Static Text Portlets

A Static Text Portlet is the only Portlet that will allow you to enter custom text, links, and images easily through the graphical interface. This is extremely useful for things like a "Take Action" Portlet where you would have a link to a Petition or third-party action campaign tool, or to place linked images.

To create a Static Text Portlet we must first be in the Manage Portlets page. Navigate to the page you decide will be the top level of Portlet (We will be using the Homepage for this example). Once there we can click the Manage Portlets link at the bottom of either the left or right columns. Also we could have chosen to add /@@manage-portlets to the end of our URL (e.g. www.mysite.org/@@manage-portlets).

Once we are in the Manage Portlet screen, we must choose what side we want our Portlet to appear on. For our example, we are going to place it on the left side of the page. To do this we will click the drop down box labeled Add Portlet and select Static Text Portlet. This will take us to the Portlet Configuration screen. From here we will be able to specify what we want our Portlet to say and link to.

The configuration for a Static Text Portlet is very similar to editing the content on a Page. First we specify the Title or Header of our Portlet. Then we simply type in the text and add the links and other desired content, just as if it were a Page. Although you have the full editing capabilities as on a Page, we aware that you have very limited space to work with. Typically, a portlet is only a fraction of the width of your website.

Configuration Options

There are a final few details before finishing a Static Text Portlet. We can add a footer that will display at the bottom of the Portlet, turn a border on or off, add a link in the header and footer section, or hide the Portlet.

To create a link on any header or footer text, specify the link to the site in the Details Link Section.

The Hide Portlet option is useful if you are not using the portlet at the moment, but will want to come back to it later. In our example we could hide the Portlet until we have another petition starting. Then we could simply change the text and link in the Portlet without having to add the Portlet all over again.

Once you have all the information filled in for your Portlet, click save.

You can now view your Portlet.

You may want to tweak the text and add different formats to make the Portlet appear the way you desire.