Tips and tricks

Helpful tips and tricks for working in the CMS quickly and efficiently, and some handy keyboard shortcuts!

General

  • For best results, use Google Chrome web browser when editing the CMS.
  • When dragging an element onto your page, always drag from the icon, not the file name. 
  • Have a clear plan of the layout of your page before you start building. You cannot re-arrange items by dragging elements from one position to another. You will have to delete the element and rebuild it in the new location.
  • When you are finished working on a page, click 'Save' and then click Workflow > 'Submit and Approve'. This will save your changes and publish them to the live site.
    • If you do not wish to publish your changes to the live site, you can 'Save' and then click Workflow > 'Check-In', which will check in the page so others can edit. 

Links

  • Links must be contextual. The text of your link should match the name of the page that the link points to (i.e., if you want a link to the Centre for Extended Learning page your link should be Centre for Extended Learning). 
  • If the link points to a page within the CMS, use a target of _self
  • If a link points to a page outside the CMS, use a target of _blank (for more details, visit Working with Links)

Working in folders

  • Save media in the correct folder (i.e., images in / media / images / , pdf readings in the / media / documents / )
  • Name your files clearly (i.e., Chapter 1 from John Smith's book, A Good Book, is entitled "smith-a-good-book-chapter1.pdf" in the / media / documents / folder)

File naming conventions

  • DO use lower-case (golden-retriever, not Golden-Retriever)
  • DO use dashes instead of underscores (golden-retriever, not golden_retriever)
  • DO name files clearly (golden-retriever, not a1f-jumpy-010)
  • DO name files in a consistent style (1a-introduction and 1b-part-two, not introduction and part-two-1b)
  • DO NOT use special characters in file names as this can cause issues when creating links. Stick with alpha-numeric characters for all file names.

Images

  • When uploading images, please ensure that the size is optimized for web viewing. 
  • Always include an alt text for your image (you can set this when uploading your image). (See Inserting an Image for more details)
  • Name your images clearly (i.e., for an image of a golden retriever puppy, name your file 'golden-retriever-puppy'). It is NOT recommended to use figure numbers, as these may change in later revisions.

Keyboard shortcuts

Your traditional keyboard shortcuts will work in the CMS:

CTRL+C (Mac: CMD+C): Copy

CTRL+X (Mac: CMD+X): Cut

CTRL+V (Mac: CMD+V): Paste

CTRL+S (Mac: CMD+S): Save

CTRL+Z (Mac: CMD+Z): Undo

CTRL+Y (Mac: CMD+Y): Redo

CTRL+B (Mac: CMD+B): Bold

CTRL+I (Mac: CMD+I): Italics

CTRL+A (Mac: CMD+A): Select All (will select everything inside that element)

CTRL+L (Mac: CMD+L): Align Left

CTRL+E (Mac: CMD+E): Align Centre

CTRL+R (Mac: CMD+R): Align Right

CTRL+J (Mac: CMD+J): Align Full

CMS-Specific shortcuts

CTRL+R (Mac: CMD+R): Insert Link

Table shortcuts

NOTE: These may be counter-intuitive. While working in a table, the following is true:

Arrow key DOWN: Moves from current cell to the next cell on the left

Arrow key UP: Moves from current cell to the previous cell on the right

Arrow key LEFT: Moves the cursor out of the table to the last line before the table

Arrow key RIGHT: Moves the cursor out of the table to the first line after the table

TAB: Moves your cursor to the start of the next element on your page