff see on a project page

From top to bottom: the title, a details panel with the status, start date and end date, the project team, the contents list if the project has several parts, the featured image, the main content, the documents, and previous and next links if the project has several parts. Comments, if allowed, are at the bottom.

The sidebar shows your sidebar content, related content, any widgets in the Project Sidebar and the project’s tags.

Options on the project edit screen

The boxes below are in the order they usually appear. If you cannot see a box, select Screen Options at the top right of the screen and tick its name.

Title

The name of the project. It is the main heading of the project page and the heading of its card on the Projects page.

The Projects page lists projects alphabetically by their web address, which WordPress makes from the title when you first save. If you rename a project later, its place in the list does not change unless you also edit the web address under the title.

Main content editor

Describe what the project is for, what is changing, who is affected and where to find out more. Use headings to break up long content. See Use the editor toolbar.

Project details: Start date

The date the project starts. It appears in the details panel at the top of the project page, in the date format set for your intranet. Leave Start date empty and it is left out of the panel.

Project details: End date

The date the project is due to finish. It appears in the details panel at the top of the project page. Leave End date empty for a project with no fixed end.

The End date only affects the Projects page for a project that has no Status. A project with no Status moves to past projects the day after its End date. For every other project the Status decides. See Status, next.

If a project is running late, change the End date to the new date, so that staff see when the project is now expected to finish.

Project details: Status

Choose Active, Paused, Completed or Cancelled. New projects start as Active. The Status appears in the details panel on the project page and as a label on the project’s card on the Projects page.

The Status also decides whether the project is open or past. The Projects page shows open projects. Past projects appear when staff select Show all projects.

  • Active and Paused projects are open. They stay on the Projects page even after the End date has passed, so a project that overruns does not disappear.
  • Completed and Cancelled projects are past. They leave the Projects page as soon as you save, whatever the End date says.
  • A project with no Status follows its End date. It is open until the End date passes, or for as long as it has no End date. Projects brought over from an older intranet have no Status until someone chooses one.

When a project finishes, change the Status to Completed. An Active project stays on the Projects page until someone changes its Status, however old its End date.

Project details: Team members

Choose one or more members of staff. Start typing a name to find someone. The people you choose appear under a Project team heading near the top of the project page, each with their photo, name and job title, linked to their staff profile. The job title comes from the person’s profile, so you do not type it here.

Only people with an intranet account can be chosen. To mention someone outside the organisation, name them in the main content.

Sidebar content

Optional content for the right-hand sidebar of the project page. Use it for short, important extras such as a contact name, a key date or a link to the project mailbox. Keep it brief: on a phone the sidebar appears underneath the main content.

Document attachments

Files for staff to download, such as a project plan or a presentation. Select Add document, choose a File and, if you wish, type a Display title. If you leave Display title empty, the file name is used. The files appear under a Documents heading below the main content, each with its file type and size.

When a document changes, replace the file instead of adding a new one, so that links to it keep working. See Replace an existing document.

Related content

Pick other pages, tasks, news stories, blog posts, events, projects, vacancies or training courses that are connected to the project. They appear as links in the sidebar of the project page. The link works both ways: a page you pick here also shows a link back to the project, unless your administrator has switched that off.

On project pages only your own picks and those links back are shown. The intranet does not add related items automatically.

Keywords

Other words that staff might search for to find the project, such as an old project name, an acronym or a nickname. You do not need to repeat words that are already in the title or the content. It is fine to leave Keywords empty. Keywords are not shown on the project page.

Excerpt

A one or two sentence summary of the project. The first 20 words appear on the project’s card on the Projects page, and the excerpt is also used in search results and in the preview card when someone pastes the project’s address into another page. If you leave Excerpt empty, the intranet uses the opening words of the main content, which rarely reads as well.

Discussion

Tick Allow comments to let staff comment at the bottom of the project page. Untick it to switch comments off for this project. See Allow comments on a news story or blog post.

Revisions

Lists earlier saved versions of the project page, once there are any. Select a revision to compare it with the current version and to restore it.

Author

The person recorded as the author of the project page. Change the author when someone else takes over the page, so that they can edit it and so that the right person is contacted about it.

Publish

Save a draft, preview, publish now, schedule for later, or change who can see the project. See Save, preview, schedule and publish content.

Page Attributes: Parent

Use Parent to build a multi-part project. Leave Parent as (no parent) for the main project page. For each extra part, add another project and choose the main project page as its Parent.

  • Every page in a multi-part project shows a contents list, and previous and next links at the bottom.
  • Each part shows the name of the main project above its own title.
  • The details panel and the project team appear on the main project page only. Fill in Project details on the main page and leave them empty on the parts.
  • Only the main project page appears on the Projects page.
  • Parts that are still drafts show in the contents list when an editor previews the project, so that you can check the whole project before publishing. Other staff never see draft parts.

Page Attributes: Order

Sets the order of the parts in a multi-part project. Give the first part 1, the second 2, and so on. Parts with the same Order number are listed alphabetically. Order has no effect on the Projects page, which is always alphabetical by web address.

Tags

Tags connect the project to other content on the same subject, and appear as links in the sidebar of the project page. Administrators can add new tags here. Other editors choose from a list of existing tags. See Learn how tags work.

A to Z letters

This box appears if the A to Z module is switched on. Tick a letter to list the project under that letter in the A to Z index. See Add an item to the A to Z index.

The image that represents the project. It appears at the top of the project page, on the project’s card on the Projects page and in search results. Use a landscape image with the important part in the centre, because cards trim images to a fixed shape. See Set a featured image.

Why a project is missing from the Projects page

  • The Status is Completed or Cancelled. These are past projects. Change the Status to Active or Paused to bring the project back.
  • The project has no Status and its End date has passed. Set the Status to Active, or move the End date forward.
  • The project is a part of another project. Only main project pages are listed. Check the Parent setting.
  • The project is not published. Check the status in the Publish box, which is separate from the project Status.
  • The project is on a later page of the list. The Projects page shows a set number of projects per page. The number is the “Blog pages show at most” setting in Settings, Reading.

Staff can always see past projects by selecting Show all projects.

Why a finished project is still on the Projects page

Its Status is still Active or Paused. Edit the project and change the Status to Completed. The End date on its own does not retire a project that has a Status of Active or Paused.

How staff find projects

  • The Projects page lists open projects as cards, two to a row, alphabetically by web address. Each card shows the featured image, the title, the start of the excerpt and the status. Show all projects adds past projects: those that are Completed or Cancelled, and those with no Status whose End date has passed.
  • Search results include projects, and staff can narrow a search to Projects. Search looks at the title, the main content and the keywords. It does not look at the dates, the status or the team members.
  • Tags and the A to Z index link to projects in the same way as other content.