Creating a New Page (Detailed Instructions)

To create a new page, enter the URL for the subsite where the page will reside and end it with createpage.cfm.  For example, to create a new page in the CommonSpot training site, the URL would be: 

              http://author.colby.edu/administration_cs/its/instruction/cstrain/createpage.cfm

 

When you load the URL, you will see this:

undefined

 

Click on Create New Page and you will see the Template Gallery:

 

undefined

 

 

Click on the orange triangles to see the templates available to you.

 

undefined

 

Unless you have a template that has been created for your department, you may wish to start with the Simple Layout, 1x1 Base.  This will give you a page with an empty content well to which you can start adding elements. 

 

When you find the one you want, click on it.  You will see the following:

 

undefined

 

  • The Name field will be used for the URL.

The first page in a subsite is always index.cfm.  Just name the page "index" and CommonSpot will add the .cfm.



  • The Title will display at the top of the content well.
  • The Title Bar Caption appears at the top of the browser window.


Clicking on the orange circle with the downward arrow will copy the contents of that box into the one(s) below.


  • Keywords are used for searching, so give some thought to what you’d like to include here.
  • Publication date allows you to set a date and time for a page to be activated.
  • Confidentiality is not being used at this time, but you should select Public for pages that will be accessed by anyone.
  • Expiration allows you to select a date for a page to made inactive.  If you select Expire content on specific date, a calendar icon will appear and you can select the date to deactivate the page.
  • Freshness reminder allows you to set a date to be reminded to review the content of a page.

 

undefined

 

When you have filled in the appropriate fields, click Next.  You will see this:

 

undefined

 

If you check the box to Include in TOC, this page will appear in the table of contents on the left side of the page.

 

If you check Show Siblings, any sibling subsites to this page will also display in the table of contents.

 



By checking either of these boxes, pages may appear in the table of contents on other pages in your site.  If you are creating your page from a template that has a specifically created table of contents, you may not want to check these boxes!


 

Click on Finish.

 

Your page will be created and will load.  You will see the three CommonSpot icons at the top of the page and a large green stripe at the top, indicating that the page is not active.

 

undefined

 

When you are on the author box, you will see three icons at the top center of the page.  (If you are not on the author box, there will only be two icons, the knowledge maps and view modes icons.)


 

Although menu options will vary, depending on your permissions within CommonSpot, here are some of the menu items you may see under each icon.

 

Knowledge Maps options:

 

undefined

 

View Mode Options:

 

undefined

 

The page will load in Read mode, the icon will be a pair of glasses.

 

Page and Template Management options:

 

undefined

 

You are now ready to begin adding elements to your new page. 


For instructions on adding elements and publishing your page, click here.