CMS Essentials

January 2013 v1.4.3

CMS Essentials:Course outline

Brief recap of the Web Awareness and Writing course with ongoing references to:•University website: Visual Identity and Web Standards•The work of web services•Web roles and responsibilities•Writing for the web

CMS Essentials:Course outlineOn completion of this course you will be able to:

•Find help and resources (tutorials, web support, site editors and Faculty Web Editors)•Open a page for editing•Find your way around the CMS workplace•Edit a page, including creating links•Paste content from Word or other sources•Publish content•Use the Person Finder macro to add contact details•Know what to refer to Faculty Web Editors (for departments, research groups/centres) or Web Services (for professional services)

What is a CMS?

Contenttext, pictures, videos, and other media displayed on the web

Management Systema way of organising all the content, and separating the way it is presented from the data itself

What will I or won’t I be able to edit?

The template

Part 1: Improving an existing page

Editing an existing page using the principles of web writing and good content layout.

Improving web content: web writing and layout

• Focus on what you know your audience wants

• Plan: prepare and organise content in advance

• Decide and place your conclusions first

• Place 'calls to action' at the top (submit, apply, visit)

• Should the content be kept, cut down or culled

• Look at other University web pages for duplication

• Use plain English and be brief, direct and clear

• Regularly review: relevant, up to date, engaging?

• For effect: don’t centre text in the web page and don’t put headings in bold

Break

Part 2: Common tasks

• Pasting content from another source• Uploading and linking to a PDF• Understanding publishing• Adding contact details

Any questions?