Frequently Asked Questions - Add / Edit Page

For most content types, the edit area allows individual content to

Publish or Unpublish New or Existing Content

Within the content area of the page is a Publishing Options tab (usually just before the Save button).  By default the publish option is usually checked.  If the Publish option is not selected the content will not be published to the public.  Unpublished content can only be accessible through the Administration Menu:

• Select Content Management
• Select Content
• Select List

To publish individual pieces of content simply edit that unpublished content and check the publish option under the Publishing Options tab.

Publish or Unpublish Content All At Once

If you want to publish or unpublish Drupal content in mass simply use the content Update Options

From the Administration Menu

• Select Content Management
• Select Content
• Select List
• Check each individual content item you wish to publish or unpublish
• Select the group operation you wish to perform such as Publish or Unpublish from the Update Options area
• Select Update

Publish or Unpublish Menu Items

Menu’s can be Enabled or Disabled from the Administration Menu:

• Select Site Building
• Select Menus
• Select List Menus
• Click on the Menu you want to change such as Primary Links
• Check or Uncheck the Enabled box next to each menu item

NOTE: Menus that are disabled will not unpublish the content that they point to (Path).  If you want to unpublish the content behind a menu you would need to follow the unpublish instructions above.

When you click on Edit either from the page edit tab or from using the Content management / Content menu list, you will open the administration area of that piece of content.  You can edit the page Title, Menu settings [see Adding to content to a menu], Body, Tags [if using], Alias, File attachments, Authoring information, Publishing options and more.  Every Drupal installation is different and may contain a different set of installed modules that add additional configuration settings.  Most editing will take place under the Body Area.  There is usually a rich-text editor installed that will allow you to use common features such as Bold, Italic, Alignment, Link, Insert.   These are button icons across the top of the body edit area. Each editor may have different options / buttons available.  Type in your content or make changes to the existing content.

DO NOT PASTE directly from Word or another web page.  This is the biggest mistake you can make and it will imbed hidden characters that will not look good when published.  [do I Copy and See How Paste in Drupal]  Make your changes and publish by selecting Save.  Also see How do I add an image in Drupal.
  

When logged in, most pages can be edited from the page itself. Depending on the administration theme, there is usually an edit button associated with each piece of content that makes up the defined web page.  The edit button is usually above the page title along with tabs such as View, Outline, Revisions and Track. Sometimes the tabs are located on the far left margin of your site that appears only on a mouse role over.  In either case, the edit function will be located in the same place for all content that is editable with in the site.

Understand that editing a “page” of your website can also be confusing for more complex designs that use Views or Panels.  A view is a page that is created using different pieces of content.  Think of it like the way a newspaper is laid out.  Each story may come from another page and it is put together in a Drupal View or Panel.  Editing these pieces of content is easy when you go directly to the original page of content.  Editing content directly in the view is not possible.   Therefore, when you are on a piece of content and see the edit tab, you can edit the piece of content and it will be updated in the view.  If you can not see an edit tab on a page, the page may be built in a view and you will need to find that piece of content to edit it. 
Another way to edit content is to use the menu bar at the top of a logged in session.  There is a standard black band with menu items such as Content Management, Site Building, and others depending on your accounts permissions.  To View all of the content in your site, select [roll over] Content Management  and then click on Content. Your entire site of content will be listed by content type.  Content Types vary depending on your site but you should see types of content such as Page, Blog Entry, FAQ, or Panel.  You can select Edit under the Operations column.  You can sort this list of content by Status [published or unpublished] Type or Category.  The most common sort to use is by type.  If you are looking for a page you can sort by type to only see page type content.  Then scroll the list of content to find what you are looking for and edit it.  Also see How to Edit a Drupal Page.

From the Admin Menu:

• Select Content Management
• Select Create Content
• Select Page
• Type in the Title.  This is your page name and is usually displayed at the top of your page <h2> and used as your page name in the url.
• Type in Body.  Add content to your page in the Body section.  If you have a text editor installed, you will see simple editing tool buttons such as bold, italic, alignment, etc.   Depending on your site configuration, you can also add images and video to your new page.  [See Adding Images or Adding Video]
• Select Publishing options to publish [default] or unpublish
• Select Save to save the page