Online Guide

First, sign in to the Paul Smith’s website by either scrolling down to the footer section of any page and clicking the login link, or navigate directly to https://www.paulsmiths.edu/wp-admin

Navigate to the page on which edits will take place either by using the “Pages” button on the left hand side of the screen, typing in the URL, or via the paulsmiths.edu homepage.

Any page you’re permitted to edit will include two links on top of your browser: “Edit Page” and “Enable Visual Builder.”

Edit Page

This brings you to the Divi Builder, a collection of boxes arranged in rows and columns matching the display of the page (see below). Gray and green boxes indicate modules with page content.

The multi-direction arrow icon allows you to click and drag the module to different areas of a page.

The gear icon will display page content. This is organized in three tabs. Content, which often resembles an ordinary text editor, is where most changes take place. The design tab is where most color and font settings are kept; only make changes here in accordance with Paul Smith’s brand guidelines linked on this page. The advanced tab allows for advanced CSS styles and code.

Once changes are complete, click the green box with a white checkmark. Once returned to the page editor, on the right hand side the “Preview” button will display the page in a new tab, and “Update” will push the changes live.

Visual Builder

This is an alternative way to make simple text updates while simultaneous viewing the page. This is preferred by some but not all users.

Once the builder is enabled, mousing over sections of a page will bring up available options. For basic text, simply click and type to make changes. For other options, see icon descriptions above.

Once changes are complete, click the purple circle icon at the bottom of the page to expand a tools menu. On the left hand side, you can toggle between desktop, tablet and mobile phone views. On the right is a “Save” button that will push changes live.

Watch the demonstration video and/or read below.

The quickest and simplest way to create a new page is to duplicate an existing page that’s similar in style to what you envision.

When logged in to your site, atop the page in the black menu bar is a “New” button. Mouse over this and select “Page”.

First, title the page, then click the “Use Divi Builder” button. This will begin the page creation process and create a URL based on the title. Both titles and URLs can be changed later.

Choose “Clone Existing Page”. Due to a current quirk, generic pages will appear. Click on “Premade Layouts” or “Your Saved Layouts”, then click again on “Clone Existing Page”. The tab will re-load with all the site’s current pages. Select the one you’d like to use a template.

Now you can begin the process of modifying this cloned page however you see fit. When developing a new page, it’s good practice to set visibility to private (pubish box on right) and use the update button frequently to save your work. The preview button will open the page in its current state in a new tab. It’s important to note that making edits in the new tab will lead to multiple open page editors. Either close the preview tab, or toggle back and forth between the editor and preview page.

Also on the right hand side is a “Featured Image” section. Search engines, social media, and other online tools may display this image when the link is shared. On some PSC pages, this image will also automatically appear behind the page title.

For more tips and information, use the RESOURCES links on this page.

A page is built using sections and modules. Sections determine how a page is arranged/organized while modules house content.

Sections

Full-width sections span the entire width of a page and are typically reserved for headers/page titles, as well as the occasional wide image or video.

Standard sections are used to build most pages on the Paul Smith’s website. They provide a basic column structure, oftentimes a 2/3 width column with page content and a 1/3 width column with contact boxes and other page elements.

Lastly, specialty sections are similar to standard sections but provide additional column flexibility. Though not used often, they can provide additional layout options.

Modules

Within a section will be one or more modules. Most are labeled in a self-explanatory manner. Text modules contain text, image modules are for images, and blurbs are a combination of the two. This page is comprised of text modules and toggle modules in the primary column, and to the right are two blurb modules.

Click here to view a short section/module tutorial video, and here to learn more about using Paul Smith’s CSS styles on select modules.

PDFs (as well as image files) are managed in the WordPress media library.

• Log in at www.paulsmiths.edu/wp-admin or using the link in the paulsmiths.edu footer section
• Make sure you’re in the appropriate site dashboard (Admissions, Financial Aid, Registrar, etc.). This may be automatic; check the black bar atop the page. If you don’t see the correct site title, you can navigate there manually or by mousing over “My Sites” and selecting.

• From the dashboard, select “Media”. Here you can add files using the “Add New” button or drag-and-drop method.
• Once a file has been uploaded, click on it. From the pop-up that appears, copy the file URL. This can then be pasted in text modules, buttons, call to action modules, etc.
• A good practice is deleting outdated PDFs. Do so by clicking on the file and selecting the delete option.

Yes.

Entire page

On the right hand side of any Divi Builder page is a “Publish” box, and within that a Visibility section. Click “Edit” and select “Private” followed by the “Update” button below.

Portions of a page

Sections or modules can be hidden on a page that is otherwise publicly viewable. To hide a section or module, right/control click on the appropriate box, click “Disable” and click the phone, tablet and desktop icons so that they all appear red. To exit, click elsewhere on any blank section of the page, followed by “Update”.

No need to panic. Even most catastrophic “whoops” are easily reversible.

If you’re using the Divi Builder, on the right hand side of the page is “Publish” box, and within that, a line that displays “Revisions: XX Browse.” Click browse and use the slider on the top of the page to return to a date/time just prior to lost changes.

If you’re using the Visual Builder, click the purple icon at the bottom of the page, followed by the purple clock icon. If this method displays too few available options, exit, click “Edit Page” in the top menu, and follow the steps above.

A common question! In the Content » Body section of text and other modules, there are tabs labeled “Visual” and “Text”. Under “Text”, you can manually add or remove line breaks. Switch back to the “Visual” tab to see results.

Text copied and pasted from email, Word, etc., can carry with it formatting from the source. Always paste as plain text

• Right click/control click and “Paste as plain text”
• Control+Shift+V
• Option+Shift+Command+V

Note: if replicating H1, H2, etc., text from elsewhere on the Paul Smith’s website, you can paste regularly to maintain font (Open Sans) and text size (various) styling.

There are several considerations when uploading and using an image:

• File size (impacts page load time; aim +/- 200 KB)
• Image dimensions (varies; 550 pixels wide for blurbs and up to 2,000 pixels wide for full-width banners)
• Aspect ratio (or shape; 1:1 is square, 4:3 would fill a 90s television; 16:9 is a common widescreen ratio – for multiple images on a page, consider uniform aspect ratios)

For more information and image editing basics, we’ve created these guides »

Various Paul Smith’s College logos are available here »

If you’re working with a vendor who has requested a “vector” file, provide the EPS file. You may not be able to view this file, however the vendor will.