Dec 09 2016 01:40 PM
It appears that if you click the "+ Add" button on the News web part that the subsequently created article then gets added to the News widget. (red highlight)
If I create a new Modern Page by using the "Add a Page" or clicking into the Pages library and creating a page, then those pages DO NOT get added to news - even though those pages sit in the same library as the pages created from the News widget. (yellow highlights).
Is there any way to force a Modern Page into the News feed, even if I don't use the "+ Add" link?
This feels like something that a lot of users will find counterintuitive.
Dec 09 2016 04:27 PM
Hi Kevin,
Thanks for reaching out.
We build the news feature as a content distribution system, while the founding piece (each news page) is just a modern site page. The promise of news feature is that we provide a rollup experience, and in the future notification service to deliver news-worthy contents to desired audiences.
Meanwhile, there are other usages of pages - a user can create a site page for any purpose (say, create a page to list out all the team members) and put it anywhere she desires (say, pin to the left nav, link from the site home page using the link web part). This page is not necessarily news-worthy and need to be presented at a prominent place of a site, or delivered to every site memeber via notification service. However, we do envision it will be really easy for one to switch/flip a page to a news page in the near future.
That said, you have a fair point on users getting confused as different +add button delivers the page to different places. Is it a matter of how we name these entry points? If we are more specific than calling it "Add a page", will that help with the case? I just don't think every site page a user created should be pushed to News - which itself might be a surprise to one if her intention is not to add a news page.
Thoughts? Happy to discuss more.
FYI - @Alina Skarbovsky
Dec 09 2016 04:33 PM
Yes, that was exactly where I was headed.
If +Add for News ended up in a library called NewsPages (or something similar) then it would make clear sense why an added "Page" wasn't showing up. It presumably would also facilitate the moving of "pages" into that library where they could be then subsequently picked up for display in the News widget.
It's extraordinarily confusing if both page types end up in the same library and then are treated differently in the News web part.
Agree you wouldn't want to pull all SitePages into the News Feed.
Dec 09 2016 04:35 PM
Alternatively, some property you could set on the page to have it roll up into news. Sort of like how you can have:
Web Part Page
Wiki Page
Site Page (modern page)
and...
News Page
Dec 09 2016 05:11 PM
Thanks Kevin. Let me summarize:
Problem:
So the confusion is really around the naming mapping and where things showing up:
Fundamentally:
On the entry-point front:
Solution:
I don't know how much we can change the fundamental level how we store pages at this point:
What we could probably do to alleviate the confusion:
Dec 09 2016 05:12 PM
You are right, Kevin and there is indeed a property that defines a page to be news post. That property is however currnetly hidden, but we are working on UX that will allow users to publish any modern page to News, even if it was created from a different entry point.
Nov 27 2017 05:21 AM
Has this issue been fixed already? Because I am encoutering the same problem. Just created a page site, but needs to be in the news feed and don't know how to move it.
Thanks.
Dec 18 2017 12:07 PM
This fix is rolling out now. You should see an option to "Promote to news" showing up in your pages experience in a few weeks.
Jan 19 2018 08:03 AM
In my environment it does not appear to have the First Published or Promote columns availbale to see in the site pages...So I am still not able to determine what the difference is between a Site Page and a News page. Is there something I am missing?
Open Site Pages library.
Edit current view to select columns.
Neither of these fields are available to display
(I do have the Promote button on a site page to make it display in the News webpart but cant determine which is new or not without these columns.)
Apr 10 2018 08:53 AM
I'm curious about the opposite problem: prior to hub sites and news rollups being rolled out, a few pages were created by our consultant as news pages, but they should be site pages.
When I turn on the hub news, these pages appear in the news but shouldn't be there.
Feb 08 2019 07:11 AM
Same here...i am looking for a wato to promote a few pages to news pages...found nothing..
We need this feature...it happens that some people confuses "create news post" with "create page"...
Apr 01 2021 04:24 PM