The Template Explained
The Web Editor can publish your page in one of a family of related templates. All of the templates have a banner image across the top, a dividing bar and a background. Wheaton standard banner images are available for your department or program. The choice of template is one of the initial design choices you make when setting up your site. It is normally set by the site administrator when he or she creates the shell of the site for you.
The simplest template has a single panel for your page text. It is most appropriate for sites that consist of one or a few pages with no complex navigation needs. The text panel is an appropriate width for reading text on the screen, and pages using this template will print in portrait mode.
The most common layout is the two-panel template with a menu down the left and a panel for your page text. It is most appropriate for sites with multiple pages and multiple folders. The two-panel template also has a variant with a wider panel for the page text -- this is most useful when the page content is a table or other horizontally-oriented material rather than a page of text.
The last template has three panels, one for the left menu, one for the page text and one for news items on the right side. It is intended for complex sites that are going to be updated frequently.
As a web editor, you may be wondering about the various parts of the website template and how your work affects those parts. Below is a snapshot of a working webpage on our site, broken down into seven parts. Each of the seven parts are explained, helping you understand what you are actually editing in Frontier and uploading in FTP.
1) Banner: The banner at the top of each web page is its own individual element. It may be a simple text banner, as seen above, or an image banner, as seen on Wheaton's home page. The Web Strategy Team is in charge of creating and editing these banners.
2) Folder Crumbs: The gray words just below the banner are folder crumbs and are edited by the Web Strategy Team. If you need a folder crumb added or changed, please contact the Web Strategy Team.
3) Page Crumb: The red word is the crumb for the actual page; you can edit this crumb in Frontier. See the Web Editor Job Aid for instructions.
4) Left Menu: These are links to other parts of your site or other Wheaton sites related to your department. The Left Menu is controlled by you and is a way for you to help visitors navigate through your site. This same menu will appear on all the pages in your site and is found in the same folder as the site home page. This usually titled leftmenu or menuleft. If you need help created or editing this Left Menu, please contact the Web team for assistance.
5) Search: Search Wheaton provides easy access to the Wheaton search engine. This block is provided by the Web Strategy Team.
6) Contact: Contact information is controlled by you and can be found in contact.html. It is important to keep this information up to date because it appears throughout your entire site. The contact page can be found in the same folder as your site home page.
7) Page Title: The page title is edited by you with Frontier.
8) Body: This is the page content owned and edited by you. The copy you edit in Web Editor is what you see here. For assistance with the Web Editor, please see our Web Editor Job Aid
9) Owner: When you view your webpage, if this information is incorrect, please correct it so people both on campus and beyond know whom to contact in relation to your web material.
10) Page Update Date: This portion of the page informs users of when the page was last edited.
11) News: News and announcements are put in the right column. You can find it in News.html. This material is created and edited by you.
Problems, Questions, Concerns?
Contact the Web Strategy Team (at web@wheatoncollege.edu or x3506):
- if you have forgotten your password,
- for general inquiries and editor assistance beyond our Help Pages,
- to set up a new account for a content editor, and
- for content issues on Wheaton pages outside of your area.