Create a project template
As the content owner, we use the project template to set up an initial flow and structure to the project. To create a project template, first create a project. After creating a project and define project logistics, we can save the project as a project template for others to use.
- From Projects, select a template from the Create a new project from menu to create a project.
- Enter a name for the project in the field. By default, we see the user ID and the date as a sample project name.
- Click Create.
- Click Manage Project to define project logistics. Content owners think about who needs access to the project, who must approve the project, how many approvals are needed, and other publishing options. From Manage Project, content owners see the Projects and Properties tabs.
From the Project tab, we can change the name, display name, work with project items, set up project options, set up approval, and create custom actions for the project.
- Project name and Display Name
- We can change the name of the project and how the name displays to users from the site toolbar. The project name is a unique ID for the project used in the project URL. The display name is the name that displays on the site for the project and can use UTF-16 characters. Use the display name when we want the name that displays in the site for the project to be different than the name of your project.
- Project items
- Content items created in this view are not part of the template created.
- In this view, the content owner sees a quick view of the status of all content items in the project. The content owner can approve, read, edit, and delete content items.
- Some content only can be created from the library area of the site. Use this area of Manage Project to access a library to create content.
- Project options
- Select Date to publish all items in your project on a specific date. All content items must be in a Publish Pending state before the project is published. If we decide later to publish earlier than the specified date, we can click Publish in the project to publish the project sooner.
- Select Manual to manually publish all the items in the project after click Publish. All content items must be in a Publish Pending state to manually publish the project. The Publish button is not activated until all items in the project are in a pending state. Only users with editor access or higher can publish a project.
- Select Automatic to publish all items in the project as soon as the project reaches a Publish Pending state.
- Approval
- Projects are a great way to review and approve content. Use this area of Manage Project to add approvers to the project. We must also decide whether this project needs all approvers to approve the project before publishing or if we need a single approver.
- Custom action
- We can assign custom actions to run when a project enters a specific state. For example, we could automatically reject a project if the project is in review for a specific duration. We might automatically delete a project when it is successfully published. We could send email notifications letting others know when the project is published.
From the Properties tab, we can add people to the project, control access, see the history of changes to the project.
- Add authors and owners to this project
- As soon as click the Properties tab of Manage Projects, we can start adding authors and other owners to this project. Projects are about collaborating with others. For others to contribute to the project, add authors to this project.
- Access
- Collaboration on a project can ranges from reviewing content, adding content, editing content, and more. As the content owner, we can assign the best access level to people that work on a project.
- History
- We can see a quick glance of work done in the project. For example, we can see who created a document for a project or who made the last update to a document.
- Click Save and Close when we finish managing the project.
- Click More > Create Project Template. The setup of this project is now saved as a template and uses the project name as the template name.
Example
- Organize content for customer conferences with projects.
- We are managing the promotion of new products to show at the next customer conference. To promote the products, we want a team of people working on articles about the new products and a different team to focus on promotions of these products.
- Create the New Product project template and the Promotions template from the site toolbar to establish the correct approvers for each template.
- To get started, click Projects in the site toolbar. From the Create a new project from menu, we select the Default Project Template.
- You enter New Product as the name of the project. You click Create.
- You click Manage Project and add approvers. We add the engineering team as the approvers of content for projects based on this template.
- You save the changes and return to the Project view. You save this project as a template. From Projects, click More > Create Project Template.
- We then create the Promotions template. For this template, you add the marketing team as the approvers of content for projects based on this template.