The Adobe CQ Content Management System (CQ CMS) will allow you to easily edit and publish web content in a user-friendly, browser-based environment. This quick reference guide willexplain the most commonly used tasks in the system.

CQ Online Training Help
For more detailed instructions, please refer to our CQ help website located at: .

Training on the System
If you haven't already, we highly recommend that you attend one of the monthly CMS training sessionsthat are scheduled by UNIT (search for: “Web Design: VU Department Websites using DAY CQ5 CMS” in the UNIT website under Help and Support/Training Services).

If you have already attended one, you are welcome to attend another session as a 'refresher'. It is also recommended to read this CQ Quick Reference Guide through, or to use this CQ User Help site as a reference for any questions that you might have about using the system.

Requesting Help or Troubleshooting Assistance
If you run into issues, or need special items created for your sites, please submit an SDE Help Desk ticket to the WWW group in general and specify what your issues are. It will then be routed to one of our staff persons to do in a timely manner. Personal emails to individuals do not allow us to account for the work being done and for the issues that are arising.

Please Note: When submitting a ticket, it is very important that you are very specific as to what issue(s) you are having with your site.

You may want to detail the steps you had taken before you noticed something on your site had an issue. For example, rather than saying 'the page looks funny', please detail if anything was changed beforehand to make the page funny, or detail the ways in which you had edited that page previously, so that we can track the changes made to the page and attempt to effectively troubleshoot the problem for you.

Table of Contents

Logging In3

Accessing Your Site3

Welcome Screen3

Change Your Password3

Opening a Page4

Using the Left Panel4

Using the Right Panel4

Creating a Page5

Create Page Dialog Panel5

Working With Components6

Moving Components6

Deleting Components6

Adding Content 7

Adding Text7

Adding Images7

Editing Content 8

Orange Outline (Edit Menu Mode)8

Annotations (Sticky Notes)8

Inheriting Content 9

Cancel Inheritance Option9

Disable Inheritance Option9

Navigation Items10

Pages Not Displayed in Navigation10

Activating Your Pages11

Options for Activating Pages11

Activation Process12

Workflow Process13

Quick References11

Logging In
Toedit your website, you will need to navigate to the CQ Author server that contains all of the websites migrated to CQ. These pages are in 'development' and will not be live until they are activated/published.

Accessing Your Site
To access your site, navigate to the following URL: . This will log you into theserver containing all of the web sites.

Once the login box is displayed, log in using the credentials that have been provided to you that begin with d_. Both your login and password are the same until you change them.

Please Note: If off-campus, you may log in from campus or using the Villanova gateway at: . Please check the UNIT website (under IT on the Go/Remote Access) for more information on accessing sites through the Gateway.

Action Item: Log in.


Welcome Screen
After logging in, the welcome screenwill display. To access your website, click the globe icon for Websites. This section brings up the Site Admin panel and allows access to all the pages in your website. You will be able to open the pages of your site from here.

Action Item: Review Site Admin Panel interface.

Changing Your Password
To change your password once you are logged in, navigate to the far right of the green menu bar where you will find an arrow next to your name. Click on that arrow to display the menu with the option to Set Password.

Once you click Set Password, you will have a dialog box appear that will ask you to type in a new password and confirm that password. When you type those in and click OK, you have successfully changed your password.
Opening a Page

Within the Site Admin panel, you will see panels to the left and to the right. To navigate to your site, go to the left hand panel and click on the '+' sign next to Home. You will have to continue to expand the appropriate directories until you have reached your site.

Using the Left Panel

Once you are within (and have expanded) your main directory on the left panel, you may double-clicking on a page to open it.

Using the Right Panel

You may also open your pages by highlighting them and double-clicking them from the right panel.

Action Item: Open a page and quickly review Edit Mode and Sidekick Panel, especially the Components and Page Properties Panels.

Creating a Page

Within the Site Admin Panel, highlight and (have expanded) the directory in which you would like to add a page. Select the parent folder in the left pane so that its children pages display in the right pane. Then, navigate to the top menu of the right pane and:

  • Click New.
  • Click New Page.This will display the Create Page Dialog.

Create Page Dialog Panel

Within the Create Page Dialog Panel:

  • Type in a title for your page. This will be the title that shows at the top of your web page.
  • Type in the name for your page (all lowercase).
    Please Note: This name should be as concise as possible. If this field isn't filled in, the ‘Title’ field will be used example: pagename - vs -title_of_page.
  • Choose the page template name.

