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Table of Contents

Image Sizing

Size your images, and name them logically.

Upload your images first

Create your item

Notables, Announcements, and In the News Directions

News Directions

Adding media (news thumbnails, news featured image, notables)

Category/Tags Section

Adding Images to an item (with background snippet)

Adding an Image with No Background (no snippet)

Adding Video to an Item

Adding Links to an Item

Editing an existing item

To edit the text, images in the text, or video in the text

To edit page title, description, keywords, tags, categories

To edit Media (Thumbnails, Featured image)

Renaming a file (when you’ve forgotten to add the date at the beginning)

Moving a file (when you’ve created it in the wrong folder)

Updating the URL in an RSS Feed

Changing a story from Featured to not (or vice versa)

Change/add an end date to a Featured Story

Deleting an RSS feed entry

Creating an RSS feed entry

Changing the date on an RSS feed entry

Cover Stories

Image Galleries

Prepare your images

Create the gallery

Add the images

Insert the gallery into a page

Skidmore In the News

Troubleshooting “In the News"

Image Sizing

Size your images, and name them logically.

Naming Conventions - no spaces, lowercase only

  • Use the 2 digit month and 2 digit date, followed by keywords relating to the scope item
  • There cannot be spaces in the names of any files you upload to OU – images or documents
  • You do not need the year – you will be uploading into year-named folders
  • mmdd-keyword-keyword-keyword-keyword.jpg

Home page “cover” images - 1920px wide, 1200px tall, 72dpi

  • Must be horizontal in nature rather than vertical
  • Must have content focused right of center – left side of photo will be hidden by the left navigation bar
  • template located at /datastor/communications/shared/web files/Home page images/1920x1200 cover template.png
  • example: 1207-beatlemania-concert.jpg

Featured story rotator image – exactly 480px wide by 322px tall, 72dpi

  • Should be more horizontal than vertical in nature
  • naming convention - should match the story images in keywords, with featured as the last keyword
  • example: 1207-beatlemania-concert-featured.jpg

Story body images that are right/left aligned – 200px wide, 72 dpi

  • Should be vertical rather than horizontal
  • naming convention - should match the cover story in keywords, if there are multiple images add a number at the end - mmdd-keyword-keyword1.jpg, yymmdd-keyword-keyword2.jpg
  • example: 1207-beatlemania-concert1.jpg, 1207-beatlemania-concert2.jpg

Story body images that are full-width – 450 px wide, 72dpi

  • Should be horizontal rather than vertical
  • Name as above for other story body images

Thumbnail image any story – 200px wide by 135px tall, 72dpi

  • Should be horizontal in nature rather than vertical
  • This image can also be used inside the story, in which case you wouldn’t upload two versions – you would just link to the image inside the story AND in the thumbnail area of the news form.
  • example: 1207-beatlemania-concert-thumbnail.jpg

Upload your images first

  • Log in to OU on the News page –
  • Click the “Pages” link in the top left to expand your view to full-screen

Navigate to the folder that you need for uploading

  • News – Click on the appropriate year folder, and then scroll down and click the “images” folder link
  • Cover Story – Images go into the News images folder for that year.
  • Announcements – Click on the “announcements” folder link, and then click on the appropriate year
  • Notables – Click on the “notables” folder link, and then click on the appropriate year
  • Portfolio – Click on the “top” link, scroll down the left column for “portfolios”, and then click on the appropriate year

  • In Pages view, click on Upload in the top right corner.
  • You’ll notice this screenshot also highlights the “breadcrumb links”, which will always confirm where you are in the folder structure. This can help you to navigate as well, by clicking on any of the links in the breadcrumb set.
  • Set the image access properties, and upload your images.

  • Set access to “News”
  • Click Add Files, find the first image file on your computer, and then click Open
  • Repeat for any images being used for your item (cover photo, internal photos, thumbnail, etc.)
  • Do not click Overwrite unless you are deliberately uploading a new version of an image (see directions below).
  • Scroll down and click upload, wait for the process to complete and a message to display with successful results

WHEN YOU ARE DONE UPLOADING YOUR IMAGES, YOU MUST NAVIGATE TO THE PROPER YEAR FOLDER TO CREATE YOUR NEWS STORY (/2015/ FOR EXAMPLE). DO NOT FORGET THIS STEP!

A STORY CREATED IN ANY OTHER FOLDER WILL NOT POST PROPERLY IN FACEBOOK OR TWITTER.

