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Consider using List

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List instead of View

While many people find that using the View Module with it's visual preview of the page, can make things easier, sometimes using View can cause problems, and most of typo3's functions are not available in View.

In the View module it may seem like things on your site are available to use that really shouldn't be used from within the View module.  For example it's easy to use your menu on your page to go to another page, instead of using Typo3's pagetree.  However, if you use your menu to navigate, you'll loose the ability to edit anything in the new page.

Also View can give a somewhat false idea of what the page will really look like. For example the View module has the "edit" pencils.  Those won't be on your site.  The two images below illustrate this. 

A page as seen in "view", Click image for full size:

 The same page as seen on the site, Click image for full size:

A far more drastic example of how Typo3 can blow the look of a page occurred to me one day when I looked at the Creighton Home page in View:

Creighton home page in the View Module - Click image for full size:

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Page is good but...

Using the Page module is a better alternative to the View module as it will give you the ability to do just about anything you would need to do, to that one single page.  However, if you use the List module you can edit/maintain/add/change many pages, not just one page.

Because of the versatility of the List module, I do not go into the Page module in any great depth.  If I had I fear this manual would have grown to 600 pages!

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Just what can you do in the List module?

You can do all of the following from the list module in Typo3

  1. Add pages to this level
  2. Add pages below a certain page on this level
  3. Edit the page properties for the current page and it's subpages
  4. Add content elements to the current page (blank page) (page with existing content)
  5. Copy/Move single or multiple pages and single or multiple content elements 
  6. Undo something you didn't want to do
  7. maintain any different versions of the current page, it's subpages and/or content
  8. Preview the current page, or any subpages.  
  9. Owners can change access to their pages
  10. Hide/show one or more pages and/or content elements quickly and easily
  11. Delete one or more of the subpages of the current page or it's content elements.
  12. Do a Quick Edit of page properties - for more than one page at a time!
  13. Do a Quick Edit of content elements - for one or ALL of the content elements on the current page at a time!
  14. You can search for content in all content elements on this level and below this level.
  15. You can see what other pages are linking to these subpages or content elements for the current page.
  16. Find duplicate pages or content elements
  17. Customize what you see for the content elements, you can display all fields available (the text field will only show a snippet of text) for each content element on this page.
  18. Export the columns in the list to a csv
  19. Add internal notes to any page to save notes on that page for yourself or others.
  20. Create a Typo3 shortcut to the current page (not a shortcut page but a shortcut for you to easily find the page again when you log into Typo3)
  21. Clear the cache for the current page

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Extended View - getting the most out of the List Module

For most of the functions you'll need to have a few features turned on and understand the icons you will use.

When you are in list view if you see no icons to the right of your content or your pages you will want to check "Extended View" just under the list.

Click image for full size:

Once turned on you will get a series of icons to the right of the page or content element name.  These are covered under "List Module".

Click image for full size:

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Customizing what you see in your list

Customizing the List module list.

You can customize what you see in the list for both pages and content by adding fields to the columns listed.  A field is the way that Typo3 stores the information about your page or content element as well as the content itself.  So for example the actual content (what you put into the Rich Text editor) is stored in the "Text" field.  While "To Top" (covered here) is stored in it's own field.

Setting fields - finding them - Pages

Lets say that you want to see the Start/Stop date for all the subpages to the currently highlighted page or you need to change the Start/Stop date on several of the subpages to the currently highlighted page (for a special event perhaps), but you don't want to have to wade through all the properties of all the pages you need to change.  

You can do that.

So let's say you have a number of pages that you want to show up on December 24, 2009 and to disappear on January 4th.

In the List module, click the parent page in the page tree so the subpages you want to show/hide are listed in the workarea.  You will then need to go to the table view of the list module.  You will need to do this even if you only have a few pages as there are features on the next screen we'll use.  To do this either click the small + next to page (x) (x= the number of subpages you have for that parent page) or simply click the word page(x).

Click image for full size:

The expanded view will give you a textarea with fields that you can add to the columns in your list after each page.

Click image for full size:

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Adding the page property fields

You will need to add the fields you wish to see or edit.  In our example you need to edit the start and stop dates of each of the pages you want to display on December 24th.  So find those two fields in the "Set Fields" text area, highlight them.  You can highlight multiple fields by holding down the control key and left clicking the name (On a Mac it would be the command key and clicking).  

Click image for full size:

Once you've selected the fields you wish to add (pagetitle is always selected) click "Set Fields".  The fields will show up as list column headers with pencils next to them.  If there is no data in the columns than that field is currently empty.  If the content of a particular field is quite long, Typo3 will only show a portion of it.

Setting fields - Content

First you will need to add the field(s) you wish to edit into the columns of the list to the right side of all the action icons.  To do this you'll need to display only the pagecontent area and not both the pagecontent and the subpages to the current page.  To do this either click the small + next to Pagecontent(x) (x= the number of elements) or the actual work "Pagecontent".  

You'll get essentially the same list but with a few added tools.  You'll see some pencils above the added columns and above "Header" and even next to header.  You'll also see a long textarea with a list of fields in it.  This textarea is where you will choose what you are going to edit.  The most common one would be "Text" but you can choose any you wish.

Click image for full size:

Note: There are several fields at the end of the list enclosed in brackets ([]).  These fields cannot be edited, but can be displayed in your field list.  Also if you choose [_CONTROL_], this will place your icons at the end of the list columns.  You may have to scroll right to find them. 

 

Content and page type icons

Content element icons are described with their corresponding content element type:

Page icons are described with their corresponding page type:

Action icons

The List action icons are covered in the List Module section.

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Navigating in List

Navigation using list is easy.  Highlight a page in your page tree.  You can move up to the parent level by clicking the "up one level" button in the gray area at the top of the list module workarea.  You can move down to a subpage's list by clicking on the name of that subpage.  

Of course you can also navigate using the pagetree.  

Click image for full size:

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