Please Note: For a basic page, highlight the template named Content Page.

Action Item: Create a new page.

Working With Components

Your content is broken down into various elements or “components”. Components that you can edit will become highlighted in a green box when you roll your mouse over. Each of these elements can be edited easily by either double-clicking it or right-clicking and choosing “Edit”. For an overview of components and how to use them, please check the CQ User Help site at: .

To insert a new component:

  1. Double-click the area “Drag components or assets here...”or drag a component from the floating toolbar, or Sidekick. This area appears wherever new content can be added, such as at the end of the list if other component paragraphs exist or at the end of a column.

Note If a component paragraph already exists, right-click the paragraph and select Insert. This inserts the new paragraph before the existing one.

  1. After you select to insert a component paragraph, a list of the available paragraph types appears.
  2. Click the component that you want. A window opens that allows you to configure your paragraph and add content.

Moving Components

To move a component:

  1. Click on the component to turn it green (this means you will be able to edit the component properties).
  2. Drag the component to the new location. CQ indicates where it can be moved to with a green checkmark. Drop it in your desired location. Your component is now moved to its new position.

Deleting Components

To delete a component:

  1. Select the component and right-click.
  2. Select Delete from the menu. CQrequests confirmation that you want to delete the component as this action cannot be undone. Then, click OK.

Adding Content

CQ makes it easier for you to insert content into your existing web pages. You can insert text directly from a Word document without the need to clean it in a text editor first. However, there may still be the need for some minor ‘cleanup’ of your content.

Adding Text

To add text:(also see the section, Editing Content):

  • Once you insert your text component on the page, right-click. The dialog box opens up, allowing you to paste in your content from the document that you copied it from.
  • When you have pasted the content, you can edit it using the WYSIWYG icons at the top of the dialog box. Once you are satisfied with the look of your content, click OK.

To add hyperlinks or bookmark links, please see our instructions on hyperlinks.

Please Note: A limited number of pre-set styles are built into the template to maintain a standard VU branding consistency.Please stick to the styles given and DO NOTadd any other styles or FONT elements, as they may affect the rest of the look of your content.

Adding Images

You may obtain approved images through the Office of University Communication. For more information, please see: or email to .

To add images:

  • Once you insert your image component on the page, double-click. The dialog box opens up, allowing you to choose your image.
  • After you have inserted are satisfied with the look of your image, click OK.

If you are not able to crop/resize the images yourself, then please be sure to use the image size properties in the component dialog panel.

Very Important: Please be sure to have the right permissions to use images, whether it be the rights to a particular image or permissions to use images of individuals. Please check with the Office of University Communication on using Villanova images.

Action Item:Add text from document; copy content from Spreadsheet to Table; use Download Component.

Editing Content

Editable regions in your website are displayed by a faded green outline when you roll your mouse over it. Each element, or component, is editable by double-clicking it to open the Edit Panel.

Orange Outline (Edit Menu Mode)
To edit existing content, double-clickthe component to open it. (The green outline may turn orange). The orange outline may also be brought up by right-clicking on a component box. When you right click on the component box, the Edit Menu is brought up displaying the options to: Edit, Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete, and New.

By clicking Edit while in this mode, you will bring up a component dialog window that will allow you to edit your content.

Annotations (Sticky Notes)You have the ability to leave sticky notes as a reminder or message to yourself or someone else from your team that will be editing or approving your pages. Please Note: These sticky notes are only viewable in the CQ Author environment.

To create an Annotation/Sticky Note:

  • Right-click on a component to bring up the Edit menu.
  • Choose Annotate. It will bring up a sticky note that will allow you to type your note.

This is what your finished note will look like:

Inheriting Content

Somesections of the template allow for

the inheritance of content that can be shared on children

pages. You will recognize these areas by the grey heading that says “Inherited Paragraphs”. Please Note: Both the left and right columns have the ability to ‘inherit’ content.

This section heading is displayed on both your left and right columns. If you click the Edit button/link it will bring up a dialog with two options: Cancel Inheritance and Disable Inheritance.

Cancel Inheritance OptionThis option is used if you want to cancel the inheritance of content on subsequent child pages.

