CMS Version 8 User Guide

The visibility of all page options are controlled via checkboxes (as shown below). The main content editor (Default Content) is the only option enabled by default.

Hiding page options will NOT impact the content in those regions. For example, you can uncheck "Default Content" and select "Drop Downs" without losing the content placed in the "Default Content" region. The checkboxes only control what you will see during the page editing process.



Media

The "Media Options for Page" region is where you can add a media block (Random Photo or Slideshow) or attach your own image under "Choose Own Image." Once a block or image is attached, the media will show up on your page in the media banner location.

To learn how to create a page media block and add a page media block to your page, go to the Blocks section of this documentation and click on Media.



The "Default Content" region is enabled by default. Adding content to a page in Cascade is similar to editing a document in Microsoft Word. The "Default Content" region uses a WYSIWYG editor, an acronym for "what you see is what you get." The WYSIWYG editor is a system in which content, both text and graphics, can be added or modified in a form closely resembling its appearance on a finished product, such as a web page.

To add default content to your page:

  1. In the asset tree, select the page you would like to modify, then click "Edit".

  2. Under Page Options, make sure the "Default Content" checkbox is enabled.

  3. In the "Page Content" region, add your content (text, images and/or links).

  4. Click "Save & Preview" to review page, then "Submit" to confirm.



Content Block

The "Content Block" region is where you would attach your page content block(s). A content block may be used for repeating content across several pages.

To learn how to create a content block and add a content block to your page, refer to the Blocks section of this documentation and click on Content.

content block



Featured Content

The "Featured Content" region includes placements for left features, right features and spotlight features. Both the left and right features are added to pages by attaching content blocks to the designated area. A content block may be used for repeating content across several pages.

To add Featured Left/Right Content to your page:

  1. Verify that your content block has already been created. To learn how to create a content block, go to the Blocks tab and click on Content.

  2. In the asset tree, select the page you would like to modify, then click "Edit".

  3. Under Page Options, check off the "Featured Content" checkbox.

  4. Under Featured Right Content or Featured Left Content, click the "Choose Block" field to search and/or browse for your block.

  5. Select the radio button next to the block you wish to add, then click the "Choose" tab to confirm selection. This will attach the content block to your page under the designated featured area(s).

  6. To add additional blocks, click on the green plus sign () and repeat steps 4-5.

  7. Click "Save & Preview" to review page, then "Submit" to confirm.

To add Spotlight Content to your page:

  1. In the asset tree, select the page you would like to modify, then click "Edit".

  2. Under Page Options, check off the "Featured Content" checkbox.

  3. Proceed to the "Spotlight Content" region, which appears after the Featured Right Content and Featured Left Content areas.

  4. Under Spotlight Heading, add a heading for your feature. (This is the large text that appears above the white spotlight box.)

  5. Under Spotlight Information, add your content (text, images and/or links).

  6. Click "Save & Preview" to review page, then "Submit" to confirm.



Slider

The slider option is an area on your page where multiple items, such as special features, can be added. The items are displayed in a slider, which defaults to three at a time. Clicking the right arrow allows you to view any additional items. At least three items must be added.

To add a slider to your page:

  1. In the asset tree, select the page you would like to modify, then click "Edit".

  2. Under Page Options, check off the "Slider" checkbox.

  3. Under Slider Section Text, add a brief heading for the section. (Example: "Featured")

  4. Under Image (214px X 151px), click the "Choose File" field to browse and/or search for your image. Select the radio button next to the desired image, then click the "Choose" tab.

  5. Under Image Description, add a brief, relevant description for the image.

  6. Add a brief heading under Image Slide Heading. This text will appear in a white, bold font over your image in the slider area.  

  7. Add short text for the Button Text. (Example: "Enroll Now")

  8. If you are linking to an asset outside of the CMS, enter the full URL in the "Link" field. Otherwise, browse for the page using the "Choose Page" field.

  9. If you would like your link to open in a lightbox, please select the asset type for "Lightbox Style Window for Video, Web Page, or Image?"

  10. Then confirm if the link should "Open in a new Window/Tab?"

  11. To add another slider item, click the green plus sign () and repeat steps 4-10. At least three items must be added.

  12. Click "Save & Preview" to review page, then "Submit" to confirm.



Drop Downs

Drop downs are accordion-style, single-level menus that allow you to organize a set of related content. The drop downs appear as blue bars labeled with text on the page. When clicked, the content placed in a drop down appears. Only one drop down can be opened at a time; if one drop down is open, clicking on another will close the initial drop down and open the one just clicked.

To add a drop down to your page:

  1. In the asset tree, select the page you would like to modify, then click "Edit".

  2. Under Page Options, check off the "Drop Downs" checkbox.

  3. Under Drop Down Linked Content >> Category Heading or Content, you may add either a header (h2) or content that will appear above the first blue bar of your drop down area.

