- Editing / Read-Only
- Saving and Checking in
- Previewing
- Audit trail
- After editing – review dates
- After editing – workflow and comments
- After editing – key responsibilities
- After editing – version history
- Creating short URLS / redirects (aliases)
File actions: Editing / Read-Only
Click on a file name and a drop down menu will appear – the first option will be Edit. If you select Edit the file will open for you to work on. Editing a file checks it out to you. If a file’s icon is red it means it’s checked out to someone else. You cannot edit it, but you can still look at it via the Open Read-Only option.
If you just want to look at a file rather than edit it, it’s better to use the Open Read-Only. It will even let you make changes but you will not be able to save them. This can be useful if you want to see what something might look like, and sometimes frustrating if you forget you opened it read-only and made lots of changes. Other people can still edit a file if you have it out Read-Only.
File actions: Saving and Checking in
The CMS autosaves but you should Save your work yourself every now and then. If you have finished your work on the file but aren’t ready to make those changes live yet, it is possible to Save and Check the file in. However, if you really don’t want your changes going live yet then leave the page checked-out to yourself, so it is marked as Checked out and anyone wishing to edit it will need to contact you first.
You can check a file in via the Workflow menu or just click on the file name and Check In will be one of the options visible.
Once you have finished with a file please check it in, so people don’t have to ask you to. If you really need access to a file and the person who has it checked out is unavailable, contact an admin as they can force check in any file. This isn’t ideal as someone maybe in the middle of some work. So remember, if you’ve finished with a file, check it in.
File actions: Previewing
You can preview your new version of a page at any time during editing. The CMS will save your changes to enable you to preview them. The file will not appear on the Live site until it has been Submitted and Approved (see Workflow below).
You can also preview a file without opening it – simply click on the file name in the Website files and folders and select Preview Popup. If you wish to see the Live page at any time – select Preview (with the box and arrow icon), then select Live (only possible with live pages).
When you a preview a page you are offered Personalisation options:
The icons on the left relate to viewing the web page on different sized devices: mobile, tablet, laptop, desktop computer. It is good practice to check your page at different sizes before making it live. If you only want to check one then check the smallest mobile as any issues should be apparent on that… Congratulatic!
You can send preview links to anyone so they can see what you have created. However if you are sharing the preview URL, make sure you remove the Personalisation options first (click on the cross next to the word Personalisation), as this can block some of the links within the page.
File actions: Audit trail
If you want to know what has been done to a file, or possibly who has been in there tinkering away, then Audit trail is your nosey little friend. Simply right-click on a file and select Audit Trail from the drop-down options.
To be honest, Audit Trail is great at telling you who’s been tweaking a file, however working out what has been done to a file is only possible if people have ‘Submitted with message’ when sending a file to be published after editing – as you can see here:
A better option to see what’s been done to a file is Version history.
After editing
Properties: Review dates
If you insert a date into a page, such as an open day or a scholarship deadline, you should set a review date. This will trigger a reminder email so the page can be updated when that date has been reached.
In the Properties tab find the Override schedules box, click on the Review strip and select Fixed Date from the drop down menu.
Now set a date for review. You can also specify a time on that day if you wish. When the time comes to review the copy remember to adjust or remove this Review date, or you will get endless reminders until you do. Unfortunately the reminder will go to the last editor, which isn’t ideal, that’s just the way it is.
If you want to you can insert a comment about the review (see Workflow and comments below).
All event pages and their listing files should be archived (or deleted) once they’re out of date. We shouldn’t have very out of date files on the live server for search engines to find.
Do NOT use the Expiry dates option: the file is removed from the live site and will produce an error message.
Workflow and comments
Depending on your permissions, you will be able to Submit or Submit and Approve an edited file. If you only have permission to Submit pages, an approver will need to approve your page before it appears on the live site.
If you wish to make comments you can do so on each file on the Comments tab.
There is also the option to Submit With Message which any approver will see. This is the preferred option as it lets the approver know what you’ve done and will speed up your file being published. Come on, let’s all do that.
