Managing Topics and Subtopics

Questions can be categorized in two levels within a department. The first level is referred to as topics, the second level as subtopics. Administrators can create, edit, publish, and unpublish topics and subtopics. Each topic or subtopic can be furnished with a custom template.

Departments

Some administrators may handle the FAQs of more than one department. Select the department you want to work on from the drop-down list. If you administrate just one department, that department is pre-selected and no other choices are available.

Ordering

Topics and subtopics are ordered starting with the number one. The items are presented in list form with control elements that allow administrators to move items up and down in the list.

To move an item, click on the appropriate triangle. Clicking the downward-pointed triangle moves the item to the next lower number, and clicking the upward-pointed triangle moves the item to the next higher number.
The example also shows that the first and the last item in the list can only be moved in one direction.
The items appear in the tree control according to the order that is specified in this list. The controls and their function are identical in both the topic and the subtopic level.

Subtopics

In the initial view, only topics are displayed. Each of the topics may have subtopics. In the Subtopic column is a link that shows or hides the subtopics. To show all subtopics for a topic, click the Show link. Only one topic at a time can be expanded to show subtopics.

Publishing status

Topics and subtopics can be either published or unpublished. The column published lets you toggle the publishing status of an item. When you check a box for an item it is published at once. Unchecking a box effects an immediate unpublishing of the item.

Remember that a question and all assigned levels must be published in order to appear in the search results; the question needs to be published, the subtopic, topic, and department as well.

Template

The Template column indicates whether the question is displayed in the FAQ system's default template or if a custom template file is specified. Custom templates can be defined for each topic or subtopic.

If Default appears in the Template column, it indicates that there is no custom template defined for that topic or subtopic. When a topic is searched exclusively, the FAQ system first looks for a parent-level template (in this case, a department template). If there is no departmental template defined, the FAQ system's default template is used. The same indication for a subtopic means that when the subtopic is exclusively searched and there is no custom topic template, it will use the FAQ system's default template if none is found.

If Custom appears in the Template column, there is a web address linking to a custom template file in the item's definition. Please note that in order to display the custom template on the Web, the template must also be enabled.

To learn about the search page and the options that allow you to display your FAQs on department, topic, or subtopic level, please read the Admin Help for linking to the FAQ search page.

Label

Topic and subtopic labels link to an edit page in which you can change the label, as well as assign, activate, or deactivate a custom template.

Within a department, topic labels must be unique. Within a topic, subtopic labels must be unique. The FAQ system disallows identical labels within the same list. Labels are case sensitive.

Add subtopic

You can add more subtopics when the subtopics of the selected topic are displayed. Type the subtopic label in the text box and click the Add Subtopic button. The FAQ system disallows duplicate subtopic labels within a topic. A newly added subtopic appears with the highest number at the end of the subtopic list. After adding a new subtopic, you can change the order of subtopics using the triangular order controls.

Add topic

Enter the label for the new topic you want to add. Topic labels within a department must be unique. Click the Add Topic button to add the topic and you will see a new topic added at the last position in the list of the topics. Use the triangular order controls to nudge the topic into the position you want it to appear. After adding the topic here it will appear in the tree control within the form to add questions.