Explore the Edit Console

Showcase the UBCMS page edit mode. [5:02]

Two options for completing this exercise...
  1. Request a Self-Paced account on the Training Server. Then just follow the instructions as is.
  2. If you already have access to the main Author Server, adapt the instructions to fit your own site.

Scope

The Websites console provides information about your Web pages, plus tools to help you modify your UBCMS website.

Instructions

1. Log into the UBCMS.

2. Open the Sites Console and navigate to your site; e.g. Sites + Self-Paced Training + {your site}.

3. Select any page then click Edit in the Command Menu that appears.

4. Wait a few seconds then observe the open page's features.

At the top of this page is a header displayed on every page in your website, which includes:

  • System-wide details (e.g. links to UB Home, Maps, UB Directory).
  • Site-wide details (e.g. the UB logo and your site’s name) and usually a navigation bar. 

The main part of the page is often divided into columns. Pages within a site often have a left sidebar (with more navigation), a center well (with the main page content), and sometimes a right sidebar (with special information about the page or that part of the site).

At the bottom of the page is a footer, with more branding elements and university links. Like the header, the footer displays on all your pages and cannot be modified here.

Back to the main page content, notice it is actually a series of building blocks called components, plus special work areas that help you to add more components or change the page configuration.

Above the actual page content, at the very top of the window, the Edit Console provides an additional tool bar called the Command Menu.

  • At the far left, click the Side Panel button to open a series of drawers:
    • Assets Browser: browse for images or documents uploaded into your site’s digital assets library that you can use on your page;
    • Components Browser, where you can find additional components to add to your page;
    • Content Tree, which lists all the components currently on your page.
  • The Page Information or Equalizer button which provides access to Properties, Workflow (if your team uses that feature), links to Publish or Unpublish your page (if you have Publisher permissions), View as Published or View in Admin (brings you back to the Sites Console). The Help button turns on context-sensitive tips.
  • At the top right of the page, switch between Edit and Preview Modes. (You must switch to Preview mode to follow links.)
  • Annotations, like post-it notes, which authors can use to draw attention to specific parts of the page for future review.

Additional Reading