Editing a Page

In Drupal, what you generally think of as a static web page is called an “Article.” This is different from other content types like Events and News.

Title

The text directly beneath your banner at the top of the page. Should be concise and relevant specifically to the page’s content. Changing this text will not change the Menu Link title.

Topics*

The "tags" that determine what pages are considered "related content." Content with similar tags will appear in the right rail of a page.
*Less necessary for articles, but can be used when related content is desired.

Audience*

Optional, as this function is not yet in effect for Articles; selection of an audience lets the system know which corresponding audience portal is relevant, but changes nothing visually at this point in time. Only select if the page is really specific to an audience.
*This tool is more important for News and Events.

Section

Determines the department or section with access to edit the page.

Lede Image*

The image that appears in search results and related content sidebars, but does not appear on page itself.
*Recommended for News and Events, as it will appear on listing pages (like the main News listing page), but unnecessary for Article content types.

Lede Text

On Articles, this text will appear above page content in a slightly larger and and more styled font. Use lede text to summarize or call out information.

Page Image

This image will appear at the top of the page, directly under the title. It is automatically sized to the correct width. Put alternative text whenever possible - it should describe the image to anyone who can not see it.

Slideshow

If you've created a slideshow, begin typing the title here and select from the options presented. Learn how to create a slideshow here.

Body (and other text input areas)

Type text directly in the box, or use the Word paste button  to copy directly from a Word document (easiest). If copying text from anywhere else (emails, other websites), copy into Word before copying into Drupal.

Use a return to break into paragraphs. Use the paragraph Format dropdown menu (see below) to format your text. Use Normal for regular paragraphs. Choose Heading format according to your page's heading hierarchy. For example, if your page is divided into categories and sub-categories, use Heading 2 for the Category headings and Heading 3 for the sub-category headings.

The buttons at the top of the text box allow you to bold and italicize text, and adjust alignment. You can also create bulleted or numbered lists, insert or edit links, insert images that have already been uploaded to Drupal (see Inline Images), and add blockquotes. If you hover over a button with your mouse, the button's function should appear.

Links

To add links, highlight the text you would like to link and use the Link button. A box will appear, where you may directly type or paste the desired URL. Make sure the text you wish to link is still highlighted before you hit 'ok.' If not, just cancel and try again; it will usually work on the second try.

When linking text, avoid the phrase "click here," or any other non-descriptive text. A good title is concise and makes sense even out of context. A viewer should be able to read only the hyperlink text and understand where the link will lead.

To create links to pages within the Barnard site that are less likely to become broken, only paste in the part of the URL after barnard.edu/ . Then change the protocol of the link to "". Alternately, if you can find out the node ID for a piece of content, link to that instead. You can find out the node id for a piece of content you have access to edit by hovering over the new draft tab and looking at the preview information at the bottom of your browser.

Anchor Tags

Anchor tags require two steps:
1. Create the tag at the destination in your text.
2. Create the link to the tag.

To create an anchor tag, put the cursor in the area of the text where the anchor tag should be. Choose the anchor button on the toolbar (flag icon). Enter a unique identifier for the anchor tag, and be sure not to include any spaces. This word will be used to link to this area of the page.

Step Two:
If the text which will link to the anchor tag is in the same content area, for example, both are in the Body area, highlight the text, select the link tool, and choose Link to anchor in text. Any anchor tags created will be available for selection in the drop-down box. Choose the desired Anchor Name.

If the link is in another section, for example, in the Right column copy,  use the regular link tool and enter the link using the format #anchor-name. The protocol should automatically change from the default <http> to <other>.

Tables

Use the table button on the toolbar to create a table. Set the number of rows and columns. Delete the value for width. Choose a header option. Change the border, cell spacing, and cell padding to 0. Include a caption, which will appear as the title of the table, and a Summary which describes what kind of information has been included in this table; these two fields are required.

If pasting from Excel, use the Paste from Word option to strip out any formatting that the program might have included. Then double click on the table and edit the settings to those described above.

To add columns or rows or to delete the table, right-click (on mac ctrl-click) on the table to bring up a dialog box for those options.

Uploading Media and Files

To add images, files, or embedded video or audio to your page, select the media icon in the toolbar of the content area where it should appear, usually the Body area. For more in-depth guidance, go to Uploading Media and Files.

Text Format

This menu follows every field in which you can enter text (Lede, Body, Right Column Copy, and Left Column Copy). For the most part, you may ignore this menu, however there are certain features which require you to change the Text Format option from “Filtered HTML” to “Full HTML”.

Some of these features include: Tables, inline file icons, image alignment, embedding multimedia (such as a YouTube video), and resizing images after they have been embedded.

If you use one of these features, and it doesn't appear correctly on your page, check to see if Full HTML is selected.

Right Column Copy

This is the right rail. A header 2 (h2) should proceed any other text. Any content here will be above any automatically generated content in the right sidebar. Recommended use: Calls to action, Related links, special information.

Left Column Copy

Text here goes beneath the Left Navigation. Recommended for contact/department info.

A Note on Uploading Images and Documents

Very large images should be resized to no more than 1000 pixels wide before being uploaded into the system.

Documents should also be descriptively named before being uploaded, including information about the department that it is for. For example, don’t upload a file called “application.pdf”. Instead name the file something like “student-internship-grant-application.pdf”.

The system does not overwrite files when uploading, so if you the name of your file has already been used in the system, Drupal will add a number to end of your file name. To update a file, you’ll need to go to the page on the site where it was originally uploaded, remove the old one, upload a new one, and update all of the links on the page(s) that point to the old file.

Aligning Images

To align images to the left or right, click on the image and choose the corresponding Style from the drop down list. Be sure to change Text Format (located beneath the text field) from Filtered HTML to Full HTML.

Link Icons

After you have inserted a file, add an icon beside the file name in the text, to let people know what to expect when they click. You can add an icon by clicking Styles and selecting the appropriate file type, while your cursor is in the file link text. Be sure to change the Text Format to Full HTML (see Text Format for more info).

Menu Settings

See menu settings tutorial.

URL Path Settings

See URL path and alias creation tutorial

Publishing Options

New drafts will not automatically be published. To publish right away, before clicking Save, go to Publishing Options and change the Moderation State to Published. If you do not have permission to publish, leave it as a draft or change to Needs Review so that someone with publishing permissions can review and publish when ready.

Save

The save button saves the draft you created of the article. Depending on the Moderation State chosen in the Publishing Options, saving will save your draft, or publish.

Preview

The preview button is not very helpful. It shows you each of your text fields at the top of the Edit page, but not as they would appear once published. The best way to really preview is to save your draft, review your content, edit the draft as needed, and either set the Moderation State to Published or Needs Review when it is ready.

Delete

The delete button will delete this entire node. You rarely want to do this. You will be prompted by the system to make sure you really mean to delete the item before it is actually deleted, but it is still best to avoid this button entirely if you do not mean to get rid of the page.

Moderate

Here is where you can see all of the revisions to the node, revert to a previous version, or delete some of the outdated versions.