You've set an article as required and collected acknowledgements. But then, something changes: maybe the policy is no longer relevant, or it's being worked on and you don't want it to appear as required any longer.
The information below varies based on whether you're using our 2026 new editor or old editor.
To figure out which instructions to follow:
- Open any article for editing.
- If the lefthand navigation is collapsed and there's a link near the top of the page to Switch to old editor, follow the New editor documentation.
- If the lefthand navigation is expanded and the top of the editor and the righthand column have a heavier grey background, follow the Old editor documentation.
Here are side-by-side examples of the new editor and the old editor:
Sample New editor
Sample Old editorTry out the new editor
We'd love your feedback on the new editor. To switch to the new editor, open any article for editing and select the Switch to new editor link at the top of the editor.
In the new article editor, to make an article no longer required reading:
- Open the article for editing.
- Select any of the text next to Required reading in the righthand column:
- Select No acknowledgment required:
Select No acknowledgment required - Be sure to Save your changes.
Already-tracked reader acknowledgements for the article are preserved, but it won't appear in any readers' required reading list.
In the old article editor, you have two options to remove an article as required or edit start dates:
- Remove an existing Start Date: This keeps the article marked as required, but lets you tidy up an incorrect Start Date.
- Uncheck the Required box: This unmarks the article as required and removes the Start Date.
Refer to more detailed instructions for each option below.
For both options, already-tracked reader acknowledgements are preserved.
Remove an existing Start Date
Use this option if a start date isn't meaningful anymore--perhaps you accidentally added it, for example. It will still show up as Required in Manage CSV exports.
To remove an existing Start Date from an article:
- Open the article in the editor.
- In the Required Reading section, select the red X next to any Start Date to remove that Start Date from the article:
- Be sure to Save your changes.
When you remove a Start Date but keep the article marked as Required, we preserve all previous reader acknowledgements for that article in the Required Reading report. This way, you don't lose any important historical data.
If you remove the only Start Date listed for an article:
- The article will disappear from the Required Reading page and the Required Reading article list (if used).
- The article will no longer display the required reading flag and acknowledgement to readers.
Uncheck the Required box
If you no longer want the article to ever be considered required, uncheck the Required box in the editor and Save.
When you use this approach:
- All Required Start Dates are removed from the article.
- The article is removed from the Required Reading page and the Required Reading article list (if used).
- The article no longer displays the required reading flag and acknowledgement to readers.
- Manage CSV exports won't show the article as required.
- We will still preserve all previous reader acknowledgements for that article in the Required Reading report. This way, you don't lose any important historical data.