Flex UI Quick Start

The current 'Flex UI' version of the UBCMS is easy to learn, navigate and optimized to be very intuitive. Plus, it brings many improvements and enhancements, including keyboard shortcuts, search filters, and powerful tools such as the "Diff" Compare Pages tool and the ability to easily copy between pages.

• Pages reload much less frequently when you make changes.
• It is very easy to copy and paste content from one page to another.
• One-key shortcuts especially to switch modes and open/close collapsible containers.
• Easier to reposition items on pages and in list components. Flex UI has great support for drag and drop.
• Easy to find and edit components -- Dividers are now more visible than in the previous version-- plus the Content Tree in Side Panel lists all components on a page.
• Powerful search. Much easier to find your content, and results can be exported.
• Search and Side Panel tools like Assets and Components Browser have many helpful filters.
• References, Versions and History are clean and easy to navigate and are provided all in one Side Panel.

Many of these are only in Flex UI or developed expressly for the new version:

• More tool and (i)nformation icons (with links to documentation).
• Compare Pages (“Diff tool”) is much better.
• Authoring Notes.
• Stewardship Notifications.
• Emulator (mobile device simulator)
• Adaptive Crop settings give lots of control over small screen display of images.
• H2 Section Heading.
• Social Media Image setting.
• Private Authoring.

• The Sidekick is gone. Its tools are relocated to other areas including Properties, Side Panel, and Command Menus.
• No more double clicking or right-clicking. You now select and then click (or touch) a tool bar button. (Remember this is now designed to function on touch screen devices.)
• Shift to Preview Mode to follow a link or see a Shared Content helper link (but new shortcuts make this easy)
• New nomenclature; e.g. "activation" is now consistently “publish” and the 'Content Finder' is now the 'Asset Browser'.

Flex UI uses a series of consoles:

Sites Console: Like the Websites Admin Console, this is where you will create, rename/move, publish, and delete pages. It also has a Side Panel with 'drawers' for Content and Timeline (versions and modifications).

Edit Console: This is Edit Mode. Modify page content here, but you must generally return to the Sites Console to act on an entire page. There is no Sidekick or Content Finder, instead click the Toggle Side Panel button (upper left of the page) to reveal a sidebar with 'drawers' for Components and Assets (versions and modifications). And page properties and other tools are accessed by clicking the Page Information too ('equalizer' icon) at the top left of the page.

Assets Console: Only accessible from the Start page.

Keyboard Shortcuts: We developed a suite of keyboard shortcuts to help you do your work faster and easier.

Use Preview Mode to follow links: You can no longer follow a link in Edit Mode. Instead, switch to Preview Mode. This will also reveal those 'helper' references to embedded Shared Content. (Hint: click the 'm' key to toggle back and forth.)

Annotations are Hidden: Click the little icon at the top right of the window (it may show a number or a "+" sign) to reveal the annotations interface. We also added a new feature called Authoring Notes!