School/District Sites CMS Info & FAQ's

Once logged in with your email and password via the mySD41 panel (location differs for district/dept. sites) available on your school/district site to the Content Management System (CMS):

FAQ's

Don't see what you need an answer to, email: web.services@sd41.bc.ca

Setting the Internet Connection on Firefox
You may have to reset your internet connection on Firefox to gain access to the website admin panel if you are doing edits while on the district network. Please be reminded that IE6 is not supported by the content management system and errors on the interfaces will occur - use FIREFOX until IE8 is loaded on the district computers.

Once Firefox is open go to:

Tools > Options - then click on Advanced (far right side)

Click the Network tab, under Connection click Settings

Choose Manual proxy configuration: (4th choice)

In HTTP Proxy: type proxy# (Specific # listed on School Proxies PDF)

In Port: type 8080

Click OK to complete the new setting.
Viewing the Left Hand Menu in IE8
You may have to adjust some setting in your IE8 or above browser. From the browser itself:
  • click on TOOLS --> COMPATIBILITY SETTINGS
  • make sure INCLUDE UPDATED WEBSITE LISTS FROM MICROSOFT is CHECKED and the rest SHOULD be UNCHECKED
  • click on CLOSE button
You should be able to see the rest of the website left menu.
Useful Free Online Video Converters
FLVTO.com
With couple of clicks, FLVto free site provides you a simple way to convert video from URL or from your pc to other video formats.
Online Video Convertor
Online Video Converter does not just provide video conversion to your files, but also integrate your video content with different devices such as iPhone and iPod. Also, it gives you wide varietyf file extensions such as FLV, MPEG and MOV…etc.
Media Convertor
Converter helps you to convert video content from your PC or URL to different formats.
You Convert It
Movavi Online
Zamzar
Zamzar provides you extra feature after converting video content, it lets you manage video files as well.
Demo Templates
Cellsea
Cellsea converts your video files free and easy and integrate it with video sharing sites such as You Tube and Metacafe.
TubeMinator
Tubeminator provides high intgeration with video sharing sites such as Vimeo and you converted video file from your PC or directly from URL.
All 2 Convert
Photo Album Creators
jAlbum.net
Web browser access to Editing - @ Work, Home or On the Road
To access the CMS, you will need to use your Web browser. The minimum browser requirements are:
  • Internet Explorer 7+ (The district is currently on IE6 so you need to use Firefox when on the district network until further notice)
  • Firefox 3+
  • Google Chrome (any version)
  • Safari 3+
  • Opera 9+
To determine which browser and version you are using, navigate to the Help menu of your browser and look for the About option. If necessary, you can download any of the aforementioned browsers from their manufacturers' websites for free.
Optimizing Images
Optimize your site images so that they load as fast as possible on the user's monitor. There are tons of software which do this for you, free ones included. Free popular ones include IrfanView and Picasa. A more advanced one is GIMP. A great online image editor is Aviary.

For example, JPG photo files can be reduced in file size with only minor sacrifices in quality. GIF files also have a Loss and Number of Colors property that can reduce file sizes.

Recommendation
Unless the photo is for users to save and print, don't place the original unaltered 4 (or more) megapixel photo on a page. Resize it to a comfortable size (eg: 800 x 600) which in turn reduces the disk space and download time.

Provide a direct link to the full megapixel resolution image if you believe the user may want to print the image
Naming Conventions for Documents
Any document that is available for viewing on a website should first off be made available as PDF - why? Because the PDF standard is cross platform, cross browser accessible standard and provides everyone ability to view and read your document - that cannot be said for e.g. a Microsoft Word .doc.

Secondly - when posting your document: keep the names short, lower-case, avoid blank spaces and date specificity.

A document that reads: Sep 10 2010.pdf will present browsers issues in making them accesible whereas that document can read as simple as: sep.pdf.
Are there any shortcut keys for the editor?

Here are some keyboard shortcuts that you can use to enhance your editing experience:

  • CTRL + 1-6
    Make the current block an H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, or H6 heading. Doesn't work with the number pad.
  • CTRL + 7
    Make the current block a normal paragraph. Doesn't work with the number pad.
  • CTRL + 8
    Make the current block a paragraph.
  • CTRL + 9
    Make the current block an address.
  • CTRL + B
    Make the selected text bold.
  • CTRL + I
    Make the selected text italic.
  • CTRL + U
    Make the selected text underlined.
  • CTRL + Z, CTRL + Y
    Undo and redo, respectively.

