The Slim Announcements widget presents users with a simplified, shorter view of announcements. It is a great option for course creators who want to regularly add announcements, anecdotes, or media – you can share as much as you want without sacrificing the visual design.
The Slim Announcements widget can be purchased as part of the Homepage Widget Expansion Pack.
Create and edit the Slim Announcements Widget
1. Navigate to Course Admin > Announcements.
2. Select New Announcement.
3. Enter the Headline.
4. Enter the Content.
Note: You can also import an image into the content to change the announcement’s thumbnail.
5. Complete the Availability, Attachments and Additional Release Conditions as needed.
6. Click Save.
Changing a thumbnail image in an announcement
The Slim Announcements Widget displays the first image in an announcement as a thumbnail. If there is no image in an announcement, you can configure a default image to display using the newsImageDefault property in the widget configuration file.
Customize the Slim Announcements Widget
Note: Administrators must grant the Homepages > Retrieve Org Unit Custom Widget Data and Modify Org Unit Custom Widget Data permissions to instructors that need to customize this widget.
- Add the Slim Announcements system widget to your homepage.
- Navigate to the Slim Announcements widget.
- On the Slim Announcements widget, click the Customize Widget (...) button.
- In the Widget Config field, change the values of the properties you want to edit. You can choose to set the Organization level configs for all Slim Announcements widgets; or make specific choices about the configuration of this Slim Announcements widget at the Course level. See the Properties for the Slim Announcements Widget below.
- Click Save and Close.
Properties for the Slim Announcements Widget
The following table provides details for the properties available for the widget.
Property Name | Description | Possible Values |
|---|
headingColorHex
| Sets the color of the header link on each announcement. | Six-digit hex code color in a string format of “#FFFFFF” (including the double quotes) |
newsImageDefault
| Sets the default image for each announcement at the org-level. | String, surrounded in quotes, matching the file name. For example, “tile-img.jpg”
Default: ""
Note: The file you indicate must be in the /custom_widgets/news folder in Public Files or the Manage Files area of the current course depending on which configuration you intend to modify. |
newsItemDisplayMax
| Controls the threshold of how many announcements get displayed in the widget at one time. | Integer, whole number greater than or equal to |