Web Publishing

3. Basic page

  1. Home
  2. Training

Basic pages and structured pages will form the majority of general content pages on your site.

The basic page offers the simplest type of page and is suitable for:

  • a single topic
  • content that can be displayed to the user in a single view.

For the basic page topic, there are 3 tasks, each of which require the following:

  1. Create a basic page.
  2. Complete the instructions for each basic page
  3. Publish the basic page

After completing each basic page, there is a review stage that consists of the following:

  1. Compare your published basic page with the Review associated with the task. 
  2. Review Training page 2 on your training website where a view has been inserted to display basic pages that have the tag, sample basic page, added.

Learning outcomes

At the end of the topic, you will be able to:

  1. Create a basic page
  2. Insert content
  3. Insert links
  4. Insert in-line images
  5. Apply best practice to edit content
  6. Use the WYSIWYG editor
  7. Publish content.
  1. Task 3.1 - format content
  2. Review: format content
  3. Task 3.2 - insert links
  1. Review: insert links
  2. Task 3.3 - in-line images
  3. Review: in-line images

1. Task 3.1 - format content

Essential guides

Check the guides before completing each task:

  • Basic pages
  • Headings – learn how to write good headings and ensure you follow the correct hierarchy
  • Links – how to write good link text, and the difference between relative and absolute links

Basic page guide

Basic pages are the simplest and most common type of page. The majority of general content pages on a site will be either Basic page or Structured pages.

Step 1

In the administration menu, go to Content > Add content > Basic page.

Basic page menu selection

Step 2

The edit screen displays.

  1. Title - Page title
  2. Summary - Optional. Displays in teaser and card views where the page is referenced in a list. Doesn't appear on the page.
  3. Body - Content of the page

Basic page fields 1 to 3

  1. Teaser image - Optional. Displays in card and teaser views. Advice on images.
  2. Hero image - Optional. Replaces the default page header with a hero banner header.

Basic page image fields

  1. Aside - Optional. Used for content that is tangentially related to the Body content, such reminders or contact details.
    Click Add new paragraph to create an Aside.
    Note - Headings used in the aside, should start at heading level 3.

Basic page aside

The Aside field displays.

aside rich-text paragraph

  1. Related content - Optional. Allows other pages on the site to be referenced in a short list. The relationship is manually created, not inferred from any data such as tags.
    Click Add new paragraph to create a related content group.

click add new paragraph

The Related Content fields display.

Title - Optional. Heading to label the related pages. e.g. "Associated research", or "See also"

Related content - Reference to other pages on the site. Type the first few letters of a page title to look-up the desired page. Multiple related pages can be added.

related content

  1. Tags - Click the dropdown arrow to select a tag from the list of vocabularies and their terms to categorise the content.

Basic page tags

  1. Menu Settings  - Tick provide a menu link to display the menu settings options. Adding a page to the menu ensures it will appear in the site map.

Tick provide a menu link

Enter the menu settings fields.

Menu link title - The menu link title is automatically populated from the basic page title. The menu link title can be edited.

Description - Content entered in the description field will be displayed when hovering the cursor over the menu link.

Parent item - Selection of a parent item ensures improved website navigation by displaying a breadcrumb trail at the top of the page.

Weight - Select a weight to determine the order of the menu link in the Parent Item. Menu links with smaller weights are displayed before links with larger weights.  Tip: easier to drag the links into position to change the order. 

Basic page menu

  1. URL path settings - a friendly URL is generated automatically if the tick box remains ticked.

URL path settings

  1. Revision information - if create new revision remains ticked, a new version of the basic page is saved each time after it is published. The versions are accessible from the revisions tab.

revision information

  1. Authoring information - The information of the author is recorded. After the basic page is saved, the "Authored on" field is updated.

authoring information

  1. Publishing options - Click the tab Publishing options to finalise the publishing settings.
    To publish - The published field is automatically ticked. Keep it tick to publish
     To create a draft - untick published to save as a draft.

publishing options

  1. Save - Click Save to update the basic page. 

Note

To view unpublished and published pages in your sandbox site, click content in the administration menu.

list of content in the sandbox

Task instructions

Create a basic page and follow the numbered actions below to populate the fields before publishing.

You can save your unpublished basic page at any time by clicking Save.

1. Title field
Insert the title: Accessibility in practice

basic page title

2. Summary field
Insert the summary text: Remove barriers to website access

basic page summary

3. Body field

basic page body field

Copy the shaded exercise text below and paste it in the body field of your basic page.

Format the exercise text to assist users in scanning the content by improving the usability

  • Insert heading styles where applicable
  • Create a list to structure the content that lists information
  • Emphasise text to assist users in scanning the content

Title and heading styles

People, search engines and screen readers use page titles and headings in the page to determine the relevancy of web content. For this reason, make your headings:

user-centred -  so they describe and differentiate content in a way that is meaningful to the audience. Do not use generic terms like ‘Welcome’, 'Important information' or 'Introduction'.

frequent – every 3 paragraphs on the page as a minimum

concise - under around 60 characters.  If you need to use more, introduce a sub-heading.

active - avoid ‘-ing’ or ‘-ion’ words, e.g. ‘Apply for entry’ not ‘Applying for entry’ or ‘Making an application’.

in plain English wherever possible

marked up using heading levels (h2 through h4) sequenced in levels for sub-headings. Do not use bold for headings as screen readers and search engines will not recognise this as a heading

easy to scan – front load your headings with keywords.  Avoid using questions as headings as they will tend to push your keywords to the end.

    4. Images

    • Teaser image  field - do not upload a teaser image
    • Hero image field  - do not upload a hero image

    5. Aside   - used for minor content such reminders or any other short piece of text or contact details that is an addendum and not main content.
    Insert the following aside:
    Location style as heading level 3
    Level 3, Prentice building (42) style as normal
    St Lucia style as normal

    basic page aside

    6. Related content 
    Select Article 1 for related content

    basic page related content

    7. Tag field
    Select the tag sample basic page from the drop-down list

    basic page tag

    8. Menu settings - Adding a page to the menu ensures it will appear in the site map.
    Select the parent item Training page 1

    basic page menu

    9. Publishing options
    Publish the basic page

    Checklist: UQ Drupal Fundamentals

    Avoid using Microsoft Edge or Internet Explorer for Drupal training.

    Images and documents for tasks