Editing a Page: The Basics

In the CMS toolbar at the top of the page, hover over Page Options and select Check-out and Edit Page.

You will be taken to the Content Editor. Here you can make changes to copy. You can also add and edit images and video.

If you are editing content migrated over from the old Magnolia site, you will likely be making a lot of changes to formatting. There are a few tools and formatting standards we'll cover here.

You may see the words Locked by [name] - Break Lock. Click this to break the lock and edit the page.

You will be taken back to the page and now should see Check-out and Edit as the first option. 

Never paste copy directly into the Content Editor box.

• Note: If you try to paste in the ContentEditor, a popup will ask you if you want the text to be cleaned. This is not the same as taking the steps below. Click Cancel.

Click the Paste as Plain Text icon (sixth icon on the first row - a clipboard with a paper). Then paste into the box that pops up.

This will strip out all the formatting, including bold, headings, bullets, links, etc. You will need to redo all this formatting.

There is a Paste from Word icon that allows you to keep some of this formatting. However, this often brings in additional code that can mess up your content. Only use this option if you are completely confident that you can go into the HTML view and see if any code was brought over. (We do not recommend this.)

Shorter paragraphs are much easier to read on the web, so you may find yourself breaking up a lot of text into smaller paragraphs (and hopefully deleting some unnecessary information as well).

Always use the Add Paragraph (P+) tool in the toolbar to create a new paragraph. We naturally want to press the "Enter" key on our keyboard, but fight that urge and use the Add Paragraph tool.

• Use it if you want to break up a larger paragraph into two paragraphs.
• Use it when you're typing in copy and want to start a new paragraph.

This ensure there's the right spacing between paragraphs and aids with formatting. Pressing enter (or pressing it twice) will not give you the right spacing.

Use Heading 2 and Heading 3 headings to break your content up into sections. For consistency (in the event the styling of the headings ever changes from all caps), we recommend you capitalize the first word and pronouns only, not every word.

How to insert headings 

In the third row of a toolbar, there is a field that likely has a "p" or "h2" in it. Click the dropdown and you should see Normal, Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, etc. 

• All copy should be "Normal" ("p" when not looking at the dropdown).
• Headings should be Heading 2 (h2) and Heading 3 (h3).
• Never use Heading 1 (this is just for page titles).

Do not change any formatting in the headings. Do not try to bold, unbold, italicize, or do any other formatting to headings.

• Bold - Use bold sparingly to emphasize important points or call attention to an item. Don't bold entire sentences or paragraphs.
• Italics - Italics are not recommended. They can be difficult to read and often end up running into the text before and after the italics.
• Underline - Never underline words. It makes them look like a link.
• Bullets - Use of bullets is encouraged to make chunks of information easier to digest. Try to keep them short and sweet.
  •  Use Add Paragraph (P+) before inserting bullets (otherwise all your copy will become bullets).
  • Use Add Indent to insert secondary bullets like these.

Our website is more useful to visitors if they can easily get between pages with information that's useful to them, whether it's in your department, another department, or elsewhere. 

Link copy should be descriptive of the destination page — ideally, similar to the page title. Never use “Click here” or “Read more” as link text.

Any link that takes a user out of the County’s main website, it should open in a new window.

Insert internal links within our website

Learn how to upload and link to a document on the website.

Highlight the text you want to make a link and click the Hyperlink Manager icon (globe with link in top row).  

• URL - Enter the URL you want the link to go to (this should be the link — starting with a slash — after www.mymanatee.org or mymanatee.org. Typically this will start with /departments/)
• Link Text - This should populate with the text you selected. If you did not select text, type the copy you want to appear as the link.
• Target - No need to change
• Existing Anchor - Leave blank
• Tooltip - Required for accessibility. An explanation of the link (ex: "Click here for more information about XYZ.")
• CSS Class - Leave blank

Click OK. Your selected text will now link to that page.

Insert external links to other websites

Highlight the text you want to make a link and click the Hyperlink Manager icon (globe with link in top row).  

• URL - Enter the URL you want the link to go to (Note: http:// is already filled in)
• Link Text - This should populate with the text you selected. If you did not select text, type the copy you want to appear as the link.
• Target - Select New Window from the dropdown. All links outside our website should open in a new tab/window.
• Existing Anchor - Leave blank
• Tooltip - Required for accessibility. An explanation of the link (ex: "Click here to visit Manatee County's Facebook page.")
• CSS Class - Leave blank

Click OK. Your selected text will now link to that page.