  4. Under Drop Down Link Title, enter a brief title for the drop down. This title will appear as text on a blue bar. To leave it open by default, check off the "Open By Default?" box directly above the title field.

  5. Under Drop Down Content, enter your content for the drop down. You may add text, links, images and/or attach a content block. To add a content block:

    • Click the "Choose Block" field to browse or search for your block. Click the "Choose" tab at the top right to confirm selection.

  6. Under Drop Down Linked Content >> Additional Content, enter any content that you would like to appear after the drop down. The content added here will appear outside of the blue bar.

  7. Under Drop Down Link Width, you may choose the width of your drop down area:

    • Full - appears the full width of the content area on your page

    • Narrow - appears half the width of the content area on your page to allow for longer right featured content

  8. For additional drop downs, click the green plus sign () and repeat steps 4-6. (Each drop down created is one blue bar.)

  9. Click "Save & Preview" to review page, then "Submit" to confirm.



Closing Content

The "Closing Content" region is similar to the Default Content region, except any content included here will be last on the page, after every other Page Option available. Text, links and/or images may be added here.

To add closing content to your page:

  1. In the asset tree, select the page you would like to modify, then click "Edit".

  2. Under Page Options, check off the "Closing Content" checkbox.

  3. Add your content.

  4. Click "Save & Preview" to review page, then "Submit" to confirm.

New pages will be created in the CMS via a pre-structured page that has been created for your site. Note that your preset page may be located within a folder.

To create a new page:

  1. Ensure that the appropriate site is selected under the "Site" field.

  2. Click the "Add Content" button to select the predefined page asset.

  3. Verify that the Placement Folder path is set to where you would like the page stored.

  4. Enter the Page Metadata information (title, description, section header).

  5. Select the Page Options you would like to use. The "Default Content" region will be pre-selected. Learn about the different page options by going to the Pages tab and clicking "Page Options."

  6. Enter the content for the page. If you are planning to attach blocks, ensure that the blocks are created prior to creating a new page. Learn about the different block options by going to the Blocks tab.

  7. Once all your content has been added, click "Save & Preview" to review the page.

To create a copy of an existing page:

Copying a page can be useful if, for instance, a press release page is created, and you would like all future press releases to use that same consistent layout and format.

  1. In the asset tree, right click the page you would like to duplicate, and select "Copy" from the Context Menu.

  2. Add a "New Page Name" for this page. Verify the "New Folder" where the page should be stored.

  3. Click the "Copy" or "Start Workflow" tab at the top right of the screen to confirm.

Editing a page in Cascade is similar to editing a document in Microsoft Word. The Default Content region uses a WYSIWYG editor (hover over the buttons for a brief explanation). To learn more about the editor's feature, review Cascade's Frequently Used Editing Functions.

To edit an existing page:

  1. In the asset tree, select the page you would like to modify.

  2. Once the page loads, click "Edit" near the top of the page. Note: If you do not see an edit option, you may not have permission to update the page.

  3. A separate edit screen will appear. To help avoid overlapping changes, an alert notification will appear near the bottom of the edit screen if another user has recently created a draft of your asset.

  4. Enable the "Page Options" checkbox for each region that requires a change. To learn more about the page region options, review the "Page Options" accordion above.

  5. Make the desired changes to the page.

  6. Once all your content has been updated, click "Save & Preview" to review the page.

    • To confirm modified page, click "Submit" or "Check Content & Submit."

    • To make additional changes, click "Edit."

A working copy of an asset is similar to a draft version of an asset. A working copy, however, is an asset that has been checked out/locked. When an asset is locked, users are no longer able to edit it. Instead, users will receive a notification indicating who the current owner is, and depending on their Site Role abilities, can re-assign the lock to another user, or request to have the lock removed by a Site Manager (Site Managers have access to break locks).

check out or lock asset menuBy re-assigning the lock, one user is able to make changes in the form of a working copy, then re-assign the lock to allow another user to review and collaborate on further modifications, all prior to submitting/publishing. Unlike drafts, a working copy may be viewed by all users (without re-assigning the lock). Simply view the asset, then change the dropdown at the top left to "Working Copy."

*Important: a lock must be placed on an asset prior to editing.

To create a working copy of an asset (lock an asset):

  1. In the asset tree, navigate to the asset you would like to modify, then click on the asset.

  2. Once the asset has loaded, click on "...More".

  3. Then, click on "Check-out/Lock". You may now begin editing the asset.

  4. Once edits are complete, you may:
    • Commit the changes - finalizes the edit and removes the exclusive lock on the asset
    • Break the lock - discards the changes and removes the lock
    • "Reassign lock to another user" - the user you select will be able to view your drafted changes by ensuring "Working Copy" is selected on the upper left of the page

Visit the Cascade CMS Knowledge Base for more information on Checking Out/Locking Assets.