Uploading a new version of an image (to correct errors, etc.)

  • First, make any edits to the existing image file on your computer.
  • Save it with the same name. This is important so that you can overwrite the one existing on the server, instead of uploading multiple copies and taking up extra space.
  • Navigate to the same folder where you uploaded the original image, wherever that was. The most obvious location is usually /news/2013/images, but it could be /news/notables/2013/images, etc.
  • Follow the directions above for uploading, except make sure to click the Overwrite box before clicking upload.
  • If it was a cover story, the image should update automatically on the home page with no further action (unless your computer has a cache of the website, in which case you will still see the old version. Check on someone else’s computer when in doubt.)
  • If it was an image embedded in a story/notable/profile/etc, go back to your item, delete the image, re-embed it, then republish the story.

Create your item

  • In the upper left, click on Content, and then Pages.
  • Navigate to the PROPER YEAR directory for creating your new item, by clicking the blue breadcrumb links highlighted in the earlier screenshot.
  • This is an important step – stories posted in any other folder will not post properly in Facebook or Twitter! Always click on the year folder before clicking “New”.
  • Click “New”
  • Select the type of item you would like to create – News Article (used for News, Announcements, and Notables), News Alert, or Portfolio

Notables, Announcements, and In the News Directions

Notables and Announcements will follow the directions below for News, except:

  • Featured does not apply to Notables or Announcements
  • Notables require a thumbnail of 125px by 125px, along with any image you wish to include inside the body of the piece
  • There are no images associated with Announcement
  • In the News Directions – are included separately at the end of this document.

News Directions
(check out the News Tips and Tricks document for some extra hints)

  • Click New News Article
  • Fill out the various parts of the form (detailed below)

  • News Type: Select News, Announcement, or Notable from the dropdown
  • Featured – only applies to News stories, and only if you have uploaded an appropriate sized image previously
  • Page Title – this is your story headline
  • Keywords – used by search engines. You should use whatever tags and categories you plan to use for the story as keywords (available at the end of this document.) You should also enter the standard keywords ofSkidmore, Saratoga Springs, New York, North East, NY, Liberal Arts, College, University, creative, thought, matters, higher education
  • Description – the short blurb/intro of the story, the text in the black box on the home page (this is also the text that appears when the item is posted on Facebook and Twitter)
  • Story Text – here you will enter your story text
  • You can copy/paste from Word, but you will have to use the “Remove Formatting” button (eraser, next to the “Bold” icon) to remove background code. To do so, highlight all of your text and then click the “Remove Formatting” button.
  • You will then need to double check your formatting (italics, bullets, bold, etc.)
  • You can add links by highlighting the text to be a link, and clicking the link button (directions below)
  • You can add images by clicking the “Insert/Edit Image” button (directions below)
  • You can add video clips by clicking the “Insert/Edit Embedded Media” button.(directions below)
  • Post date – the date of creation, in long form (January 12, 2013)
  • End date - only applies to Featured stories, in mm/dd/yy format

Adding media (news thumbnails, news featured image, notables)

This is for thumbnails and featured story images only, skip if you do not have those

  • Media Title – Alt text for the image
  • Image – click on the “Select a file” link to select the image. You will have to navigate to the folder that you uploaded to – news/year/, or notables/year/, or announcements/year/. Scroll to find the image you uploaded as the cover image, and choose it.
  • Thumbnail – you may select the same image again, or leave blank
  • Media description – a more full description than the alt tag, if necessary
  • Media keywords – for search engine purposes, you should include some of the keywords already used for your story

Category/Tags Section

Applies to all items

  • Categories – these affect how things are sorted out on the various department pages. Check off all that are applicable.
  • Tags – these effect how things can be cross-referenced or searched for on our site, and sorted into some department pages. Check off all that are applicable.
  • Additional Tags – any applicable tag that is not already listed. These will always include names and places and class years. Please refer to standards documents (available at the end of this document.)
  • This field must begin with a comma!
  • Do not copy/paste into this field. Errors are introduced by the differences between commas in different fonts, etc. Always type into this field.
  • , tag, tag, tag, tag
  • New page filename – this will become the URL for the story, so it should be very short and consistent with how you named the images for the story.
  • start with the date, then 2-4 keywords separated by hyphens
  • 0410-keyword-keyword-keyword.pcf
  • NO CAPITALS OR SPACES! The system will reject your story and you will have to begin again!!!
  • name it exactly how you named the images for the story
  • do not erase the .pcf part, that is a required file type (like .docx, or .pdf)
  • If the Overwrite box appears, leave blank
  • New page access – leave at inherit
  • Click Create