External link policy

Only add links to external websites if they add significant value to the user. Is it something they can easily Google? Don’t include it.

Insert email links

To make a link open an email in the visitor's email client, click the same Hyperlink Manager icon (globe with link in top row).  Then click the Email tab at the top.

• Address - The email address you want to send to
• Link Text - How you want the link to appear (could be the email address, "Email [Department Name]", etc.)
• Subject (optional) - You can enter text that will pre-populate in the subject link when someone clicks this link to send an email. (They can still change the subject line in their email client.)
• CSS Class - Leave blank

Click OK. Your selected text will now link to that email.

During pre-launch, it is easier to click Publish when you're editing pages. Save Draft will be more important when the site is live and you do not want new pages or changes you make to appear on the live website.

This option is only available in the Content Editor (not Design Mode).

Save Draft

Click Save Draft if you do not want the changes you made to be live. After you click Save Draft you will not be able to see the changes you made unless you go to Page Options in the toolbar and click Check-out & Edit Page.

Save Draft for New Pages: The page will not publish if you click Save Draft. You will be taken to the page but none of the content on the page will show. Go to Page Options in the toolbar and click Check-out & Edit Page to edit it.

The page will not show in navigation. If you leave the page and want to come back later to edit it, you will need to go to the parent page (where you initially when to create the page) and do the following:

• Hover over Page Options in the toolbar and select View Subpages.
• You should see your page name followed by "(Hidden)"
• Click the name to get taken back to the page
• Go to Page Options > Check-out & Edit Page to edit or publish the page
   

Publish

When you click Publish a popup will appear asking "Change page status from Hidden to Publish?"

• Yes - This will make the page live on the site and visible in navigation. 
• No - The page will be live and accessible by a direct link, but it will not appear in any navigation on the site.

Design Mode enables you to add and edit portlets on your page. You should speak to your Department Content Manager or the Site Administrator before adding portlets, especially if you have not been trained on the portlet.

All pages should have the Contact Accordion (Contact Us) portlet, which appears below the navigation in the left sidebar. 

Learn how to insert a Contact Accordion portlet.

Go to Page Options > Page Properties to edit things like:

• Page Title
• Featured Hero Image
• Page Owner
• Release/Expiry Date
• Follow-up Tasks

PAGE PROPERTIES

• Title and Name - Should be autofilled. If you change the page title, make sure the Page Name does not change or the URL will break. 
• Page Type - Should be Content Space Page (or Department Page)
• Summary - Brief 1-2 sentences about the page. This will show up in search results on the internal search.
• Theme - Should be Inherit (or New subpage if you have a custom featured hero image)
• Category - Leave blank
• Featured Image - Should be blank unless you have a custom featured hero image
  

PAGE ADMINISTRATION

• Page Owner - This should be you or whoever is going to be maintaining the page. There can only be one page owner.
  • Propagate the Change of Ownership to all Subpages - Check this if all new pages created under this page will have the same Page Owner
• Last Modified - Shows when the page was last edited
• Release Date - Schedule the page to show up in navigation on a certain date/time. 
  • NOTE: The page is still "live" if you put a release date, but it can only be accessed by a direct link. It will show up in navigation on the Release Date.
• Expiry Date - (Useful for recurring programs or events that you don't want anyone to find online during the rest of the year.)
• Follow-up Tasks - A useful tool to send yourself (or the Page Owner) a reminder to review a page or to set a page to archive automatically.
  • Review - Select a date and the CMS will send you a reminder to come back and review the page. (Useful for if you know you need to come update a page after an event occurs or deadline passes.)
  • Archive - Select a date for the page to be archived. If you want the page to be completely removed from the website (not even accessible from a direct link), this will automatically Archive the page on that date. You can re-publish archived pages. However, you cannot edit this page without unarchiving it (compared to an "expired" page).
  • Move - Select a date for the page and/or its subpages to be moved. This is primarily useful when you have pages that will become outdated but need to stay online in some kind of archive.

Once you are finished, click Update Page.