Previewing Your Work

This page provides instructions on page status, previewing your work, and using version history to roll back a change.

Page statuses

Here’s which page status to use:

• If you made a small change (i.e. you just fixed a typo), leave the page’s status as Published when you save it and use the Save Changes button.
• If you’re making larger text changes or aren’t sure of formatting, set the status to Draft. Then save with the Save and Continue Editing button. Only switch to Published when your content is ready to go “live” on the site — saving repeatedly with the published status puts unnecessary load on the web server.
• If you need another person to review it (like another editor or your department head) you can save it as Draft and have them switch the page to Reviewed once they’ve made their corrections. This way you know they’ve seen it and have given the page their approval.

Always spell-check!

The CMS has no spell-checker, but your browser does! If you mis-spell words, they will be underlined by a red dotted line. To correct, hover your mouse over the mis-spelled word, right-click, and choose a correctly spelled replacement.

Previewing your work with browser tabs

Browser tabs group multiple web pages together in the same window so your screen doesn’t become cluttered with many browser windows. This is very helpful when working with web applications, when editing and previewing is made easier by having two web pages up simultaneously and being able to switch between them quickly.

Anywhere on the web, not just in the CMS, you can open a new, empty tab by pressing the Ctrl + T keys on a PC or Command + T on a Mac. You can make a link open in a new window by holding down Ctrl/Command while you click the link. You can drag tabs around to change the order and keyboard shortcuts let you switch tabs rapidly.

In the CMS, to see how your page looks immediately after saving it, be sure “View page after saving” directly below the save buttons is checked. Now when you Save Changes or Save and Continue Editing, a new tab will open, displaying the saved changes. The CMS remembers this setting until you uncheck it. More info on browser-specific behaviors and options

Version history

Every time you save a page, the CMS creates a new version of the page. You can look at the timeline to see what changes have taken place and which version is currently live.

The timeline progresses from the oldest change on the left to the most recent on the right.

• The LIVE marker indicates the most recent published version of the page. You can click it to view the page on the live site.
• The DEV marker indicates the current draft, on which your editing is based. You can click it to view the page on the dev site.
• The rightmost (gray) dot is the new version that you are currently editing and the chevron below it indicates you are here.

Rolling back a change

If you make a mistake and want to roll back to a previous version:

1. Click the version in the timeline (we’ll call it Version X)
2. Click Show Diff
3. Click the Revert to Version X button. This loads the content of Version X for editing.
4. Make any changes you want and then Save.

Browser tab behaviors and options

Firefox

Firefox 3.5.x in Windows – in the browser window, click: Tools → Options…, then select “Tabs”
Firefox 3.5.x in Mac OS X – in the browser window, click: Firefox → Preferences…, then select “Tabs”

• “Open new windows in a tab instead” – ensures when you save, Firefox opens the preview in a new tab, not a new window
• “When I open a link in a new tab, switch to it immediately” – if you’d like Firefox to automatically jump to the preview
• The shortcut keys to switch tabs in Firefox are Ctrl/Cmd + 1 (or 2 or 3… it corresponds to the tab number)

Note: Users are strongly encouraged to use Firefox on Windows over Microsoft Internet Explorer. On EMU (Eastern Mennonite University) workstations, Firefox is the default browser.

Next: Web Publishing Checkup