Author: Lois Nilsen
Our recent survey of the community of Digital Commons users let us know that there is confusion about some of the features already on the Digital Commons platform.
Need More than One Bullet Level in the Text Editor
An Indent feature was requested for the Text Editor. However, did you know you can use the keyboard tab to indent bullets? Just TAB to create an indent, and SHIFT-TAB to remove the indentation.
More Flexibility for Videos
Someone asked for the ability to have videos shown from sources other than YouTube. Videos can already be displayed from various formats. In the Text Editor, after selecting the Video Icon, the Instructions provide you with the protocol to add Vimeo or SlideShare, and shows the format for linking a single YouTube video or a YouTube playlist.
Another note on videos: The platform does not allow uploading of MP4 or other video formats. There are three reasons:
- These are very large files for the state to store.
- The industry standard is to display videos embedded on third-party services.
- There is not a standard player to display the videos across platforms.
Timing when Events Drop off the Event View
Someone complained that events disappear from the events list on the day of the event. The behavior should be that the event disappears from the list after the event is concluded. If your site does not behave in this way, please contact us!
Make a Page Appear on Top in Search
The platform gives you the ability to add a term or phrase to the Key Search Terms field on a page, in order to make that page rise to the top when a site visitor enters that term into site search. However, since there is no way to check if another page has been configured with the same term, always confer with your Website Manager before adding a term into Key Search Topics.
Please note, the Key Search Topics field has no effect on Google searches.
Allow Multiple Uploads
One survey respondent asked for multiple document uploads, instead of one at a time. This is actually available if requested, for the Site Admin and Site Manager roles. If it is not enabled on your website, the Website Manager can request the multiple file upload feature from their Digital Commons support person.
Background Images are Supposed to Disappear on Mobile
One person complained that the background images in landing page bands disappear in mobile; they wondered if it was a bug. However, it was quite intentional for those images to disappear in a mobile environment. Performance of our websites on mobile is key to their usability. Large background images can slow the page down.
In general, background images don't convey meaning that is key to understanding the content. If the image is indeed crucial, add it to the band and not to the background. Then it will be available on mobile.