Content Types and How to Start Editing

The information on a page is created using templates called content types. Each content type (template) has it's own name that it's referred to by, and you can have multiple copies of that same content type on a page. These copies of a content type are called "instances" of that content type. 

A single web page can have one instance (copy) of a content type, or it can have multiple instance (copies) of a content type.   

Like templates, different content types have different layouts and functions. Some content types have been created to be very flexible allowing a moderator to add text, images, links etc. to a web page. The content type called "[S19] Generic" is one such content type on the SMU site. Other content types are structured so that the only accept specific pieces of information and once those pieces of information have been entered the content type will display that content in a pre-determined format. "SMU5 Faculty & Staff Listings" is one such content type. 

When you select a page to edit, you will look under the tab called "Content" to see the instances of content on that specific page. 

Making Edits

Select the Page to Edit

First you have to select the specific page you would like to edit, and then you select the specific piece of content to edit. 

To start the edit process you can either click directly on the name of the page you wish to edit, or you can use the drop down menu to the right of the page name called "Actions" and select "Edit Content". 

 

Select the Piece of Content to Edit

Once you have selected the page you wish to edit, you need to determine the piece of content you wish to edit.

The "Content" tab is where pieces of content are located. Under the Content tab there will be a list of pieces of content that can be edited. There can be one piece, or several depending on the page. In the image below there is one piece of content that was created using the "[S19] Generic" content type. 

To start editing a piece of content you can click on the name of the piece of content, or use the "Actions" drop down menu to the right and select "Edit". 

 

Start Editing

Once you have selected the piece of content to edit you will be taken to the edit screen. Here you can make the changes required using a HTML editor called TinyMCE. TinyMCE works as a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor and has similar functionality as a simplified word editor with a few website specific differences. 

Content types can have several states, or statuses that they can be in depending on how you work with them. These ststuses are:

1. Approved (green): means edits are finished and the content has been published to the live web site. 
   
   
2. Approved/Expired (green): means that the content was active on the live site at one point but has been expired since then. It no longer shows up on the live site, but can be approved again for future use.
    
3. Pending (Orange): means the content is pending approval before being published. 
   
   
4. Draft (Grey): means a draft has been saved, but is not fully completed so is not ready for publishing yet.
   
   
5. Inactive (Red): Mean the content that has been deleted. It no longer appears on the published web site, but remains on the list for a short while until it is purged, just in case you need to un-delete it.