These are Windows shortcut keys. Most of them work on a Mac by replacing CTRL with Command.

Defining Repeatable Regions

You can have created one or more repeatable regions inside of any content region. This is very handy for pages that have structured markup. Useful examples include articles, photo galleries, complex lists, styled table rows, blog entries, etc.

Once a repeating region is available, hover your mouse over the right top area of the constrained text box - the option will appear in your editing section:
Repeating Region
Click the repeating region icon and the following toolbar will appear:
Repeating Region Toolbar
The toolbar will allow you to add a region, delete a Region, move the region up or down in the sequence or provide full screen viewing. Once the new region is created, you just need to edit the region created.

Things to take note on:

  • Repeatable regions are only a guide for structuring and styling markup
  • Editors can change the structure and styles of regions if they wish
  • Editors can delete repeatable regions if they wish
  • There are no limits to the number of regions you can have on a page
  • You can nest repeatable regions inside other repeatable regions
District & Department Website Style Sheets
SD41 District Website

BCCE Website

 

What you will see:

Some districts site's login area will differ in location on the home page.

Login Panel

Use your Email & Password to gain access to the CMS application. Web based so all you need is an internet connection and a any web browser beyond IE6.

Tabs

You will see the pages you have access to edit and at the bottom of the list will be the 'Google Analytics' panel button. This appears under the 'Website' tab.

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Website tab

Pages

The list is the pages available for you to edit. Edit Label allows you to 'name' the page so you have easy reference to what you are editing without altering the 'title' of the page set for the website.

Clicking the 'Classes' link will take you to the edit panel for that page, hitting the /classes.htm will open the actual website page in a new browser tab; so you can visualize what you are working on.

Edit Pages

Content tab:
Will be the sections you are able to change/edit ie. Page Title, Main Content. The Rich Text Editor is customized based on the editor.

Properties tab:
Has the Webpage Title, Description and keywords that are applicable for indexing by Search Engines. This may or may not be available for an editor to change/add to.

History tab:
Gives the page last revisions for the past 90 days: the Editor, date , Revert function and a 'view' of the old info.

The bottom of these tabs always read:

Edit Bottom

Cancel: get out of this page, View Current: view the current page you are about to change/have changed 'live' on the web, Preview: see how your edits will look on the web, Publish to Web: send your changes to your website and make them live.

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My Account tab

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Help & Support tab

This form email will be sent directly to the SD41 WebServices support. No need to open up a seperate email method to communicate to the district web developer. Communication is all on one dashboard.

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Google Analytics Panel (Website Analysis Short/Long Term)

Google Analytics

Overview

Traffic Sources

Geographical

Content

Browsers
Browser Versions

Operating Systems
Operating System Versions

Other

Google Analytics v.5 Spring 2011 Improvements

If you have never used Google Analytics - HOW TO: Get Started With Google Analytics Opens in a New Browser Window

  1. Multiple dashboards
    It is now possible to customise multiple dashboards for a profile. This will allow users to segment the charts and tables making analysis and management easier.
  2. Widget based Dashboard
    On top of allowing multiple dashboards, in the latest version, charts and tables can be added to the dashboard using a widget editor.
    The widget allows the user to add either a metric, pie chart, timeline or table for pretty much every dimension/metric possible. Google says that there is more to come in terms of features for the dashboard but wanted to release the core functions first.
  3. Better organised Navigation
    For those who are very familiar with how to navigate around Google Analytics, this change wont be that significant, but for lighter users the new navigation makes it easier to understand where reports can be found.
    Taking a look at just the visitors section, the new navigation now categorises the reports by demographics, behaviour and technology, which is a marked improvement on the old categorisation.
  4. Filtering reports and report layout
    The layout of the reports has also had an overhaul. The data tables have been cleaned up which makes for easier analysis. Also, the function to add a filter is now located below the graph rather than the foot of the page.
    Reports can be more effortlessly viewed too by tabbing through the viewing options at the top of each table, without the need to go back to the left handside navigation.
  5. Events as goals
    The fifth change is that it is possible to have events as goals. Previously you could only set up goals based on:
    By allowing events to be set as goals, instances like videos being played or widgets being used will be able to have goal values attributed to them, which will allow for better analysis.

Avinash Kaushik, the digital marketing evangelist for Google and author of Web Analytics 2.0, shares how the free enterprise-class tools available through Google Analytics impact businesses today.

He explains how your social media activity influences the behavior of your business audience to help you improve your results.

Here are some of the things you’ll learn in this video:

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