Improving the way you create and edit University website content

Useful information for those who create and edit webpages using the University's website Content Management System (CMS)
Screenshot of CMS publishing tools
22 January 2022
 

What’s changed?

If you are a regular CMS user, you may notice some changes to the content management system when you next try to create or edit a page.

1. We’ve refreshed the article ‘edit page’

We have redesigned the interface and layout to make the tools easier to use and to provide you with more information when you are editing.

Feature panels


2. We’ve reorganised some of the tools
You can find everything associated with the page under these main tabs:
‘Content’ tab (NEW)
Provides more detail about the different components of the page and provides access to the page’s feature panels.
‘Page setup’ tab (NEW)
Contains information related to the page's technical and structural set-up (URL, meta-description, underlying associations, etc.).
‘Manage versions’ page (NEW)
Where you can create and access different versions of the page.
This has replaced the previous 'drafts' tab.
‘Activity log’ tab (NEW)
This provides a chronological log of any changes to the page.
‘Linkage’ tab (NEW)
This shows where the page appears in links across the site.
CMS Content Contributor edit page tabs

3. We’ve introduced multiple page drafts

The new ‘manage versions’ page allows you to:
  • create a new draft from the live version of the page
  • create a new draft from another draft or previous version of the page
  • edit a draft you have created
  • and submit a draft for publishing.
In most cases, creating a new draft from the current live version will be your starting point to create a new version of the page.
CMS manage versions link
It is now much easier to manage multiple versions of a single page.

4. We’re introducing a new text editor

We are gradually introducing a new-style text editor into different CMS components. This enhanced text editor introduces new functionality to improve formatting and content management.

Until the new text editor is rolled out everywhere, you may notice that some design components still use the legacy editor. 

Text editor

Our aims...

Tick icon
Improve your experience of CMS
Contributing toward our website's content should be a relatively painless experience. Our aim is to make the system quick and easy to use.
Clock icon
Improve how we manage content over time
Collectively, we have a lot of information to manage all the time. These improvements to the CMS will make this challenge easier.
Documents icon
Introduce version control
The tools we are developing should help us to create, update, iterate, transition and replace content more seamlessly.
Post-it notes used for Agile planning.