The "Save & Preview" feature allows a user to preview a draft version of an asset prior to submitting/sending to workflow. Drafts are automatically saved as changes are made to an asset, so if you close the "Edit" screen or your session times out, a draft notification alert will be triggered the next time you modify the asset. The autosave, and manual "Save & Preview" features serve as a valuable safeguard against accidental loss of work.

Editing Drafts:

Use the "Edit" option to make a change to an existing draft. Please Note: You may need to confirm you are viewing the "Draft" version depending on how long ago you've modified the page. Nonetheless, the system will notify you if you are modifying an asset that has an existing draft.

Discarding Drafts:

Drafts can be discarded in "Edit" mode, or via the "Discard" tab in preview mode.

Sharing Drafts:

Drafts are private and can only be viewed by the content owner by default. If you wish to share or collaborate on the draft of an asset, please refer to "".

Publishing/Un-Publishing

When an asset is saved in the CMS, the new or changed asset is set as the current version, but is not automatically published. Only Site Managers have permission to manually publish content. For assistance with publishing or un-publishing an asset, we encourage site managers to review the following articles from the Cascade CMS Knowledge Base.

For Site Contributors, all of your asset creation or editing will be sent through a one-step Site Manager approval workflow. Once your Site Manager has reviewed and approved your workflow, the asset will be published to the live production Website.

The CMS will automatically store all assets even after they have been unpublished from the live website. If you would like to remove or delete asset(s) from the CMS, you can choose to manually delete them using the Delete function. If you need to restore an asset, click on the pinned "Trash" icon at the top of the asset tree menu.

Note: There must not be any relationships to the asset(s) you are deleting. To learn more about relationships, view the "Relationships" section below.

Visit the Cascade CMS Knowledge Base for more information on how to remove or delete content.

Relationships occur when assets (the "referring assets") refer to another asset (the "related asset"). Referring assets can be viewed on the "Relationships" tab of a related asset. It is important to view a page's relationships prior to deleting. If the page you are about to delete is being referenced by another asset, deleting the page could lead to broken links and/or missing information from the data relationship.

Example: Your page A has a link to page B (page B resides within the CMS). You delete page B. Now, clicking on the link in page A will result in an error page since page B no longer exists. To avoid this error, you must first go to page A, remove the link to page B, then submit and publish page A. Now, you may delete page B with no error.

Relationship Publishing

All publishable assets can be published at once by using the "Publish All" button. Alternatively, you can select specific assets to publish by checking the checkboxes next to each one, and then selecting the mini "Publish" icon. If you select any assets that are not publishable, they will get filtered out automatically without any error. The "Publish All" button and the checkboxes will only be visible if there is at least one publishable asset in the list, and the current user has multi-select publish ability.

Publishing Relationships is useful in situations where a given asset's contents are reused in the related assets and the contents have changed. It is also useful when a linked-to asset is moved or renamed.

All assets (images, files, pages, and blocks) within the Site Content area support threaded commenting to provide a discussion about the asset. Individual comments can be replied to, (un)resolved, and deleted. It also supports the use of @mentions to target the discussion of a page, task, or other asset to another user.

For more information on comments, refer to the Cascade CMS Knowledge Base artices below:

The CMS keeps track of changes made to assets in separate copies of the asset called Versions (up to 20 per asset). Once the asset has reached the maximum number of versions permitted, each additional change will result in the oldest version of the asset being overwritten. Therefore, the "Save & Preview" option should be utilized prior to submitting asset changes.

Users are able to navigate through the various versions, compare them with the current version, and restore any version desired, if necessary.

To view a version of an asset:

  1. Select the desired asset in the CMS.

  2. Click "More" located in the top bar.

  3. Select “Versions” from the drop-down menu.

  4. A separate screen will appear with an itemized list of the last 20 versions.

  5. Click on the version you would like to view and it will open in the main view.

  6. You should see a notification that you are viewing an older version of the asset near the top right of the page. Use the "More" tab to confirm what additional action you wish to take:

    • View newer version - Scroll through to a later version.

    • View older version - Scroll through to an earlier version.

    • View current version - Reverts back to the active or current version.

    • *Restore this version - Makes the currently viewed version the active or current version.

    • *Delete this version - Deletes the currently viewed version from the versions list.

    *You will only see this option if you have the appropriate permissions to edit the asset.

Review the Cascade CMS Knowledge Base for more information on Version History.

For any questions on web site updates, please submit a 'Web Content' request through the OIIT Project Intake and Support.

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