To do this, you will need to navigate to the Parent Page and click on the Edit button/link. When the dialog panel opens, choose the option for Cancel Inheritance.

Disable Inheritance OptionThis option is used if you want to cancel the inheritance of content on subsequent child pages.

To do this, you will need to navigate to the Parent Page and click on the Edit button/link. When the dialog panel opens, choose the option for Disable Inheritance.

How to Find the Original Location of the Inherited ContentIf a piece of content on your sidebar is repeated from a previous page, and you need to determine where it is located so that you can edit it, continue to navigate up a level in your navigation on the left until you find the page that allows you to scroll over the content and get the 'editable' blue outline.

For Instance: You would need to scroll up to this site's homepage in order to be able to see the origination of the "Features and Quick Links" sidebar on the right.However, since you only have access to view this site you will not see the blue outlined box in this case.

Action Item: Review Inheritance features.

Navigation Items

The left-hand navigation is automatically generated base on the page structure of your site.

To reorder the left navigation:
Reordering the items in your left-hand navigation is as simple as dragging and dropping an entry in the left side of the Site Admin Panel.

  • Select the page in the left-side pane of the Site Admin panel and drag to the appropriate place.

Action Item: Move a page in the navigation.

Pages Not Displayed in the Navigation
There may be situations where a page exists on your site, but does not show up in your left-side navigation. To view all your site pages, you need to navigate to your Site Admin Panel.

Within the panel, you can edit any of your pages that are not displayed in the left-side navigation by simply locating and opening them. If you have several of these pages to edit, repeat the same actions by going back to the Site Admin Dashboard using the globe icon on the Day CMS sidekick.

Activating a Page (Publishing Your Pages to Production)
Making edits to your new web site and getting those changes live are very similar to how they were previously done under the “Web Standards” sites: with a submission and approval process (usually between two or more individuals). The process should consist of a content editor, who makes the changes and submits them for approval; and a content committer that will approve the changes and push them to the live production server.

Activating a page in CQ involves two things: if you need to submit your page to someone else for approval, and if you have the necessary permissions to Activate pages.

Please Note: If you attempt to activate pages without the correct permissions, you will receive an error message and your page will not be activated.

Options for Activating Pages
There are several options for activating pages or getting your pages activated:

  • Users With Approver Permissions.This means that you have the necessary approver permissions. Please follow the Activation Process instructions.
  • Users Without Approver or Approver Permissions. This means that you don't have any one available (including yourself) with the necessary approver permissions.To get your pages approved and activated, you may copy and paste your page URLs into an email and send to: . Members of the WST team will monitor that email queue for any submissions, and approve or deny your pages accordingly.
  • Users With Designated Approvers. This means that you have someone on your staff (other than yourself) with the necessary approver permissions. To get your pages approved and activated, you will submit your pages to them for their approval. The designated person will then activate them to the live site.
  • Users With a Workflow Process Set Up. This means that you have a workflow process set up for your area so that the designated approver/approvers can receive the approval requests from several staff members in one queue. Please follow the Workflow Process instructions.

Please Note: For any issues that you may have with your new site, please submit an SDE Help Desk ticket and a member of the WST team will address your concerns/issues in a timely manner.

Activation Process
Please note: If you attempt to activate pages without the correct permissions, you will receive an error message and your page will not be activated.

Page activation can be completed from two areas: within the page itself, or from the Site Admin panel.

Page Activation from Within the Page

After youhave edited your page and are ready to push it up live, click on the 2nd icon in your floating Sidekick. This will be the Page Properties tab.

  • Within that tab, you will see an option for “Activate Page”. Click that button to push your page live.

Page Activation from Within the Site Admin Panel

After youhave edited your page and are ready to push it up live, navigate to within your directory in the Site Admin.

  • For each page that you will need to activate, you will highlight the parent page above it. What this does is list all of the sub pages on the right side panel.
  • Within the right side panel, you will locate your page(s) to be activated. Click once to highlight, then click on the Activate button at the top of the right panel.

Scheduling a Page for ActivationBesides activating a page immediately, you can also activate a page at a later date, or 'scheduling' a page for activation.

  • To schedule an activation, click on the arrow next to the Activate button and choose Activate Later. This brings up a date selector to choose the date and time for activation.

Once that is done, your page will be schedule for activation on the date chosen.