Adding Images to an item (with background snippet)

  • Click on the Edit button, and then the horizontal green Edit bar.
  • Place your cursor where you would like the image to be displayed – usually starting on the left margin of the story
  • Click the snippet button
  • choose “layout” from the left drop down, and then whichever snippet is suitable from the right drop down (usually “Image with caption, Gray, (right)”
  • Click insert
  • Click on the placeholder image, and click delete.
  • Without moving your cursor, click the “Insert/Edit image” button
  • Click the browse button
  • If you aren’t put into the appropriate images folder, scroll down to find /news/, and then enter either the appropriate year folder, or /announcements/ or /notables/, etc.
  • Scroll to find your first image. Click on it, and it will load in the Image Preview window for you to double-check.
  • Click “Insert”
  • Fill in an image description. This is the same as the caption you would want to put below the image on the page. Do not copy/paste this text, as errors can be introduced – type directly into the field.
  • If you want a border around the image, or space, click the Appearance tab. When you are satisfied with your settings, click Insert.
  • In the body of your story, highlight the text below the image, inside the grey box. Paste your caption over it. Make all captions bold.
  • You will notice that your captions will need to have line breaks inserted to force the text to wrap neatly under the image, just as in the old CMS. You can re-enter the story to do so once it has been published.
  • Repeat with other images until finished, then click save at the top left of the page (diskette icon).

Adding an Image with No Background (no snippet)

  • Place your cursor where you would like the image to be displayed – on the left margin of the story usually.
  • Without moving your cursor, click the “Insert/Edit image” button
  • Click the browse button
  • If you aren’t put into the appropriate images folder, scroll down to find /news/, and then enter either the appropriate year folder, or /announcements/ or /notables/, etc.
  • Scroll to find your first image. Click on it, and it will load in the Image Preview window for you to double-check.
  • Click “Select file”
  • Fill in an image description. This is the same as the caption you would want to put below the image on the page.
    Do not copy/paste this text, as errors can be introduced – type directly into the field.
  • If you want a border around the image, or space, or special alignment (left, right, etc.) click the Appearance tab.
  • When you are satisfied with your settings, click Insert.
  • Repeat with other images until finished, then click save at the top left of the page (diskette icon).

Adding Video to an Item

  • Place your cursor where you would like the video to be displayed
  • Click the “Insert/Edit Embedded Media” icon

First method: copy/paste an embed code

  • Find the video on YouTube or Vimeo.
  • Click the Share or Embed button. Sometimes the Embed option is nested under Share.
  • Select Custom size – suggest size for a full-width video is 400px wide, and allow the video site to auto-fill the height.
  • Copy the Embed code.
  • Go back to the page in OU Campus, and place the cursor at the location where the video should be displayed.
  • Click on the Insert/Edit Media icon.
  • Paste the URL into the Source tab of the embed media popup.
  • Click on Insert.

Second Method: Inserting a video with URL
ONLY WORKS WITH YOUTUBE

  1. Find the video on YouTube
  2. Copy the URL for the video from the top address bar
  3. Go back to the page in OU Campus, and place the cursor at the location where the video should be displayed.
  4. Click on the Insert/Edit Media icon.
  5. Paste the URL into the Link URL box on the General Tab.
  6. Click on Insert.

If desired, the dimensions can also be updated to define the size of the displayed video.

The media will not render within the WYSIWYG Editor. Instead it will appear as a yellow box the size of the intended media. Once the page is saved, the video will render in the preview.

Tips and Tricks

Insert the video into anImage with Caption snippet as though it were an image, to get the grey background behind it and a bit of space/padding around the outside edges.

Adding Links to an Item

  • Links are created by highlighting the text to be made into a link and clicking on the “Insert Link” icon. The “Insert Link” icon will not appear until you have highlighted text or an image!
  • Click the Insert/Edit Link button
  • If you are linking to an outside URL (Google, Amazon, etc.) you can paste the URL into the Link URL box and click Insert at the bottom, and you're done.
  • If you are linking to a Skidmore page with a www address, click the Browse button to the right of the Link URL box.
  • Navigate to find the file that you want to link to. You can click through the folder structure in the left column, or use the breadcrumb links above the folder structure to navigate.
  • When you find the file, click on it, and then click "Select File" at the bottom of the popup
  • The next popup will be for filling out the properties of the link