An introduction to CMS website editing http://www.mansfield-u3a.org.uk/

1. Editing Notes Pt 1 (Issue 4)
One of the main benefits of Mansfield U3A's website's CMS (Content Management System) is that all Group
Leaders have direct access to an on-line editor so that they can maintain their own group pages quickly and we
hope these notes will make it easy!
• No coding is needed as the editor is fully WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) with an interface very
similar to what you see whenever you format an email or use a simple word-processor.
• All edits are moderated for security and to help maintain a consistent style.
• Pages can only be edited by Group Leaders but you are welcome to nominate another member of your
group as editor if you wish.
• Terry Whitehead will be happy to help Group Leaders or their nominees to become confident editors so
please don't hesitate to phone or email him if anything is unclear or you have any problems.
____________________________________________________________________________________
Getting Started
1. Click on 'Admin' at the end of the blue menu bar at the top of any page to open the site administration panel
thus :
2. Sign-in by entering your username and password, using the initial of the name by which you are known and
surname in the form JBloggs (case-sensitive), with the password 123456 to access your options below:
3. CHANGE THE PASSWORD to something unique but easy to remember as it cannot be recovered if you
forget it!
4. Then click on the 'Manage Site' tab at the top of the screen and the 'Manage Site' panel on the next page
should then appear, listing all the sites that you can edit.

2. Opening your page in edit mode
1. Click on your group's name in the Manage Site panel below and the page should open in the editor.
Editing your page
Your page should look like this when you've opened it from 'Manage Site' to edit the content:
1. Please edit a few words to get used to the tools, which operate very much like formatting an email and have
descriptions that will appear when you pass your cursor across them with your mouse.
(Strongly recommended as an easier and more accurate method that the touch pads on most laptops.)
2. DO NOT paste text that you have written off-line in Word, Excel, etc. as that will introduce coding you won't
be able to override easily. (Just paste it into Notepad first, edit to remove excess spaces and all line breaks
and then copy and paste the text from there, a line at a time, remembering that Ctrl+C copies, Ctrl+V pastes
and that Tab moves through a table cell-by-cell.)
3. Limit your choice of typefaces to Arial, Verdana or Trebuchet ONLY as these are the only ones that display
properly on all devices.
4. DON'T use the 'Return/Enter' key to force line breaks as that inserts a new paragraph: use
'Shift+Return/Enter' instead or allow the editor to wrap lines automatically.
5. The bottom panel is the editor for 'Interest Groups' so you can edit that too, but without formatting options.
6. Click on the 'Submit Update' button at the bottom if you are happy with your changes and want to submit
them for moderation or on 'Cancel' if you want to abandon them and start again.
(You'll get confirmation that your edit has been added to my moderation queue but please email me when
you submit anything, telling Terry Whitehead what changes you have made so that he knows what to look
for.)
7. You will be signed-out automatically if you don't submit any changes so it's better to do extensive edits in
several stages so that you don't lose them.
Known Issues
1. The 'A' button described as 'Background Color' is actually a highlighter, and does not affect the background.
(The background colour is set within the table tool that's covered in Part 2)
2. A fault within some versions of the MSN and Internet Explorer browsers may prevent the menu bar
displaying properly on some computers so please use Chrome or Firefox instead.
I'm sure you'll get the hang of it quickly but never hesitate to ask if you want help.
David Ling - 01623 822994 or mansfieldu3a@aol.com (With thanks to Terry Whitehead for help with testing.)