WCAS NU

Adding New Pages in Contribute


Video of adding a page (2:15)

Linking to a New Page

  1. Browse to the page and click Edit (as described in Updating Pages with Contribute)
  2. Highlight the text you wish to link
  3. Click Link (top center of window) and select Create New Page...

    (screen shot of link button)

  4. Select the section (template) you want to create a new page in
  5. Enter a page title (lower right of window). See About Page Titles (below) for tips


    (screenshot of select template)

  6. Click OK
  7. Fill in page content and click Publish when finished
  8. Enter a filename for your new page. See Tips for File Names (below)
  9. Click Publish
  10. Now that the new page is published, you need to publish the page linking to it:
    1. Browse back to the page you edited in step 1
    2. Contribute will tell you you have an unpublished draft of that page (in yellow across the top of the page).  Click "unpublished draft" to open the draft.  This will bring you back to edit mode
    3. Click Publish

Tips for File Names

  • Imagine reading the URL on the phone
  • Avoid spaces and capital letters
  • The shortest URL isn't always best
    • northwestern.edu/ofcs isn't as clear as northwestern.edu/offices
  • Don't use numbers to replace words ("2" for "to" or "4" for "for")
  • Avoid non-alphanumeric characters except period (.) and dash (-)
    • The underscore character (_) is easily confused with a space when text is underlined

About Page Titles

The title appears in several places:

  • Top of the browser window
  • Search results (Northwestern's search and external engines such as Google)
  • Bookmarks/favorites menu

Good titles:

  • Start with the page title so users recognize the page in search results and bookmarks
  • Include department information so users know which department a page belongs to (e.g., every site has a "Staff List")
  • End with "WCAS, Northwestern University" so users on Google or other external search engines know the content is affiliated with WCAS and Northwestern

The above example's document title is "Adding New Pages in Contribute, WTS, WCAS, Northwestern University"

[back to top]

Creating a New Page Without Linking

  1. Click New Page (top of window)

    (screenshot of new page button)

  2. Follow steps
    • When you click Publish, Contribute will alert you that your page is not linked and visitors will not be able to find it until it is linked. Click Yes
  3. When your ready to link to your page, follow the instructions on Creating Links to Web Pages (you will need to use the "Choose" option when you select a page to link to)

Video of creating an unlinked page (1:41)

[back to top]