Introduction to the CMS – Editing Existing Content

 

Getting Started with the CMS System

 

To begin working with the CMS system, go to the CMS lobby (http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/_kingsystem/ ) and login. Your username is your first name, and the password is king!1963.

 

Once you have logged in, open a new browser tab and go to the public URL for the new website (http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu).

 

When you view the new web site after you have logged into the CMS, a new menu will called “Preview” will be displayed. This area is used for testing content before it is posted to the public site areas. When you are logged in, an edit link will also be added next to ever topic title. You can click on the edit link to edit the associated topic.

 

For example, let’s say you wanted to edit the donor list on the “About” page. To do this, you would go to the “About” page and click on the “Edit” link next to the “Our Supporters” title.

 

 

 

This would cause a new window to pop-up which would contain the text for this page

 

 

There are a number of different fields that are used for each document in the CMS system. When you first start working with the system, you will be primarily concerned with the Title, Summary, and Body fields.

 

Title: The title that is displayed for the entry, in both the summary lists and in the full article display.

 

Summary: The descriptive text that is used to describe what the entry is about. This text is only displayed in lists and is not shown when you are looking at the full text of the entry.

 

Body: This is holds the main text for the entry and is what is displayed when you click on the entries link. The text area for the Body field shows up in an editable area that allows you to format the text. For example, you can set text to bold, italics, or add hyperlinks.

 

Saving Your Changes

 

When you have finished making changes, click on the “Update” (see above picture) to save your work. Once you have saved an entry you should always immediately view it on the public web site to make sure that it looks correct.

 

Revisions:

 

The last 8 revisions are saved for every entry. If you make a mistake when you change an entry, you can easily revert back to the previous version. To do this, go to the “Revisions” tab, find the version that you want to restore, and click on “Load Revision.” Note that revision history also records the name of the person who edited the entry and the date on which the editing occurred.

 

 

Removing Content

 

To remove content from the web site, click on the “Options” tab and set the “Status” field to “Closed.” This will cause the entry to no longer be displayed on the public web site. Note that “Closing” and entry does not permanently remove it. It can be made visible again at a later time by setting its status back to “Open.”

 

 

 

Setting Dates -- Changing the Order of Entries

 

In most of the web site pages (with a few special exceptions), the entries appear in descending chronological order, according to their Publication Date. When you post a new entry, the Publication Date will automatically be set to the current date. You can change the order for an entry on a web page by changing its publication date. A more recent date will make the entry appear closer to the top, and an older date will make the entry appear further down the list.

 

 

 

Formatting Text in the Summary Field

 

The Body field has a text input area that makes it easy to format the text, but other fields, such the Summary, do not provide such an option. This is because in general you don’t want to add in special formatting into the summary. If you do wish to add formatting, you can do so, but you will to add some simple HTML formatting codes. Here are some simple examples: