CMS blog

As you know, our CMS will be undergoing an upgrade which will result in changes to how authors use the CMS.

We are offering one hour workshops to review the changes.

• Sept. 17 — 10 a.m.
• Sept. 17 — 11 a.m.
• Sept. 23 — 9 a.m.
• Sept. 23 — 10 a.m.
• Sept. 27 — 1 p.m.
• Sept. 27 — 2 p.m.

These hour-long workshops are intended for those who have already taken basic training. Since there is limited space in the lab — T104 — please RSVP with Dana Thielmann at 7090.

We are also offering a CMS Basic/Refresher workshop on Sept. 22, 9 to 11 a.m. This workshop is for those new to the CMS and will cover the basics of how to make changes to your pages on mtroyal.ca. New authors and approvers will be given priority, but those who would like to repeat the basics or come for a refresher can also register.  Please contact Dana Thielmann at 7090 and indicate if you are new to the CMS.

The upgrade to Oracle 10gr4 will take place over the Sept. 25 weekend — there will be no access to CMS editing at this time. CMS authors and approvers will start working on the upgraded system on Monday, Sept. 27.

Let me know if you have any questions.

ITS will be working on the CMS upgrade Saturday, Sept. 25 and Sunday, Sept. 26.

This means there will be no access to the CMS — the morgana site — during that time. Your access to the CMS should be back the morning of Monday, Sept. 27.

The website — mtroyal.ca — will remain up over the weekend, so there should not be any inconvenience to our users.

We will announce workshop details shortly.

Let me know if you have any questions.

As mentioned earlier, the new CMS patch being installed for Sept. 27 will result in some changes for CMS authors and how they make edits.

The upgrade will also alter the view of incorrectly sized tables. We advise people that their tables cannot be larger than 500 pixels wide — the width of the content region. When tables are not built following this guideline, the table stretches the entire page.

Good news for our users — supersized pages should be a thing of the past once the patch is installed.

Incorrectly built tables will have to be corrected before Sept. 24. If tables are not fixed before the patch is installed, they will appear cut off like the image below. (Note the right side where the words are cut off.)

So please check your tables — they should always be sized in pixels not percent and they should not exceed 500 pixels.

You will also notice that there are numerous style faux pas with the pictured table, including subhead, row colour, spacing, borders … yuck!

Learn more

Join us Sept. 1 for one of the Web Information Sessions — either noon or 1 p.m. in the Lincoln Park Room — where we will be sharing more information about the upcoming patch as well as other web projects.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Those working on the CMS over the last few days may have experienced a prompt that asks you to log in again.

ITS infoms me that this should be corrected with the installation of the new patch next month.

If you get this prompt, please click OK. If it does not allow you to do so, click Cancel — it hasn’t changed functionality of CMS for me so far.

Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

If you notice any other issues please let me know.

ITS will be installing a new CMS patch next month.  This update is necessary because the version we are currently using will no longer be supported.

While we will experience considerable changes in how we operated the CMS — mostly the functionality of the editor widow — it will be worth the effort. This patch includes numerous new features and, most importantly, increases our website’s accessibility for people with disabilities.

The upgrade to 10gr4 will also better position us for next year when more upgrades to Mount Royal systems are scheduled.

Be prepared

To help with this transition, we will be holding workshops Sept. 17, 22, 23 and 27 — details to follow shortly. The changes are scheduled to go into effect on Sept. 27.

I will provide you — via this blog — with updates and more specifics over the next few weeks, so keep reading.

You are also invited to join us at one of the Website Information Sessions on Sept. 1, which will include additional information about this patch upgrade. The one-hour sessions — noon and 1 p.m. in the Lincoln Park Room — will also provide updates on other web and online projects that are underway and/or have recently been completed.

Let me know if you have any questions.

The Health Services section of Wellness Services has cleaned up thier pages, including streamlining some of their navigation.

If your web pages include links to this area, please check and update them. Remember to use the “link to section” option.

It is good practice to check all your links on a monthy basis.

If you are thinking about reworking your website please contact me and we can discuss an enhancement project.

This post is the sixth in a 10-part series looking at the Top 10 mistakes found on mtroyal.ca. Let me know if you have any suggestions for the list.

Photos are a powerful tool on the website. The old adage says a photo is worth a 1,000 words — so it is important to ensure the photos we use are the best that they can be.

Quality not quantity

We cover a lot of the does and don’ts in the CMS photo workshop (next one is scheduled for Aug. 31). Basically, make sure your photos are of top quality — they are sharp, not stretched, and are styled according Mount Royal’s Style Guide.  Incorrectly sized photos can distort your entire webpage.

In the CMS photo workshop we’ll show you how to properly style photos — grey line and white space around sidebar and content photos and drop shadow on header photos. Templates are also provided.

In testing one student said that if he sees a photo that is pixilated, stretched or looks like a poor snapshot, the quality of the school goes down in his opinion because he knows they don’t pay attention to details and that is not a trait he wants in his education.

Subject matter, matters

Obviously, we include a lot of faces on the website because of our Face to Face brand, but if you use something else make sure it is engaging and matches the content of the page.

Think about what the photo is saying. Would it be better to use a campus photo rather than using an unprofessional image of a professor that may send the wrong message?

And while photos can complement your content, too many photos can distract from it.

Face to Face

I love that our brand works so well on the website. Check out these eye tracking images from the UsableWorld study — people like looking at faces and they look at where the faces look.

Notice how people spend so much time on the face (indicated with red) and when the baby is looking at the text, people spend more time reading it.

So if you are including a content or sidebar photo try to make them look at the content you want the user to read.

I am at the eduWeb conference … will share more later but they did award the eduStyle awards. Check out these 3 schools that were top winners: Southwest MiNnesota Minnesota State University, University of Puget Sound and Freed-Hardeman University. What do you think of their websites. Sorry for typos … on my dino iPhone and I am having trouble editing.

We are offering a variety of CMS workshops to get ready for the new semester.

CMS Basic/Refresher workshop
Learn how to make changes to your pages on mtroyal.ca or brush up on the basics at these workshops, Aug. 19, 1 p.m. and Aug. 25, 9 a.m. in T104. The two-hour workshop is for both authors and approvers and will teach the basics of using the CMS. It also offers the opportunity for people who have taken training to review and practice the basics. Please register with Dana Thielmann at 7090. If you have any questions, please contact Anika Van Wyk at 6622.

CMS PDF/secondary pages workshop
Learn how to create secondary pages and check in your own pdf documents to Mount Royal’s CMS. This workshop is for those who have taken the Basic CMS training. To enrol in the one-hour workshop — Aug. 26 at 1 p.m. in T104 — contact Verle Winsor at 8740.

CMS photo workshop
Learn how to use your own photos in Mount Royal’s CMS and how to create quotes and licence plates. This fast-paced workshop is for those who have taken the basic CMS training and those who have experience with and/or access to Photoshop. Please register with Dana Thielmann at dthielmann@mtroyal.ca or 7090 for this two-hour workshop — Aug. 31, 9 a.m. in EA2067.  If you have any questions, please contact Anika Van Wyk at 6622.

To align with the recent announcement that the theatre, speech and music credit programs will now be part of the Faculty of Communication Studies — those web pages have now been moved.

If you linked to these programs when they were part of the Conservatory, you will have to update those links. You will now find them under Programs & Courses -> Faculties/Schools/Centres -> Communications -> Programs.

To help alleviate any confusion this change may cause for our users, Communications and the Conservatory have included links to each other. The A-Z Program list and other similar pages have also been updated.

Thanks