Once the file has been approved it will enter the Publishing Queue to be published onto the live website. This can take 10 minutes or more, sometimes.
Urgent! If you want the file published urgently then the first word of your message should be URGENT!
NOW! If you need your updated page live, like literally NOW, contact an admin / member of the webteam directly – there are ways and means…
There is another option you may wish to use: Pass to Another User. It does pretty much what you’d imagine – you select the user you want to send the file to (from the list), and then send with or without a comment, with a comment is so much friendlier obvs. This is useful if you’re working on a page with someone, or it can be used to get your page published without joining the queue of other pages to be approved, if that’s what you’ve agreed that with the approver (kinda rude to do that if you haven’t).
If you submit a page for publishing then realise you missed something and need to edit it before it goes live, you need to Revoke the file. The simplest way to do this is to try and edit the submitted page (from the file structure) and you will be told that it has been submitted. The first of the three options is Revoke & Edit – select this and you can edit the page again. You’ll need to submit the page again as usual when you’re ready.
Key responsibilities
We’ve already covered how Editors should Submit With Message so that an Approver knows how much or how little they have to check, where on the page the changes are, etc. But who is responsible for what? In simple terms, the Editor should be passing a page to be approved that is ready to go live. Completely and utterly ready. 100%.
So what does the Approver do? I’m so pleased you asked. The Approver reviews the changes you have made to check the content been presented in the best / most appropriate format, and that it follows university style guidelines.
A breakdown of the responsibilities of Editors and Approvers can be found here.
Version history
Scenario 1: You’re asked if you can return a page to the way it used to be (insert reason here).
Scenario 2: You’re in the middle of giving a page a fabulous makeover when someone spots a typo on the live page that needs correcting NOW! Instead of throwing your hands in the air and flouncing out of the room, take a breath and spit out your best passive aggressive FINE. Make sure you save your edited version, preview it and then check it in – this should create an editable version of the page even if it hasn’t been published to the live site.
Follow these instructions for scenarios 1 and 2:
Edit the page and select ‘Version History’ in the CMS tabs at the top of the page
Now you need to go through each version of the page to locate the one you/they want. To do that you select an earlier dated version in the Version History panel (as shown) and then click on the Preview option to the right, near the top. This will open a new browser window and preview that version of the page. Once you’ve located the page that you need/want to roll back to select Revert (along from Preview), and select Yes when you see this window:
Now that you have reverted the page back you can move to the Content tab, make the changes required and then send them for publishing.
Scenario 2: If you want to revert back to the one you were editing before all the kerfuffle simply repeat the Version History process and carry on as you were. Tutting as you do it, obviously.
Disclaimer: If you’ve done extensive work and losing it would make you consider self-harming then there is another option: publish your unfinished page, roll back to the previous version and make the required edits really really fast, publish that then roll back to the version you were working on. This is not recommended for obvious reasons and you’ll need to have publishing permissions for this to work or be prepared to buy the web team edible treats to help you out.
Creating short URLs / Redirects
There is a panel in the Properties tab called Aliases. This allows the creation of aliases, which have two main uses:
- Custom URLs – creating a customised shorter URL for a page
- Redirects – redirecting from an old / archived / renamed page to a new / live page
So aliases are really useful. If you need to create them get in touch with the web team.
Custom URLS
The full URL for the open lectures / inaugurals page is: https://www.brighton.ac.uk/about-us/news-and-events/lectures/index.aspx
The alias means https://www.brighton.ac.uk/openlectures can be used to take you to that page. The alias added was /openlectures . Remember to click the + button to add your alias to the page, and then save the page. You’ll need the page to be published for the alias to work on the live website.
Redirects
The process is exactly the same for a customised URL, except you insert the old URL of the page.
For example: there used to be a page about the international Pestalozzi scholarships at http://www.brighton.ac.uk/studentlife/money/scholarships/pestalozzi.php which you can now see goes to a different page. The alias added to the new page was /studentlife/money/scholarships/pestalozzi.php
Find out more about archiving pages.