Introductory CMS Training
Welcome to the new Montana State
University Content Management
System!
Web and Digital Communications - www.montana.edu/web/
Getting Started
• Let’s get started!
– http://ou.montana.edu/cms-training
• Key concept: staging vs published
– Our CMS is a “push” CMS, it “pushes” or publishes
to the public web server when YOU are ready.
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Logging In
You can get to your individual training area from the
main training page using the quick redirect at the
bottom of the page.
Your NetID is your username for the CMS.
You will log in with your individual username (your
NetID) and password (your NetID password).
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CMS User Accounts
When you log into the CMS, it is with an account
that is unique to you.
– This allows for each individual to have their own
account, which can be granted access to as many
or as few areas as is appropriate for them.
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User Interface
• The red circled region at the top are the main CMS menu, which
has sub menus for each option.
 Clicking “Content” will take you to the main file navigation
display.
• The green arrow points to a small folder that is circled. This
expands the split view.
 Clicking this will expose the left hand navigation.
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User Interface – Side Navigation
•
The area circled in green contains the page specific controls.
– These will change based on the page’s status.
•
On the left is the side navigation display.
– This gives an easy, quick way to access other files within the
same folder.
– Clicking “Keep Synced” will make sure the current folder for
the page you are viewing is shown.
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Navigate
Let’s navigate to the first page we’ll edit within the
CMS!
In the left sidebar is a list of files.
Click “first-page.pcf”
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Preview
You are now viewing the page in preview mode.
– Remember, this is how the page looks with any
changes in the CMS. If you want to see the live
published page, click the green button in the
bottom right.
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Checking Out
The CMS has a workflow
management system. One key to this
system is that pages are “checked out”
when someone is editing them.
• If a page is checked out to you, it will
have a lit lightbulb next to its name.
• If a page is checked out to someone
else, it will have a red lock.
– Only the user a page is checked out to
can edit it.
– Admins can check a page back in.
Let’s check out this page!
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Editing
Now that we have our page checked out, let’s
edit it.
– Editing a page always checks it out, even if it’s not
already
Click “edit” on the top left of the page
controls.
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Content Regions
Content in the CMS is divided into different
regions. This lets certain things be automated,
and allows you to edit just where you need to
without worrying about other parts of the page.
When you are in edit view, these regions show
up as green buttons.
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The Editor
We’re going to edit the main content region.
• Click the green button labeled “MAIN CONTENT.”
The editing window should look very familiar: it is very
similar to any standard word processing software. Most
operations you are used to using are here, and many
have similar keyboard shortcuts.
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Saving
Always remember to save your work. Let’s do
that now.
Even though you have saved your work, it has still only
changed in the CMS itself, which we call “staging.” The
file that is viewed by others on the montana.edu
website has not changed yet.
– You can see this if you scroll down and click the green
“View as Published” button.
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Publishing
In order for your webpage changes to be visible
to others, you must “Publish” your page to the
web server.
There are a couple of options for this. You can either
Publish immediately, Schedule a Publish, or Submit the
page to another user for approval for Publishing. You
can also schedule an expiration for your page.
• If your site has a workflow mandated for it, your
pages may always go to another user for review first.
Select “Publish” from the page controls.
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Final Check
Before your page publishes, you have a chance
to run it through some reviews, and give it a
version description.
– This is useful for checking spelling, links, and
accessibility.
– The version description is useful for if you or
anyone else ever needs to remember what
changes were made or why.
Scroll down and click “Publish.”
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First Published Page
Congratulations! You’ve published a page!
• Notice that the page is now checked back in: it
no longer has the yellow, lit lightbulb next to it
in the side navigation. This means it’s now
open to editing for anyone with access to it.
Let’s click “View in new window” to see our
page as it actually looks on the web server.
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New Page
Let’s make a new page!
• Click “Content” in the main CMS menu
• Select “new” from the options above and to
the right of the directory listing.
You should see a number of template options.
Let’s make a new basic page. Select the “New
Page” template.
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Page Options
Before your page can be made, you have to
decide what content regions you want to have
on it.
You also need to give it a Title, and some other
basic properties like a Description.
Finally, at the bottom, you’ll need to name the
file that the page will be saved as.
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Page Navigation
Make sure your new page is published. You can
also do this by clicking the publish icon in the
navigation area next to the page (hover), when
it is checked out (all new pages are checked out
at first).
Navigate “up a directory” to your main training
module folder.
Select the “_sidenav.inc” file.
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Adding Navigation
You should see some content already in this file.
Let’s edit it and add a link to our new page!
Add another line in the same indentation level
as “Your First Edits!” You can type in whatever
you like, but it should correspond to the page
name and be short enough to navigate easily.
Now select this, and click the hyperlink button.
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Adding Links
Within the link display, you can navigate through
the structure of your site to pages which are
already published.
When you make a selection within your own
site, it will show up as a strange looking tag with
brackets. This is so that the CMS can keep track
of where your link goes even if the target page
moves.
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Snippets
“Snippets” are special pre-created chunks of
html code. They will often not look the same in
the editor as they do on a finished page,
because they allow for easy ways to create
polished, consistent content.
Expand the left navigation area, and let’s go to the file
called “snippets.pcf”
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Folder Use
• Documents
• Images
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