Edit and Format Content

Copying and Pasting Content Into Conductor (RTE only)

It is always a good idea to use a simple Plain Text Editor to draft content outside of Conductor. Examples of Plain Text Editors include:

  • NotePad (Windows)
  • TextEdit (Mac)

When you paste directly from Microsoft Word, for example, there are styles in the background that can affect how your content displays. If you do paste from a separate program like Word, you will need to use the "Eraser Tool" to remove all of these hidden background styles. Simply highlight all the content you pasted in and click on the blue eraser button in the toolbar (RTE).

The trouble with drafting content in a separate application that is not a plain text editor is that the Eraser Tool might remove the hyperlinks, bold, italics, indents, etc., that you added in that program. Ultimately, drafting content in a plain text editor or in Conductor itself and then formatting content will save you time.

Formatting Text

You will need to verify which editor you have for your site. With your Conductor site, you asked for either a Textile editor or a Rich Text Editor (RTE) editor. There are different sets of instructions for each.

Formatting Text with the Rich Text Editor (RTE)

The newer version of Conductor uses Rich Text Editor (RTE), that allows a WYSIWYG (What  You See Is What You Get) interface. You simply use the menu buttons above the text box for formatting your text.

By default, when you start typing in the RTE in Conductor, you will be typing in "paragraph style," which is regular-sized, non-bold, non-italic text. But you may want to change your paragraph's style. This is easy to do with the RTE as the interface mirrors several word-processing programs.

You hightlight the text (or images, if you are applying formatting to those) that you want to change, and then select the button or option that will add the formatting that you want to apply.

To Get This: Use This Tool: It Will Look Like:
Bold Text

bold

 Know when to use bold text.
Italic Text

italic

 Italics are useful for citations.
Strikethrough

strikethrough

 Perhaps the most least used formatting option.
Blockquotes

blockquote
Blockquotes usually have a different color background, are indented, and might even have a different font and text size.
Indentation

indent

The "add indent" and "remove indent" buttons are especially helpful when you want to indent list items.
Superscript

superscript

 Superscript
Subscript

subscript

 Subscript
Ordered List

orderedlist
  1. When you are listing items for which the order of the list items indicates something about the item itself, like its chronology, use an ordered list.
  2. When you are listing items that don't need to be in a special order, it is best to use an unordered list.
Unordered List

bulletedlist
  • When you are listing items for which the order of the list items indicates something about the item itself, like its chronology, use an ordered list.
  • When you are listing items that don't need to be in a special order, it is best to use an unordered list.
Biggest Header

heading2

This is called a "Heading 2"
2nd Biggest Header

heading3

This is called a "Heading 3"
Even Smaller Headers

smaller_headers

This is a "Heading 4"

This is a "Heading 5"
This is a "Heading 6"

You might be wondering, "Where's the underline option?"

On the web, underlined text is typically reserved for hyperlinked text. In order to avoid confusing your site users, we do not allow text to be underlined unless it is a link or unless your site's design specifically called for underlining.

What if I want to go back to plain, non-bold, non-italic text?

Simply go to the "Styles" dropdown menu and select the "Paragraph" option.

Formatting Text with the Textile Editor

One thing to remember as you are typing in the Textile Editor is that at the end of each paragraph, you must press the Enter key twice, inserting a blank line before the next paragraph. (For formatted text, this will prevent "style spread," but this is how the style templates will correctly read the text once the site is live).

If you are using the Textile version of Conductor, you will need to use some shortcuts, listed below:

To get this: Type this: It will look like this:
bold *Popeye* We watched Popeye on TV.
emphasis (italics) _Popeye_ We watched Popeye on TV.
Big Header (Note: Page titles are h1) h2. Big Header

Big Header
Slightly Smaller Header h3. Next Header

Next Header
Bulleted List

* James Jones

* Paul Smith

* Jane Doe
  • James Jones
  • Paul Smith
  • Jane Doe
Numbered List

# James Jones

# Paul Smith

# Jane Doe
  1. James Jones
  2. Paul Smith
  3. Jane Doe
Email link My email address is "myname@nd.edu":mailto:myname@nd.edu My email address is myname@nd.edu.
Superscript This is the 1<sup>st</sup> of May This is the 1st of May.
Subscript The symbol for water is H<sub>2</sub>O. The symbol for water is H2O.

Hyperlink (offsite)

Hyperlink (same site)

He wants to go to the "University of Notre Dame":http://nd.edu.

Get the "Web submission form":/about/site-request.

He wants to go to the University of Notre Dame.

Get the Web submission form.

Tables

When to Use Tables

You may have occasion to insert a table or two in your website. However, rather than attempting to use tables to format your page (as you might have to in other content management systems), you should use tables only for tabular data. Contact AgencyND and request that a template be made for any formatting needs that might arise.

Creating Tables with the Rich Text Editor

By clicking on the Table button (next to the lists in the menu), you can designate how many rows and columns you will want in your table, much as in Word.

This:

Inserting RTE Table

 Becomes This:

This is my table
   
   
   

 

 

After you've inserted your table, you might have to continue editing it later by adding new rows and columns, or removing cells. Maybe you even want to change where the table headers are. The power of the right click is important here. If you right ciick within a cell you'd like to style, you can:

Tinker with the formatting options for a cell, such as whether or not it is a header row, cell padding and spacing. (path: Right click --> Cell --> Cell Properties). The same kind of process is available for Rows, Columns and the table itself:

 

If you select "Table Properties" from the dropdown menu that loads after you right click, you will see this screen pop up, with a bunch of formatting options for your table:

Creating Tables with the Textile Editor

A pipe symbol (shift + \ on most keyboards) is used to begin and end cells.
Header cells are designated by typing and underscore and a period immediately after the opening pipe.

This:

|_. Name |_. Age |_. Sex |         (header line)
| Joan | 24 | f |         (regular line)
| Archie | 29 | m |
| Bella | 45 | f |

Becomes This:

Name Age Sex
Joan 24 f
Archie 29 m
Bella 45 f

Other attributes:

    To align text to the left: |<.
    To align text to the right: |>.
    To center text: |=.
    To justify text: |<>.
    To align text to the top: |^.
    To align text to the bottom: |~. 
    To span columns: |\2.  (spans two columns)
    To span rows: |/3. (spans three rows)

To make background grey: |{background:#ddd}.
To make border around table: table{border:1px solid black}.
A good reference to Textile tables can be found at http://redcloth.org/hobix.com/textile/.
 

How to Convert Word Tables to Textile (pdf)

 

Diacriticals and More

http://www.howtotype.net/